Area Skippers Join Race Around World

Five skippers from the West Coast have entered the BOC Group Single-handed Race Around the World, which begins in Newport, R.I., on Aug. 30. The 27,000-mile ocean race, with only the skipper aboard, is the most grueling and dangerous of all sailboat races.

The field of 54 competitors from 12 countries includes: Harvey Burger of Newport Beach, Dan Bryne of Santa Monica, Chuck Kite of Santa Monica, Dr. William Grant of San Diego and Mark Schrader of Stanwood, Washington.

Claire Marty of France and Nora Zehender-Muller of Switzerland are the only women entrants. The United States has 22 boats, France has 11, Australia five, Great Britain four, two each from Canada, South Africa, Finland and Switzerland, and one each from Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and Portugal.

State Senator Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) reports progress in the problem of siltation and pollution of Newport Bay.

She said that efforts currently under way include: Discussions regarding local enforcement of no-discharge (sewage) requirements; installation of more pump-out stations for vessels with holding tanks; monitoring to identify specific sources of pollution and work on an updated report on the bay’s water quality, due in April.

“For the first time in years, and certainly since the Department of Fish and Game assumed responsibility for the Upper Newport Bay ecological reserve in 1975, there is now water in the bay. The flushing action is being restored in the upper bay, which should enhance the water quality of lower Newport Bay,” she said.

Sailing Notes

Not since John Steinbeck warned in his novel “Cannery Row” of the demise of the Pacific sardine in the early 1940s because of overfishing has the little food fish appeared in our waters. Now it’s making a comeback. Using methods developed by California fisheries biologist Patricia Wolf and National Marine Fisheries biologist Paul E. Smith, a May 1985 survey disclosed there were at least 20,000 tons of spawning sardines off California. The report led the state to authorize a 1,000-ton limited sardine fishery, which began Jan 1. In the 1920s and ‘30s the Pacific sardine was the most valuable fishery in the nation in terms of tons landed. The annual yield was about 600,000 tons.

Capistrano Bay Yacht Club members are planning their annual Oceanside Easter Cruise on March 29 and 30 and their cruise to Newport Beach for the start of the Ensenada Race April 26 and 27. The CBYC will sponsor an Easter Sailing Program in Dana Point Harbor March 21-27. Beginning sailing will be taught from 9 a.m. to noon and advanced lessons from 1-4 p.m. Students do not have to belong to CBYC, but they must be able to swim.

The Dana West Yacht Club is sponsoring a Marine Swap Meet in Dana Point Harbor on April 5.

The Orange Coast College crew program will start its season with the 31st annual Alumni Regatta Mar. 23 in Newport Bay. The crews of 1966, ’74 and ’76 will be honored the night before at a dinner at the College Boathouse on Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach. On April 4-5 the OCC crew will compete in the Crew Classic at San Diego against college crews from the University of California, Cornell, Navy, Princeton, Stanford, UCI, UCLA, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin, Yale and British Columbia. OCC will row against UCI and USC on April 12 in Newport Bay.