All about Stella

What a great find

Re: Abandoned boats: a problem here to stay? (March 27 issue). I am in the process of trying to find a catamaran to begin a ministry in two years. By that time if I was to be able to get a boat in disrepair now I could have it seaworthy in two years. Do you know who I would contact not only in California but Florida as well? This may be just what I’m looking for. What a God Send!

Matt V.
Submitted on TheLog.com.

Abandoned boat problem

Re: Abandoned boats: a problem here to stay? (March 27 issue).  We here at San Diego Bay Marine Inc. hope to help fight that battle of the costly burden set on the city, state and government with our new fiberglass recycle machine. This will save tax payer money, divert tons of fiberglass from the landfill while saving companies  a lot of money in material. It’s a win-win all the way around.

Tim Hirneisen, president for San Diego Bay Marine Inc.
Submitted on TheLog.com.

Fair Winds, Charlie

Re: In Memoriam: Capt Charles (Charlie) Sharp (March 13 issue). We were saddened to hear of Charlie’s passing. Charlie was known around the San Diego sailing community for many years. He also crewed and gave us a few lessons in our local yacht races with the San Diego Catalina Association and Silver Gate Yacht Club. Charles gave sailing lessons and instructions to many people in the San Diego marinas and yacht clubs over the years. His love of the sea and kind words of sailing advice were a part of his soul. His first love was of course his wife Katie, and more recently his dog Skipper.

Fair Winds, Charlie.

Ken & Fran Hubbard
Submitted on TheLog.com.

More thoughts on SoCal’s abandoned boats

Re: Abandoned Boats: a problem here to stay? (March 27 issue). The article on abandoned boats was informative but it left out one important discussion: What do responsible owners of old boats, without trailers, do to scrap their boat? I have a 25 foot Catalina that I would like to scrap but can’t find a path to do so. Perhaps Newport Beach Harbor
Patrol should allow owners to include their old boats in the junk boat auction as well  and organize a once a year process where owners can pay a cost per foot and have their boat removed from the water and sent to dump sites etc.

If there was a process available many with old boats that are not worth maintaining would be willing to spend money to junk these boats. The problem is that there is no path to actually trashing an old boat .

Jeffrey Kilpatrick
Submitted on TheLog.com.

There is a merciful God

Re: Port of L.A. to sell Angelena (Feb. 27 issue). Having spent a few years aboard Angelena II I am thrilled to finally see this floating monument to wretched excess relegated to the junk heap. It was purchased in poor condition at the “recommendation” of then Gov.  Deukmejian  as a favor to the seller. There was far more money dumped into the boat than this article reports and when you figure the outrageous salaries and benefits paid to the city employed captain and crew it is breathtaking. The commercial tour operators such as Spirit Cruises and others offer a superior service on call for the port and deliver at a lower cost. The lean and mean budget minded Port of Long Beach has known this for decades and has always chartered from the fleet offered by the local tour operators. You can also be assured this is only the tip of the iceberg that is city waste, fraud and abuse.

Retired captain
Submitted on TheLog.com

More junk boats

Re: Abandoned Boats: a problem here to stay? (March 27 issue) The problem of abandoned and derelict boats is a big problem in one section of San Francisco Bay as well. Richardson Bay  in Marin County has a large number them; more than anywhere else and more show up over time. To anyone looking to buy a boat at auction, visit the marinas in your area. When a boat owner stops paying the slip fees for a certain length of time the marina will put it up for auction. Usually the dates will be posted at the harbormaster’s office. My marina does this a few times a year. Contact the marina management for the next auction date.

Anonymous
Submitted on TheLog.com.

 

Letter to the editor

This fire ring controversy is really ridiculous. We have a house on the Peninsula — a long long ways away from the fire rings on the Balboa Pier and on summer nights we have to close all our windows due to the smoke blowing into the house. Our boats on our piers are covered with black soot  in the mornings and this damages the paint on the antique wood boats I own.

The sand around these fire pits is black with soot and if you walk through this area your feet are black from soot. When I was a kid they outlawed backyard incinerators for these same reasons. People burn all manner of combustible materials in these pits and they frequently throw beer cans and trash into them and burn these as well. If the city wants to have a designated portable barbecue area where propane barbecues can be used- day or night- that would be nice for beachgoers but these fire pits are an environmental nightmare and they impact the health of residents who live near them and have no way of avoiding the soot and contaminants that are put into the air each night and the soot is doing damage to cars, boats and property. The only rational way to allow fire pits would be to put a fence around the area and require users to pay a fee for the maintenance and clean up of the sand yearly and for a lifeguard to monitor this area nightly and to make sure that only charcoal is burned in the pits and that the users clean out the pits after they use them on their own.

People burn who knows what in the pits now and leave trash everywhere as well and just leave and the city has to send people to clean out the burnt material and pick up the trash and clean the sand? Really? Leaving all your burnt material behind on the beach is not any different than leaving all your picnic paper and food stuffs on the beach is it?

People using the pits who do not clean out the pits when they are done should be fined for littering on the beach as well.

Jeffrey Kilpatrick
Submitted on TheLog.com