Boat Owners Given a Reprieve for GOP Convention

Politics being the art of compromise, it should not be surprising that one of the first flaps engendered by the Republican National Convention slated for August ended Tuesday in . . . a compromise.

The Coast Guard announced that owners of yachts moored at the Marriott Marina behind the convention center will not be booted off their boats during the four nights of the convention nor during the final afternoon--as originally recommended by the Secret Service.

But all boats in the marina will be searched. And if the owners aren’t aboard to open doors, locks will be cut.

As announced by Coast Guard Cmdr. James A. Watson IV, the bargain was one that the Secret Service and yacht owners said they can live with.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said boat owner Debbie Crowe of Las Vegas. “The process works, doesn’t it? We’re all very pleased.”

Crowe and her husband Bob, a retired administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, had been among those boat owners who were not pleased when the Secret Service announced its proposed “security zone” restriction for convention week, Aug. 11-15.

Carl J. Truscott, the Secret Service agent in charge of convention security, said the agency no longer thinks it is necessary to force the yacht owners to leave the marina at night or on the final day when the presidential nominee is inside the convention center speechifying.

For one thing, Truscott said, the Secret Service now has a better idea where the people it is assigned to protect--the presidential and vice presidential nominees and their spouses, and former presidents and their spouses--will be during during the convention.

The final decision on the restrictions was up to Watson, who serves as “captain of the port” for San Diego County waters. After the Secret Service’s wish list was published in the Federal Register in late May, Watson got an earful from boat owners, many of whom were irate at the prospect of having their summer idylls interrupted.

The Marriott Marina, with its 446 slips and gorgeous views of Coronado, San Diego Bay and the gleaming skyline, is one of the priciest and most luxuriant marinas in Southern California, with boat owners receiving room service and full access to the spas, tennis courts and restaurants at the hotel’s twin towers.

While the off-your-boats restriction has been dropped, the Coast Guard will search all boats at the beginning of the convention and whenever a boat reenters the marina. The searches are meant to uncover any explosives, weapons or saboteurs.

The Coast Guard, which will patrol the marina 24 hours a day, is contacting all boat owners to be prepared for a search on the eve of the convention. Anyone who doesn’t want their boat searched is free to move it from the marina.

“We’ll definitely conduct searches on Sunday to sanitize the zone,” Watson said. “We may have to cut some locks but it’s not our intention to do anything without permission of the owners of the boats.”

The consensus is that boat owners are willing to tolerate the searches. They plan a marina party to ease any residual annoyance.

“I have no problem if they search,” said Christopher Renwick, a La Jolla classic car buyer. “All they’re liable to find are some Marriott towels, glasses and a tablecloth from 1992.”