Bay Users Group Wants to Make It Clear

Even before the recent oil spill, Suzanne Long was helping to clean up the waters around Newport Beach, particularly the stretch in the middle of Newport Harbor that serves as her back yard.

Long is one of about 40 people who live on boats on offshore moorings in the harbor. And she is one of the founders of the Bay Users Group, a 5-month-old, 48-member organization composed mostly of boaters whose purpose is to help improve water quality as well as the image of people who live aboard boats.

Long, a live-aboard for eight years, says, “People keep pushing that live-aboards pollute the bay; we don’t. It’s our back yard, and we are as concerned or more concerned than anyone about the environment.”

Long and her live-aboard partner, John O’Rourke, founded the Bay Users Group in September in response to a city ordinance requiring people living on vessels on offshore moorings to buy a permit from the city. The permits cost $120 a year.

Newport Harbor has 736 city- and county-run offshore moorings, but the city limits the number of live-aboard permits to 51, according to David Harshbarger, marine director.

“The regulation requires that anyone living on board at an offshore mooring and using it as a permanent residence is required to get a permit from the city,” Harshbarger says. “The condition of the permit is that the boat has to be inspected to make sure it has a holding tank and is plumbed correctly, and that sewage cannot discharge overboard, and that they are using the holding tank.”

The permit idea came out of meetings with the Newport Beach Harbor Quality Committee, a group of people appointed by the city, according to Harshbarger. The city was looking at several different sources of pollution and believed that sewage discharged by live-aboards could be a problem.

Harshbarger says live-aboards at offshore moorings were targeted because “they don’t have restroom access” like live-aboards at a dock, where restrooms and showers are usually provided.

It it is up to the proprietors of the individual marinas whether to allow people to live on boats, Harshbarger says. “Most major marinas do not permit live-aboards. In the city marinas they are not allowed.” Harshbarger says there are no figures available on the number of people living on dockside vessels in Newport Harbor. “I am sure there are a few,” he said.

Long believes there may be a few hundred, but, she points out, most live-aboards like to keep a low profile. “It is a controversial issue,” she says. Live-aboards are often perceived as freeloaders, she says. “There is a resentment that we are getting away with something that others would like to get away with.” However, she cited a recent national study by anthropologist Ed Thorsett, a university instructor in Baltimore, that found that most live-aboards are college-educated, middle-class couples employed in or retired from professional careers, who have incomes of $25,000 to $70,000 a year.

Long and O’Rourke run a silk-screening business and sell marine products in Laguna Beach.

Living aboard a boat is merely an alternative life style, Long says. People who do--especially those at offshore moorings--must put up with many inconveniences to maintain that life style, she says. For example, Long and O’Rourke must row ashore each morning, rain or shine, to the American Legion Yacht Club, where they keep their dinghy during the day while they’re at work. In the evening, they must row back home. They have no telephone, although they do keep in touch with other boaters by VHF marine radio. When their holding tank is full, they must visit an onshore pump-out station to deposit their sewage; when their water tanks run dry, they must refill them from a dockside source. With the electricity provided by solar panels, however, they can enjoy such conveniences as a television, VCR and microwave oven.

“Live-aboards are on the leading edge when it comes to environmental issues because they are conscious about using our resources, about recycling, about pollution,” Long says.

One of the primary goals of the Bay Users Group, she says, is to protect the waters and to teach people to “use the bay as if it were theirs.” The group hopes to work with the harbor quality committee to form an environmental watchdog organization to look at all the possible sources of harbor pollution and to come up with solutions.

The Bay Users Group is now developing a hospitality package for visiting yachtsmen showing the locations of pump-out and recycling stations. Future projects, she said, include developing a guide to environmentally safe household and boat cleaners.

Other projects proposed for the group include a short seminar for new boaters on the proper way to use a pump-out station, a program to promote local recycling centers, and a drive to provide more trash containers on all beaches facing the bay.

“We are a grass-roots organization--protectors of the bay,” Long says. “It’s every American’s harbor. We are just guardians of it.”

Long believes that concern over the recent oil spill may bring them new members. “One woman called because she was interested in belonging to a group that could work to prevent disasters like this from happening,” Long says.

Bay Users Group meetings are open to the public. They are held the second Tuesday of every month at the American Legion Hall, 215 15th St., Newport Beach. For information, call (714) 494-0992.

Whale festival--The 18th annual Festival of Whales will run Feb. 24 through March 11 in Dana Point Harbor. Activities will include whale-watching trips, lectures, movies, concerts and art exhibits. For more information, call (714) 496-6040.

Whale watching--A whale-watching excursion is being offered March 3 by Irvine Valley College from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. aboard the Pilgrim of Newport. The $49 price includes transportation to Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro, where the boat is docked. A visit to the Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro also is included. For information, call (714) 559-3333.

Goin’ fishing--A day fishing trip is being offered by the Dana Point Youth and Group Facility March 17 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be a short seminar for participants before the boat leaves on the trip. Prices are $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 and younger. There is a $3 surcharge for hooks, and fishing licenses are required. For information, call (714) 661-7122.

Races canceled--With Newport Harbor still closed because of the recent oil spill, a portion of the 61st Annual Mid-Winter Regatta has been canceled. Two races originally set for last weekend were postponed when containment booms--designed to keep out the oil--were placed at the entrance to Newport Harbor, closing it to incoming and outgoing traffic. With boats unable to leave the harbor because of the booms, the ocean races had to be called off. Balboa Yacht Club plans to reschedule its races when the harbor is reopened, but Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club does not. Newport Harbor is expected to remain closed throughout the weekend; no date has been set for its reopening.

Shearlean Duke is a regular contributor to Orange County Life. On the Waterfront appears each Saturday, covering boating life styles as well as ocean-related activities along the county’s 42-mile coastline. Send information about boating-related events to: On the Waterfront, Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is two weeks before publication. Story ideas are also welcome.