Safe Haven: The Santa Barbara Yacht Club and Harbor

NOTICIAS Journal OÏ TÓ‰ SňÊÅ BÅÂıÅÂÅ HÈÍÊØÂÈÇÅÒ Museum

Vol. LIII

No. 3

SAFE HAVEN: The Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the Harbor

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NATURE has bestowed many blessings on Santa Barbara. The mild climate, the towering mountains, the azure sea combine to make the South Coast a place of unique beauty.What is missing from this idyllic picture, however, is a natural harbor for the pleasure craft, fishing vessels, and large ocean-going ships which have plied the waters off the Santa Barbara coast. For decades this lack of a safe anchorage vexed city leaders and the struggle to give Santa Barbara a harbor is a story of dashed dreams, false starts, and broken promises.

Finally, with the construction of the harbor breakwater in the late 1920s the long withheld dream became a reality. Erin Graffy de García recounts the struggle to make this dream come true, focusing on the vital role that the Santa Barbara Yacht Club played in the development of the Santa Barbara Harbor.

She then discusses the on-going contributions the Yacht Club has made to the community through its philanthropy and activism.

THE AUTHOR: Erin Graffy de García has authored a number of books on Santa Barbara including

Saint Barbara: The Truth, Tales, and Trivia of Santa Barbara’s Patron Saint; How to Santa Barbara: An Insider’s Expose; and Remembering Jordanos. Her book on the history of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club will be released in 2010. She has written several articles for NOTICIAS in past years.

Photographs are from the collection of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum unless noted otherwise.

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS: NOTICIAS is a journal devoted to the study of the

history of Santa Barbara County. Contributions of articles are welcome. Those authors whose articles are accepted for publication will receive ten gratis copies of the issue in which their article appears. Further copies are available to the contributor at cost. The authority in matters of style is the University of Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. The Publications Committee reserves the right to return submitted manuscripts for required changes. Statements and opinions expressed in articles are the sole responsibility of the author.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Sutcliffe, Designer © 2010 The Santa Barbara Historical Museum ⁄‹fl E. De la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara, California ·‹⁄‚⁄ • Telephone: 8‚fi/·flfl–⁄fl‚⁄ Single copies $5.95 ISSN 0581–5916

Santa Barbara Historical Museum 2009 Remember the Magic Holiday Party The Santa Barbara Historical Museum Board of Trustees wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the following for making the 2009 Remember the Magic Holiday Party possible:

Patrons Kay & Richard Glenn Astrid & Lawrence Hammett Sally & David Martin Janet & Edgar Sands The Rord Foundation Eleanor Van Cott John C. Woodward

Bella Vista Designs SBB Gourmet Catering Bridlewood Winery Ventura Rental Party Center Amber Productions: Corporate & Social Video

Benefactors La Arcada Investment Corporation Marlene & Warren Miller Volentine Family Foundation Boone Printing Amore Dolce Photography Scene & Heard Magazine

Father Christmas Entourage Robin Schutte Keith J. Mautino

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The Santa barbara yacht club and the harbor THE SANTA BARBARA YACHT CLUB, one of the oldest organizations operating in Santa Barbara and the second-oldest yacht club on the Pacific Coast, has brought about a number of singular improvements and significant activities to the town. The club has contributed to Santa Barbara in very specific ways – from waterfront improvement projects, to tourism, to youth programming. Perhaps the most significant and visible contribution of the Yacht Club is one seen by the community every day of the week, the harbor breakwater.

While Santa Barbara has been blessed with a number of natural attributes–mountain and seashore, flora and fauna, mesa and foothills, streams and creeks–the one

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significant feature it lacked was a protected harbor.

Certainly many coastal communities have had to create their own man-made shelter for sailors, but Santa Barbara’s story is unique. Santa Barbara was the first harbor in the United States built entirely from local funds; no federal or state monies were utilized in the building of the breakwater to provide an artificial harbor.

Since Santa Barbara’s incorporation as an American city, many in the local community have had an interest in pressing for the building of a harbor. Yet it was the Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s persistence and insistence for a half-century that brought the idea to fruition. This is their story.

Erin Graffy de García

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Why a Harbor?

Always has the sea loomed large in the affairs of Santa Barbara County.

Michael Phillips History of Santa Barbara County, 1927 Santa Barbara’s topographical considerations of mountains and shoreline cliffs meant that the sea was virtually the only way to come readily in and out of the community until the twentieth century. Therefore, boats were important not only for local industries such as fishing but, more importantly, to provide transportation and communication to the outside world.

