$200,000 Sought for Tall Ship as It Sells California

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 based in Dana Point.

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

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 and is based in Chula Vista part of the year.

Classroom at Sea

The ship has been used primarily as a seagoing classroom for high school and college students. It also takes adults on “adventure cruises,” is 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 public 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 in Dana Point 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 resolution of the Legislature in 1983.

The Heritage Society produced a special “passport” booklet--which describes each of the ports--that is issues to all those who sail aboard the ship. The vessel also provides tourist-related information to the ship’s visitors and uses a special sail featuring the “Californias” logo that symbolizes the state’s tourism promotion campaign.

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 approved by the Legislature and Gov. George Deukmejian, would represent about a third of the Nautical Heritage 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.

But Christman, in a recent interview, said that the ship’s fortunes have improved dramatically in the past year and that 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.

‘A Service Performed’

“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.

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 host 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.”

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.

Benefits Cited

Stewart estimated that the government’s coffers are enriched by $5 for every $1 spent promoting 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.”

Although the Legislature is now grappling with a budget deficit caused by a revenue shortfall, several lawmakers from coastal areas are supporting use of the tall ship to promote the state.

Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) is backing the budget item that would fund the ship’s trip to the Northwest. As an assemblywoman, Bergeson authored the 1983 resolution proclaiming the vessel the state’s official tall ship.

Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) said that she, too, will support the funding.

“I think it’s probably a good way to go,” Killea said of the current proposal.