PORT HUENEME : Maritime Days Bring the Old, New Together

Luke and Sebastian Szczebiot of Camarillo hadn’t planned to create an award-winning work of art Sunday. They just wanted to spend some time at the beach.

But the beach they chose, Silver Strand south of Port Hueneme, was holding a sand sculpture contest as one of a series of events on the final day of the Maritime Days festival.

So Luke, 13, and Sebastian, 8, dug, piled and poured sand until they had created a castle, complete with moat, gates and a seaweed drawbridge.

Their castle won a trophy for being the “most creative,” a win that surprised Luke.

“There were a lot of nice castles,” he said. “We just did it for fun.”

The contest was one of the final events at the three-day festival, centered around Channel Islands Harbor and the region’s maritime history.

Other events Sunday included an arts festival and parade of old wooden yachts.

About 25 people worked from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. to build the 10 sand sculptures that competed for prizes. Most entrants stuck to the classics of sand art--castles, marine life and mermaids.

Mary Ann George, a Silver Strand resident and one of three volunteer judges, said this was a hard contest to judge, pitting children against adults and neighbors against neighbors.

“For the children . . . it’s just the effort they put into it, the shells they put on the sides, the imagination they put into it,” she said.

Other winning works included a whale, a mermaid and a sea monster emerging from a castle.

In nearby Peninsula Park, other festival-goers climbed in and out of wooden yachts that were built before World War II.

David Medrano brought his boat, The Ono, up from San Pedro for the occasion. Built in 1929, the yacht looked spotless, its teak and holly floorboards gleaming even after a day of hosting tourists.

The appeal of boats like his, he said, lies in both their beauty and long lives.

“I think it’s the wood and the history, the sense that these boats have been somewhere in the last 60 years,” he said. “If these boats could talk. . . .”

One boat in the show had been owned by John Wayne, said Susan O’Brien, event coordinator for the festival. Another had been chartered by the Kennedys, she said.

Irene Steiniger of Sherman Oaks, who stopped in during a bike ride, said a restored boat is a beautiful sight and well worth preserving.

“It’s a historic relic,” she said. “It’s something not from the age of plastic.”