Santa Barbara is especially assailable from the onslaught of southeasterly waves and winds, because of Santa Barbara’s south-facing coastline; there is no lee side protected from the wind along Santa Barbara’s waterfront. Without a protected harbor, boats were exposed and vulnerable to danger from these swells. High tides and storms exacerbated the problem, crashing waves against all watercraft, tearing boats loose from their moorings, casting tenders up on rocky shorelines, banging ships and boats into each other and causing equipment and cargo to be lost overboard.

This wind (the south-easter) is the bane of the coast of California. Between the months of November and April, (including a part of each) which is the rainy season in this latitude, you are never safe from it, and accordingly, in the ports which are open to it, vessels are obliged, during these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip and go to sea at a moment’s warning. The only ports which are safe from this wind are San Francisco and Monterey in the north, and San Diego in the south.

Richard Henry Dana.

Two Years Before the Mast, 1836

While San Francisco and San Diego both enjoy large natural harbors, there were no adequate ports between the two cities where a distressed ship could anchor safely for repairs. It would make sense to have a harbor in Santa Barbara, which was halfway between the two points. Also, Santa Barbara had a deep-water channel with no natural hazards, which made it accessible to larger ships.

Soon after California entered the Union, savvy citizens realized the potential for federal funding for a harbor. As early as 1853, Senator Antonio de la Guerra from Santa Barbara, in a report to the state legislature, was looking for a resolution to get a harbor built. Their wish list was sent to Washington, D.C., but was turned down.1 In 1868-69, the city petitioned the federal government for $100,000 to build a breakwater. However Congress was being approached that a more advantageous harbor location was in the northern part of Santa Barbara County at Point Sal. The military thought this would provide an easier, more direct route to Fort Tejon, as opposed to trying to land in Los Angeles and traverse the San Gabriel Mountains.

In 1872, the newly built Stearns Wharf and the resulting increase in commerce encouraged town leaders to revisit the discussion of a harbor, since the wharf did not provide any long-term mooring. The Santa Barbara Times proposed that the estero, the salt pond in the area near today’s Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, could be dredged out and made into a harbor. Others, such as John Stearns, thought a breakwater could be built simply enough for two million dollars.

In 1873, a trio of local leaders decided the community should draw up a more

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formal resolution for their representatives in Washington to pursue funding for a sheltered harbor in Santa Barbara. In typical Santa Barbara fashion an entire town meeting was devoted to discussion and debate on this issue. In atypical Santa Barbara fashion, the citizens ratified the resolution without one single dissenting vote! 2 This action actually got some results.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was directed to come out and survey the channel, specifically looking at an “estero bay” for a harbor. However, after the survey, the Corps concluded that the price tag was too high to accommodate what it considered to be a limited number of “special interests” in Santa Barbara, namely businesses and boat owners. The Corps refused to recommend a breakwater or harbor even though the rest of the community supported both its economic advantages and the safeguards it could provide.3

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Several years later, in 1878, after a severe storm completely destroyed the Chapala Street Pier and knocked out nearly 1,400 feet of Stearns Wharf, the citizens felt their concerns had been dramatically validated. A breakwater could have protected the wharf and thus protected marine-related commerce and the ability to safely bring in people and cargo to Santa Barbara.

Once again, a campaign was launched to secure funding from Congress. And once again, the Army Corps of Engineers came out to make a study. In December 1878, the Corps delivered a report on a milelong, loose-rock breakwater to be located in forty feet of water. The report declared the three million-dollar cost was too high, local storms of significant magnitude were too infrequent, and that existing facilities were sufficient for the limited shipping needs of the town.4

Stearns Wharf, 1886. The construction of the wharf in 1872 spurred discussion of the need for a harbor, but approaches to the federal government in ensuing years proved fruitless.

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The Santa Barbara Yacht Club — Who They Were and What They Did Just seven years following the conclusion of the Civil War, yachting came to Santa Barbara. Lloyd’s Register, the Bible of all such maritime records, states in its Register of American Yachts that the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was formed in 1872. This places the Santa Barbara Yacht Club as the second-oldest yacht club on the North American Pacific Coast, the San Francisco Yacht Club being the oldest.

The word “yacht” originates from the Dutch jaghts schips, which means “ships for chasing.” These jaghts were used in competitions, and by the middle of the nineteenth century “yachting” was the term applied to pleasure craft, especially when used in competition.

