Boaters’ Bonanza : Minney’s Ship Chandlery in Newport Is Chock-Full of Nautical Paraphernalia

Inside Minney’s Ship Chandlery, Geoff Turk is digging his way through crates filled with hundreds of metal doodads, hunting a particular cleat for his sailboat’s deck.

“I need to find just the right size so I don’t have to drill any new holes,” said Turk. “That’s the beauty of a place like this: They’ve got so much stuff that you’re bound to find something.”

At Minney’s, salesclerks don’t exactly find things for you. You rummage for yourself.

“You want to know how people shop here?” said salesman Colin Emsley, 29. “Just listen. Whattaya hear?”

Boxes were heard being moved, scraped along the concrete floor by customers. Down another aisle, someone was plowing through old metal winches, sounding out a metallic cadence: plunk, plunk, poing!

“That’s how they shop here,” Emsley said.

Minney’s is a 4,000-square-foot nautical bouillabaisse. And in its nearly 30 years of operation since the current owner’s father, George Ernest Minney Sr., opened the place off West Coast Highway, it has become an institution for local and visiting seafaring customers.

“I’ve been up and down the coast from San Diego to San Pedro to San Luis Obispo,” Turk said, “and there’s really no place like this. This is your last stop if you can’t find anything elsewhere.”

You need a propeller? Minney’s probably has it. An old sail? Some teak hatch covers? Got ‘em, and at a discount. Need that nautical chart for the Fiji Islands? It’s over in the corner.

John Petruzziello, 59, a retired firefighter from Costa Mesa, left Orange County last May in a 32-foot motorized sailboat.

“We stopped in San Francisco, traded our boat for a larger one and ended up in Brookings, Ore.,” Petruzziello said. “We’re waiting for the weather to warm in the spring to go up to Alaska, and I came in here for a Charlie’s.”

A Charlie’s?

It’s sailor lingo for one of a number of books written by Charles E. Wood. In this case, Petruzziello was referring to “Charlie’s North to Alaska.” Don’t look for this at your local bookstore. It was written as a supplement to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration charts--the bible of all charts used by sailors--and includes detailed maps of docking areas and hand-drawn views from the water to the shore.

“These books are really handy when your plans take you to unfamiliar territory,” Petruzziello said.

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Besides Alaska, over-the-counter conversations at Minney’s can take a listener just as easily to the isthmus at Santa Catalina Island as to the South Pacific, always to someplace where boaters spend lazy days enjoying white-sand beaches and water the color of turquoise.

“We’ve had phone calls for parts from sail boaters as far away as Singapore and Costa Rica,” said George (Ernie) Minney II, the store’s 55-year-old owner. “I remember one guy called from Cocos Island, off Costa Rica. The guy had damage to his rigging from a storm. We had new rigging shipped to Panama, and it was waiting for him as he came north.”

Minney’s is known for that. You call; you give a credit card number. It’ll get delivered.

“If I know the person, usually we can deal with the money stuff later. Sailing is kind of like a fraternity,” Minney said.

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Saleswoman Gina Strong, 33, said it’s amazing how far away one can go and still hear about the unique store.

“My husband and I got married in Fiji,” Strong said. “And during our honeymoon, we were sitting down, you know, just for a drink someplace, and we started talking to this nearby couple. When they heard we were from Southern California, they quickly asked us to please, if it were possible, stop at Minney’s and pick up something they needed for their boat. They didn’t know I worked there. And I really didn’t need to hear about work on my honeymoon, but there it was!”

Scott and Kate Sims of Irvine, both 35, said they were in Minney’s looking for extra parts and propellers for their 40-foot wooden boat, built in the ‘50s.

“We’re changing the engine in our boat, and we need a smaller propeller,” Scott Sims said. “But I also like Minney’s because they trade parts with customers.”

Minney made headlines in 1980 when he took 2 1/2 years off from work and circumnavigated the globe. His father, a yacht broker, began the business, and Minney took it over after his father’s death 15 years ago. The Minney family is well-known in Newport Beach. Brothers Owen and Joe, in addition to Ernie, take turns running Josh Slocum’s, an unassuming boaters’ hangout owned by the family.

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Algernon Gaurowski, 57, a retired pilot from Moreno Valley, has been restoring a 35-foot 1921 yawl he bought in the California desert several years ago.

“It was once owned by actor John Ireland, and the story goes that he and James Cagney would sail her to and from Catalina,” Gaurowski said. “It was originally named the Valdora and then Act III. From what I know, it ran aground, and the insurance company salvaged everything aboard the boat. When I saw it, it was on a trailer and parts were strewn all over a back yard.”

“But when I climbed aboard, I saw this solid, deep, black mahogany deck, and I was impressed,” he said. “I can’t stand the new boats--you know, all that fiberglass and glitz.”

Since then, the restoration has gone beyond a hobby.

“It’s a continuing quest for hardware,” Gaurowski said. “I’m looking for parts to construct a boom--well, two booms, actually--and I’ve already been in (Minney’s) 50 times. Hobby? Hell, no! This is an obsession.”