Work on Water Sports Playground Is Underway
Bulldozers began gouging out a lagoon at West Beach on Tuesday to re-create a water sports playground the city hasn’t seen for half a century. Next month, there will be a water basin for swimmers, paddle boats and sailing craft.
“We’re very excited,” said Karen McBride, commodore of the Santa Barbara Sea Shell Assn., which sponsors sailing programs for children.
In recent years, the dwindling West Beach lagoon has forced child sailors dangerously close to the large boats and small ships that crowd harbor channel.
The project calls for $450,000 in bulldozing and dredging to remove 164,000 cubic yards of drifted sand that for more than 50 years has expanded beach sand between Stearns Wharf and the harbor.
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