In North America, yachting was first popularized on the East Coast, and for its first one hundred years, yachting was only enjoyed by the very wealthy. The cost and then the upkeep of the woodenhulled boats were beyond the means of the middle class.

Many of the wealthy new Yankee arrivals in Santa Barbara were from the East Coast, and brought with them their love of sailing. They recognized Santa Barbara as an exceptional site for recreational boating, with the wonderful year-round weather, the dramatic mountain backdrop and the pleasant sailing waters with nearby island destinations. Likewise, the creation of a yacht club in Santa Barbara was also a natural strategy for business leaders to woo wealthy Easterners to town. A yacht club fit right in step with the other activities taking place at that time to make the town more comfortable and cosmopolitan. There were a good number of wealthy gentlemen in the community who had formerly been sea captains or who owned boats.

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Sailing events were frequently mentioned in the local newspapers of this time, noting in 1874, for example, such yachts as the Miriam, which was owned by local physician Dr. Robert Fulton Winchester and attorney Eugene Fawcett. Throughout these years, the Santa Barbara Morning Press variously mentions regattas being held, boats being decorated for July 4th activities, boat clubs being formed, the charter yacht Albatross taking the ladies on a fishing excursion, and other notes on numerous occasions of pleasure boating in the Channel.5 Yacht owners were prominent men on the Santa Barbara scene, such as Dr. Winchester, who served as Santa Barbara county coroner and city health officer. Eugene Fawcett was an attorney who worked on the early tourism committee and later served as judge. Josiah Doulton came from the British chinaware family. His twentyacre ocean-front farm, Miramar, later became the hotel of the same name. Eugene Rogers was a city councilman and one of the most important businessmen and retailers in town.

When the early yacht club members first got together in the 1870s, they simply sought to pursue and promote their love of sailing. An article in the Independent in the summer of 1887 provides a snapshot of this era on the waterfront.

It referred to periods of the recent past in which men of means: ... came to it as a place of winter resort and found that its summer charms were not inferior. They dotted the slopes with good homes; they frequented the beautiful beaches, they kept yachts, and sailed off to picnic on the islands across the channel.6 Yachting was part of the Santa Barbara lifestyle.

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The Morning Press understood the financial benefits to the community. The paper enthused on the idea of seeing: the beautiful channel dotted with the white sails of swift-flying sloops and schooners... To the people of Santa Barbara the racing boats would inspire an enthusiasm... and in a selfish sense, the novel sight would attract a boat of excursionists who would fill up our hotels and leave their money to enrich our merchants.7 So just months before the railroad came to town in August of 1887, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was formally chartered.

On May 5, 1887, General Backus’s group filed Articles of Incorporation with the State of California, with the stated purpose of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club being:

One of the early yacht owners in Santa Barbara was Dr. Robert Fulton Winchester, personal physician to Col. W. W. Hollister.

In 1887, anticipating the arrival of the railroad to Santa Barbara, the Yacht Club took a significant step. They knew the advent of the railroad meant Santa Barbara would be accessible to the rest of the country and welcoming more sophisticated visitors. Local business-minded yachtsmen wanted to establish the Yacht Club on a more official footing and decided to incorporate.

A dozen men met in the office of General Samuel Backus near State and Anapamu streets and discussed applying for a charter from Sacramento. According to the local paper, another group of eight interested citizens met in the parlor of the San Marcos Hotel to form a second club.

It was apparent that the town wanted to see a formal yacht club created to serve the needs of sailing visitors and residents.

• The purchase and owning of real estate for erecting boathouses and suitable buildings thereon necessary for: • the uses and purposes of the club; • the owning and sailing of yachts and advancing the interests of boating and yachting in Santa Barbara; • and the social enjoyment of members.

The Morning Press declared that, “The Club starts with fully ninety members.”

Annual dues were ten dollars after an initiation fee of twenty dollars; life memberships were sold for one hundred dollars.

Furthermore, the Morning Press revealed that, “Visitors can enjoy the privileges of the Club on payment of $5 per month, or $20 for a season.”8 It was clear that the group sought tourist dollars out of the deal. Within two weeks of the incorporation, Vice Commodore W. N. Cowles was dispatched up north to “induce the San Francisco Yacht squadron to take its summer cruise in Santa Barbara.”

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Throughout its history, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club membership would be inundated with men of industry and commerce looking for ways to improve their community. Not surprisingly, the charter members were not only yearning yachtsmen, but also important civic leaders. The first officers were President Addison Clark; Vice President Frank Whitney; Secretary A.O. Perkins; and Treasurer Charles Edwards.

FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE SANTA BARBARA YACHT CLUB Leaders in the Santa Barbara Community ADDISON L. CLARK: Served as the first president of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

At the age of fifty Clark moved his family to Santa Barbara to take advantage of the climate, settling at 1926 Santa Barbara Street. A Yale graduate, he was proficient in Chinese as well as many European languages, and received an appointment to the Consular Department of China.

GENERAL SAMUEL W. BACKUS: Was president of Santa Barbara Electric Light and Power Company. A Civil War veteran, Backus later went on to become San Francisco Postmaster, editor of the San Francisco Wasp; as well as San Francisco Commissioner of Immigration.

W. Northrop Cowles: Proprietor of the Arlington Hotel and later described as a “capitalist” who started W. N. Cowles & Co. in Los Angeles, an agency representing manufacturers of wrought and cast iron pipe, corrugated iron, iron and steel, rails, etc.

Louis G. Dreyfus: Was a savvy and successful real estate broker (Cooper and Dreyfus). Constance Avenue was named for his wife and was the site where they

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built a beautiful home. He was also president of the Santa Barbara Club, the Montecito Club, and the Valley Club.

Alfred E. Putnam: A prominent attorney in Santa Barbara who later served as the district attorney for the County of Santa Barbara.

Walter A. Hawley: Was both a director of the Santa Barbara Press and of the Veronica Medicinal Spring Water Company. An aficionado of Santa Barbara’s community history, Hawley published The Early Days of Santa Barbara California in 1910, which immediately became popular among both townsfolk and visitors.

William Matson Eddy: Came to California in 1849 to mine for gold. Eddy became a prominent local banker after forming Santa Barbara County National Bank with Eugene Sheffield. He was also involved in real estate; the Eddy tract on the city’s Westside was named for his real estate acquisition there.

Frank M. Whitney: Was involved in insurance and real estate and later served as the surveyor for the City of Santa Barbara. A big booster of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club as its vice-president, he became involved in its first Grand Ball two months after the organization incorporated and later served as commodore.

Azro Orson Perkins: An agent for Wells Fargo and also a realtor, Perkins was involved in the leading efforts to bring the railroad to Santa Barbara. He was the Yacht Club secretary.

Charles A. Edwards: One of three “banker brothers” (the others being George and Alfred), he served as president of the

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Barbara. In 1903, a Summer Tournament was created to attract 5,000 visitors, this at a time when the city’s population was only 6,500. . . . it is being organized as the ower festivals of former years were, to attract people to Santa Barbara and to make it known throughout the country as the Mecca of outdoor summer sports.8

A founding member of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was William M. Eddy, prominent banker and real estate man.

Santa Barbara County National Bank, as well as treasurer for the newly incorporated Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

1900 Efforts The turn of the century saw Santa Barbara looking at itself strategically as a tourist destination. A number of major hotels were constructed such as the Potter Hotel and Neal Hotel, and the Arlington Hotel was rebuilt after a destructive fire.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club played a major role in attracting wealthy visitors to take advantage of the climate and to take part in the recreational attributes of the city. Beginning in 1903, the Yacht Club began holding regattas and enticing yachtsmen along the coast from San Diego to San Francisco to come to Santa

Yachtsmen James R. H. Wagner was named head of the festival; town leaders serving on the yachting committee were W.W. Burton (notary and agent) George E. Voorhees (pioneer ice manufacturer), and T.D. Wood (1906 mayor).

A sizable amount of press coverage was dedicated to the yacht racing component of the festival, indicating the drawing power of the event. Boats from San Francisco to San Diego participated.

This fueled a renewed desire to build a safe harbor not only for commercial craft but also for pleasure boats because now even yachting activities were being recognized as a means of commerce and business for the city. Yachts had to be anchored offshore during the summer months, and when the weather began to turn in the fall, the entire fleet of local pleasure craft had to be moored down in San Pedro or Long Beach. Not surprisingly, the discussion and debate continued and the city leaders began pursuing serious plans for a harbor.

This time they decided to forgo the federal government, and try the local community for funding.

