Donated Yachts Make for Smooth Sailing at College

Philanthropist Richard Steele didn’t just leave his custom-made, $1-million dream yacht to Orange Coast College--he bequeathed funds so Wide Waters’ full-time captain could go with it.

The captain, Todd Lee, didn’t know what to expect after Steele died in March 1996 at the age of 77. No longer would Lee sail the 70-foot luxury boat from Mexico to Alaska for Steele, who enjoyed domino games and family nights in front of the on-board fireplace. Instead, a bunch of college kids might want to cut the yacht up, put 50 bunks in the three teak-detailed staterooms and make him haul the whole lot to Santa Catalina Island.

These days, Lee, 32, has eased into his new job as Orange Coast College’s power yacht instructor and captain. He thinks nothing of throwing a blanket over Wide Waters’ windshield so adult education students can learn to pilot around one of the world’s busiest ports using the yacht’s top-of-the-line navigational equipment.

On a recent afternoon, Lee’s three students sailed the yacht through Newport Harbor and past Lido Island, home of Steele’s widow, Betty.

“It’s really kind of scary at first because it’s such a big boat,” record producer Ed Cherney, 47, said on his first day at the helm. “Unfortunately, once you’re on this boat, you’re spoiled. . . . This is one of the finest boats you’ll ever be on.”

Wide Waters is the biggest donation the college has ever received.

The 4-year-old yacht is propelled by twin 730-horsepower Detroit diesel engines that give it a top speed of about 25 mph. Wide Waters was donated to the college in January and is the latest coup for Orange Coast College’s sailing center.

Since 1987, the college has received 24 donated boats with an estimated total value of $4.7 million. Among them: the 65-foot Alaska Eagle, donated by an Alaska businessman 15 years ago and named among the 100 greatest sailing yachts in North America by Sailing magazine in 1993.

Orange Coast College officials aggressively pursue owners of big luxury boats nationwide, hoping to plant the idea of a possible donation or bequeathal to their Newport Harbor center, said Doug Bennett, executive director of the Orange Coast College Foundation, the campus’ fund-raising arm. They advertise in sailing magazines, show up at trade shows and court East Coast yacht brokers. They have edged out heavyweights such as the U.S. Naval Academy in competition for donated boats.

The program is one of a handful that attracts the priciest of yachts.

“As far as the upper echelon of luxury boats . . . Orange Coast College takes the lead,” said Peter Nunes, associate boating administrator for the state Department of Boating and Waterways. “I don’t think [other schools] get into the million-dollar yacht range.”

The college’s marine programs department, which began in 1955, runs the country’s largest public boating education program. The department offers 200 courses a year, including a New Zealand-to-Tahiti sailing expedition and a class on medical issues for women who sail. All of the center’s 30 boats were donated or paid for with donated funds, Bennett said.

College officials work hard to clear the way for donors on issues such as appraisals and tax deductions, he said. And donors like the college’s oceanfront center and its programs, which include free sailing classes for disadvantaged children.

Steele, founder of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, was a big fan of the marine program, Lee said. Steele headed his family charity, the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation, which has contributed more than $70 million to arts and education. He died of heart failure aboard Wide Waters in Puerto Vallarta a few months after hiring Lee as his first full-time captain.

Lee, who had sailed around the world on other yachts, knew about Steele’s bequeathal plans but did not expect to be thrown into teaching so soon. Steele’s estate will pay his salary at the college for two years.

“I was scared to death [of teaching] for the first 15 minutes, and then fell right into it,” said Lee.

So far, the college uses Wide Waters only for Lee’s five-day, $1,500 course, in which adult education students--no more than six at a time--stay overnight on the yacht and learn how to sail to Santa Catalina Island. Eventually, Wide Waters will also be used for whale watching expeditions by college students and for internships for young people who want to be captains or deckhands, Bennett said.

Students learn how to pilot Wide Waters from three locations and how to use its bow thrusters to help maneuver.

Student Rick Stevens, 48, saw an ad for the class in a boating magazine; the only other power yacht class he heard of was in Florida.

Stevens, an entertainment company executive, could not believe his luck.

“I was anticipating we would be standing in a crummy cabin,” he said. “This boat is just a dream.”