Tight Budget Tags $200,000 for Tall Ship to Push Tourism

While state lawmakers are pinching pennies in an effort to erase a potential $2.3-billion budget shortfall, legislative budget writers have tentatively allotted $200,000 to the tall ship Californian--a San Diego-built sailing vessel that is the project of some prominent Southern California yachtsmen.

The money would go toward an as-yet-unspecified effort by the ship to promote California tourism, most likely a voyage to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.

Replica of 1849 Ship

The vessel is a replica of the 1849-vintage revenue cutter Lawrence. It was built with private funds in 1983 and 1984 at Spanish Landing on San Diego Bay.

The ship, based in Chula Vista much of the year, has been used primarily as a “classroom at sea” for high school and college students. It also takes adults on “adventure cruises,” plays host to business executives on retreats and races in tall-ship competitions.

Until this year, the venture was an entirely private one, using charitable contributions and admission fees to partially offset the expense of student programs--which even with the subsidy still cost the pupils or their schools $700 apiece for a standard 11-day trip.

But earlier this year, the California Office of Tourism paid the Nautical Heritage Society, the nonprofit foundation that owns the ship, $37,000 to promote the different regions of California as it sailed from Chula Vista to Eureka, stopping at 23 ports along the way. The Californian was declared the state’s official tall ship by a 1983 resolution of the Legislature.

The nautical society, based in Dana Point, produced a special “passport” booklet describing each of the ports, which is being issued to all those who sail aboard the ship. The vessel is also providing tourist-related information to the ship’s visitors and using a special sail that features the “Californias” logo, which is the symbol of the state’s tourism promotion campaign.

Lawmakers Back Idea

Now, several state lawmakers and the Commerce Department are supporting a $200,000 allocation from next year’s budget to pay the Californian to promote the state in the coming year.

The money, if it is approved by the Legislature and Gov. George Deukmejian, would represent about a third of the nautical society’s annual operating budget.

This move to include the ship in the state’s tourism effort comes a year after the society’s executive director, Steve G. Christman, told members in a newsletter that charitable contributions and operating revenue were not living up to expectations.

Christman said in a spring, 1987, newsletter that society efforts to be financially self-sufficient “have fallen short of what is ideal.”

“Each year has shown improvement, but we as yet have not broken even,” Christman said then. “The shortfall has been covered by the generosity of five individuals.”

But Christman, in a recent interview, said the ship’s fortunes have improved dramatically in the past year and the vessel is now fully booked months in advance. He said the state’s money would not be a bailout or a grant but an appropriate payment for the ship’s services.

“The main thing we are concerned with is that the money we receive is for a service performed and not for operating the ship,” Christman said. “The state is not interested in doing that, and we would prefer to earn our money. We’re not interested in a grant per se. We’re interested in performing a function we feel we can perform well.”

Exact Use Undetermined

Christman said the society and the state have not established exactly how the $200,000 would be used. He said the most likely scenario would involve a voyage to the Pacific Northwest via Hawaii, during which the ship would be host to receptions for travel agents, business people and others who would have occasion to come to California.

“It basically would be handled by the Office of Tourism,” Christman said. “We provide the platform, they provide the program.”

Earl Rippee, a member of the society’s board of directors and the president of the Anvil Corp. of Irvine, was also sensitive to how the state’s proposed payment would be portrayed. Rippee--who is active in Republican politics and through his firm has contributed nearly $100,000 to political candidates in the past three years--said he preferred that the proposal not be publicized before being approved.

A former member of the U.S. Coast Guard, Rippee said the service had a saying in which he still believes: “In obscurity lies security.” But Rippee said the state’s payment would be “an investment, not a gift.”

“The purpose of this is to create business for the state of California, and that’s a way of doing it,” Rippee said.

“Every port they go into they contact the Chamber of Commerce officials and offer to have a reception for them, or they contact the different conventions that are in the area and bring them down to the ship and give them a pitch on tourism in California,” he said. “It’s kind of a subtle thing to a great extent.”

Bill Dysart, a San Diego lawyer and former commodore of the Southwestern Yacht Club, said he could see how some people might be skeptical of the state’s involvement with the tall-ship program.

Dysart said he was approached about helping the ship about a year after it had been launched.

Opinion Was Swayed

“I thought, ‘What is this all about? Is this somebody’s alter ego?’ ”

After investigating, Dysart said, he concluded that the ship was a worthy charity. Earlier this year, his law firm sponsored a group of about 40 student government leaders from San Diego high schools who took a half-day sail.

Though the ship is occasionally used by its financial supporters, Dysart said such voyages are more adventure than pleasure.

“It’s not exactly like going on my yacht,” he said. “It’s a working boat. It’s not something you would enjoy for pleasure.”

Dysart said the Californian makes a good symbol for the state.

“It’s not something people are going to come all the way to California to ride on, but it is identified with the state of California because of its unique heritage.”

Jack Stewart, chief deputy director of the state Commerce Department, said the state’s proposed $200,000 expenditure would be a minor part of the $7 million in taxpayers’ funds that the department plans to use next year to promote tourism.

Stewart estimates that the government’s coffers are enriched by $5 for every $1 spent to promote tourism. The extra money, he said, comes from taxes paid by visitors and the increased income tax paid by people who get jobs in the tourism industry. But he said such estimates are not exact.

“We think the ship is a very worthwhile project,” Stewart said. “But like any marketing or advertising program, it is a very difficult thing to measure.”

Chances Called Good

Though the Legislature is now grappling with a budget deficit caused by a shortfall in revenue, several state legislators from coastal areas are supporting the idea of using the tall ship to promote the state. The money is included in both the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget, a fact that gives it a good chance to survive as legislators reconcile the differences between the two spending plans.

Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) said she declined to carry special legislation allocating the money because the ship’s supporters wanted to combine it with her effort earlier this year to provide funding for the state’s exhibit at the world exposition in Australia. But Killea said she is supporting the budget item that would fund the ship’s trip to the Northwest.

“I think it’s probably a good way to go,” Killea said. “They (private supporters) are already putting a great deal of money into it. This is to expand its activities, not to replace what’s been put into it already.”

Sen. Marian Bergeson, a Newport Beach Republican who represents parts of North County, has also backed the funding. As an assemblywoman, Bergeson authored the 1983 resolution proclaiming the vessel to be the state’s official tall ship. Now, as the only Republican senator on the two-house budget conference committee, she carries considerable clout on fiscal matters.

“They have gotten a lot of attention and recognition for the success of their programs, and this will allow them to carry that forward and expand it into the areas of trade and commerce,” she said.