Two battles over bonds took place at the ballot box, first in 1903 and again in 1909, to fund harbor breakwater proposals. Most of the yachtsmen were city officials and business leaders. In their civic capacity they could readily understand the big picture and economic value to the com-

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This drawing accompanied an article in the Morning Press urging voters to approve a bond to purchase the salt marsh property (today’s Bird Refuge) for a harbor. The bond failed.

munity. Yet even the art community was inspired. Artist Alexander Harmer painted his vision of a beautiful inland harbor. The average voter, however, saw yachting as an elitist activity and had the impression that a harbor would be needed by only a small group of boat owners. The voters could not see paying for a harbor, especially when they considered Stearns Wharf sufficient to handle passenger and freight business. They rejected the proposals.

1911 Congressional Campaign Another attempt to wrangle money from the federal government came in 1911.

Yachtsman Sam P. Calef was chairman of a special harbor proposal committee on the Chamber of Commerce. A letter was

read at the February 1911 meeting from Congressman Sylvester Smith that an appropriation bill for a harbor survey had just passed the House. Before the legislator returned to Washington, Smith told Calef that he would look after the bill, but that it would not hurt to have a friend in the Senate. Chairman Calef wrote to Vice President James D. Sherman, who was his personal friend and former business associate. Calef also wrote William L. Marshall, the Chief Engineer in Washington to bring the matter to the district engineer, Charles Leeds, who would be making the initial survey.

Leeds reviewed the situation as well as the previous reports and recommended no action be taken, since previous reports indicated that, “vessels could lie at the

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wharf with safety for about 360 days a year.” So Congress ultimately turned down the request.

Yachtsmen were not the only ones with their eye on a harbor. The June 1913 issue of Army and Navy News quoted Santa Barbara resident, retired Commander James H. Bull of the U.S. Navy, as saying an inlet harbor should be considered for the community.

Brackenridge and Booth’s Point Plan of 1913— La Puerta al Mar A remarkable newcomer to town now revived the campaign with an extraordinary plan for the creation of a harbor.

John C. Brackenridge was one of the top engineers in the country. Formerly general manager and chief engineer of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, he had been a consulting engineer of the Central Rail-

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road, working on the divisions in which the motor power changed from steam to electricity.

Brackenridge came to Santa Barbara in 1912 to supervise the renovation of Santa Barbara’s streetcar system. His brother, William A. Brackenridge, was vice president of the Edison Company, owners of the streetcar system.

John also happened to be an avid yachtsman, racing his Julymaryann in local waters. With his enthusiasm as a yachtsman, and his skill as an engineer, he spent considerable time researching all suitable spots for a harbor. He took soundings up and down the coast, checking for rocks, and he studied the U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Survey done in 1869.

Brackenridge noted the potential of converting Santa Barbara’s East Beach salt pond into an inland harbor. This area, later the site of the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, was between Beale’s Hill, previously the

The present Bird Refuge was also the site for J. C. Brackenridge’s harbor plan, “La Puerta al Mar,” in 1913.

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site of the George Nidever home and today site of the zoo, and Booth’s Point. Here Brackenridge conceived of a plan for an inland harbor and drew up plans for what he called La Puerta al Mar, “Doorway to the Sea.” His design called for two six hundredfoot jetties from the salt pond out into the ocean to then converge somewhat like a funnel. The ends of the jetties would be fifty feet apart, which would allow larger boats to easily pass through. The strong jetty walls and the relatively narrow funnel opening would give a strong force to the water as it rushed out with the falling of the tide and would carry the sand away from the mouth. His jetty walls projected more than three hundred feet from the high water mark into the sea and were to be

made from reinforced concrete piles, thirty-five feet long, with tongue-and-groove construction for a tight fit. A heavily reinforced capping would complete the solid concrete and steel construction.

Brackenridge, who had much experience in reclamation work along the Atlantic coast, also designed wing walls at either side of the jetty walls to catch the sand that otherwise could be washed away from the jetty walls, thus weakening them.

Ultimately, his plan would cause diversion of the sand drift and very little drainage into the basin even from rain runoff.

The salt pond would be dredged to a depth of seventeen feet and a basin of thirty-five acres, with the sediment dredged then used to fill the surrounding grounds and the boulevard. The Brackin-

The Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, ca. 1940.

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ridge plan was estimated to cost approximately $100,000.

Furthermore, Brackinridge had brilliantly thought through an entire comprehensive plan for this harbor, and gathered the support of nearly all those affected.

This included building a mile of new boulevard along the north side of the salt pond, rather than the south, which would provide better access by all, including those in Montecito. This new route would also eliminate two dangerous grade crossings by the Southern Pacific, to the relief of the city, county, and railroad.

The Morning Press enthused, “Not only has he gone thoroughly into the engineering features of the project, but he has consulted property owners affected by the change and gained their consent and cooperation.” Incredibly, Brackenridge had also convinced the Grahams to take a detour around the proposed harbor rather than keep their direct route to the boulevard and into the city.11 There would be no cost for land acquisition since the proposed harbor site became city property in 1906 when some public-spirited philanthropists acquired the land on the community’s behalf to create a “Citizen’s Park.” The city’s recreation commissioners had not done anything with the land for seven years, and it was considered a “blot upon the landscape.”

If funds were lacking by the city, it was thought a syndicate could be created and given a franchise to develop the harbor as an enterprise. Lastly, and most amazingly, Brackenridge had developed the plan on his own time and dime, “without hope of recompense.”12 Engineering, construction design, property rights, land acquisition, funding … it seemed to be all there and carefully thought through. However, there is always a catch where least expected. Unbelievably, the

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City Parks Commission disagreed with the plan because of the re-routing of the boulevard. The idea went into bureaucratic free fall and stall.

The Waterfront and Storms of 1914 Torrential rains of Biblical proportion pounded the South Coast in the first two months of 1914. On one Sunday afternoon, more than four inches of rain fell in just two hours, causing incredible flash floods. In Santa Barbara, the storms of January and February literally brought death and destruction and the lack of a protected harbor certainly was a contributing factor.

The tremendous damage done to numerous bridges and many streets including East Boulevard (East Cabrillo Boulevard) was estimated at $250,000. At high tide the waves came ashore so powerfully that huge holes were left along the boulevard.

Santa Barbara Yacht Club Commodore for 1913, Louis Jones, and his wife Elizabeth, both prominent members of the community, drowned in the flash flood runoffs.

People were forbidden to go out on the wharf, as the danger was great from the “violent winds and mountain waves.”

When the tide went out, the wind increased with such velocity that many boats broke loose from the moorings and the “harbor” was swept clean of all craft.

On January 18, 1914, the Los Angeles Times reported, “Many small craft were swept ashore during the day and tonight all of the larger boats anchored in the harbor were either sunk or beached.”

In 1915, the mayor, Frank Smith, was also a Yacht Club member. As a sailor, he understood that without an outer artificial harbor, development along the boulevard was vulnerable to the coastal swells. He

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took steps to protect waterfront property by having a fifteen-foot wall of reinforced concrete constructed from Stearns Wharf to the municipal bathhouse, Los Baños del Mar. Still, the issue of a harbor to protect watercraft remained unsettled.

The storms of 1914 had at least drawn congressional attention. In 1915, U.S. Senator James Phelan promised that a breakwater would be forthcoming, funded by the federal government to the tune of $3.5 million. Although previous federal studies said Santa Barbara did not carry enough back country to support significant shipping, Phelan felt the War Department would want Santa Barbara to be a “harbor of safety” in order to protect and fortify the coast for Navy craft to anchor, whether in times of storms or war. Surveys, investigations, drawings were created during 1916 and 1917 by civil engineer James R. Chapman.

He envisioned a 600-foot-long breakwater arm paralleling the shore, about 1400 feet further east from Castle Rock (location of present breakwater). It was to be located about 400 feet past the end of the pleasure pier, 860 feet out, in 16 feet of water at low tide, and would be built of caissons, modeled after the breakwaters on the Great Lakes. The caissons would be faced with loose rock from Santa Cruz Island; the total cost would be $125,000. U.S. entry in World War I intervened, and once again plans for a safe harbor were dropped.

Community leaders began to realize that perhaps only local action could provide a harbor. In 1917, it was reported that the Chamber of Commerce was getting behind another community plan to build at

LEFT: Storms in early 1914 did considerable damage to the Santa Barbara waterfront raising renewed cries for a protected harbor.

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Booth’s Point, where the landform sinking to the salt pond could form an inland lake.

Naturally, support was given by the Yacht Club, now headed by Commodore Clio Lloyd, a former mayor. For reasons unknown, this plan never gained traction. At the end of 1918, a pamphlet was distributed showing the inner breakwater plans developed during 1916-17, but never released due to the interference of the war activities and restrictions. Nothing came of this scheme except further discussion and debate.13 The River and Harbor Act of 1920 By the 1920s, passenger steamer service was phasing out since daily trains offered faster and safer service. Now attention was focused on the increasing number of pleasure boats throughout the state, which all needed moorings.

Plans for an inner harbor at the salt pond were launched again. The proposal being floated included buildings for boat construction and repair dotting the shoreline.

The Los Angeles Times credited yachtsmen for the initiative, The scheme is one of the first direct results of the organization of the Southern California Yacht Club Association at Los Angeles which has included the yacht club and power-boat organization of the city in its membership.14 The 1902 River and Harbor Act had created a Board of Engineers to review all water navigation projects. It stipulated that when engineers conducted a review, it should consider the commercial benefits from such projects in relation to their costs. The River and Harbor Act of 1920 took this a step further and required the report to separate local benefits apart from

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U.S. involvement in World War I derailed plans for a breakwater and harbor off of West Beach. From the pamphlet, An Inner Breakwater for Santa Barbara, 1918.

general public, or national, benefits for the purpose of assigning a local cost-sharing.

When this bill passed in June, Congress also approved a $12 million dollar plan for harbor improvements along the coast and Santa Barbara was listed among those to be surveyed. The engineers for federal rivers and harbors planned to make a survey for a proposal for the breakwater and outer harbor in fall of 1920. In order to obtain federal funding, Congress required a survey and a preliminary report from the U.S. district engineer, who could then recommend cost estimates to the Secretary of War. The Morning Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers would be in town on December 12 to discuss dredging the salt pond to build a harbor. According to the newspaper, the plan: . . . has been revived from time to time since 1868 and it looks now as though some definite

action to be taken by the government. Engineer James R. Chapman has proposed a new set of plans for the proposed breakwater, it is believed that the breakwater could be built through a bond issue and popular subscription with the government adding its financial shoring to the project.15 To gain some support from the military, Mayor H. T. Nielson even went to meet with Admiral Hugh Rodman of the Pacific Fleet. The Yacht Club had hosted the admiral and officers of the Pacific Fleet during their visit to Santa Barbara in 1919.

So as part of the strategy, the mayor took John McCurdy, the incoming Yacht Club Commodore and Chair of the Progressive Business Club.

The Chamber of Commerce held a town meeting on the subject, which included the government’s engineers, Majors C. Garlington and Frederick Down-

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ing. Numerous businessmen testified as to the need for the harbor citing safety and convenience, potential for military protection, support of the new Cuyama Highway being built linking Bakersfield with the coast, the sheer volume of shipping that was still handled at Stearns Wharf, and the potential for growth in the Santa Barbara area. As one speaker pointed out, there were more than 500,000 tons being exported from Santa Barbara and this despite the lack of a developed harbor.

However, the overriding consideration from the government was not whether Santa Barbara could reap a benefit from a harbor. The justification for federal appropriations had to be reviewed not in terms of a harbor’s benefit to the community, but to the nation.16 Ultimately, the plan went nowhere with the federal government.

1922: The Booth’s Point Project Entering the 1920s, the nation began enjoying economic growth, building booms, prosperity, and increased leisure time. Not surprisingly, the 1920s was the Golden Era of Yachting.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club put their town on the map as they hosted major regattas in the local Channel, attracting visitors from throughout the state. Santa Barbara was extremely popular with yachtsmen as a site for racing, and even the Southern California Yachting Association considered having Santa Barbara host the SCYA Regatta every year. In addition to the scenery and the sea, Santa Barbara also had great sailors.

The Yacht Club members’ collective skill as competitors and success as sailors did not go unnoticed.

Sir Thomas Lipton (of teabag fame) bestowed upon the Santa Barbara Yacht Club

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one of his spectacular solid silver trophies.

Sir Thomas Lipton said he wanted to give the cup to the club as an expression of his appreciation of the “zeal and activities of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club...in promoting the interests of the sport of yachting.”17 The news was staggering. The Morning Press proclaimed, “Yachting on the Pacific Coast possibly was given the greatest stimulus in its history.”18 It assured an annual event, and the race had the potential to become one of the leading races of the nation – equaling the Atlantic Coast Lipton Cup race.

The Lipton Cup was specially designed for the Santa Barbara Yacht Club by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company of London, England. The Star Lipton Cup is a perpetual challenge cup awarded to the winner of the International Star Boat competition held annually in Santa Barbara.

There were other significant attractions started by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. Commodore Jack Pedder singlehandedly revived the Trans-Pacific races from California to Honolulu. Furthermore, the commodore launched this race starting from Santa Barbara (previous races started from San Francisco or Los Angeles), attracting hundreds of people to town to witness the excitement of the start and return of the boats.

Now attention was focused on the increasing number of pleasure boats throughout the state, which all needed moorings.

In 1920, only five California sites – San Diego, Newport, San Pedro, Port San Luis, and Monterey – had safe harbors of refuge for the entire five hundred miles from the Mexican border to San Francisco. Santa Barbara wanted to get in on the action and capture any business that could result from providing a harbor at the halfway mark, in between San Pedro and San Luis.

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Commodore Earle Ovington In 1922, Earle Ovington became Commodore of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

Before distinguishing himself in local waters (he was also Rear Admiral of the SCYA), Ovington had made national history in the air. He was an aviation pioneer, test pilot, and barely ten years earlier he was hailed as America’s first airmail pilot.

His skill in the skies was next channeled to the seas, and he pursued the harbor project through his Yacht Club contacts and community connections.

“There is no class of sportsman that spends money more freely than the yachtsman,” Ovington told the Mercury in 1922.

“If we had a harbor, there would be many a wealthy man who would come here, but is staying elsewhere because we have no safe place to offer him for his yacht.”19 There were not only economic benefits to be gained for the city, but the case was also made for the benefits to the average citizen. “Think of what a yachting and boating center Santa Barbara could be with a good harbor,” Ovington explained.

“Even the poorest man could afford a rowboat in which to go fishing!”20 Commodore Ovington began by rallying the interest of the Chamber of Commerce in February. Then, armed with a formal resolution from the Yacht Club endorsing a harbor campaign, he lobbied the city council to dredge the salt pond and pursue a harbor for the community.

Representing the sentiments of the Yacht Club, Ovington put out the case for the harbor cause in the local media: Do you gentlemen realize that Santa Barbara not only has the opportunity of having the best protected harbor for yachts, but practically the only clean one? The harbor of San Diego has already been spoiled for fine yachts

Famed aviator, Earle Ovington, became Commodore of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club in 1922.

He saw the economic advantages of a harbor to the city and believed that local funding was the key to getting it built.

because of the large amount of commercial boats pumping bilge into the harbor. The same remark applies to Los Angeles harbor to a lesser extent, but it will apply there more and more as the commercial uses of the harbor increase.

Our salt marsh can be converted into an ideal yacht harbor. As a matter of fact, the setting for a yacht harbor could not possibly more ideal. And if this was done we would convert one of the greatest liabilities of the city into one of its greatest assets.21 What Ovington and the yachtsmen realized was that if a harbor were ever to be built, Santa Barbara would have to pursue it without state or federal assistance. The case would have to be made to the com-

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munity itself, and funding for the project would have to come in some manner from the local residents.

If the city did not care to undertake the project itself, the Yacht Club commodore declared that private funds could be found to finance the project providing that such investors could receive revenue from the rentals of docks and boathouses for fifty years. Ovington proposed that the harbor be made self-supporting as he had seen when he lived in Atlantic City More importantly, Ovington laid out a plan for the harbor campaign to be pursued by the Yacht Club.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club now proposes to do two things. In the first place, we are going to get the best engineer on the coast to come here and look the whole situation over with the object of determining which of the various schemes that have been put forward is the best for our local conditions. And in the second place, find out about what it will cost to get our harbor. ... And that it is a mighty good foundation upon which to build a campaign to get Santa Barbara its much needed harbor.22 Modern accounts of the breakwater infer that the local yachtsman were advocates for the present location. Clearly this was not so.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club has gone on record as being in favor of dredging the marsh while disapproving of the project to build a breakwater, asserting that the dredging plan is best for a number of reasons.

They declare dredging the marsh will provide a protected and landlocked harbor which a breakwater would not insure; that a breakwater would make a marine railway for the repair of boats of out of the question, while such a railway could be used in a protected

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harbor for the underwater work now done at San Pedro, providing a new industry for the community. They also point out that with a protected harbor the boats could be moored in slips, making danger for collision an impossibility.23 In spring of 1922, Ovington’s board passed a formal resolution endorsing the movement to create a protected anchorage for Santa Barbara. They also began to search in earnest for an engineering firm specializing in harbors that could be consulted regarding the site of the project. By the end of the summer, in 1922, the Yacht Club had began to look at ways to fund a harbor survey, increase its membership to five hundred during the 1923 year, and engender community support from business and civic leaders.

The Santa Cruz Island Sail On Sunday morning, October 1, 1922, at 7:10 am, a Santa Barbara flotilla of nearly a dozen large pleasure boats and cruisers headed out for Santa Cruz Island. Organized by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, 250 prominent community members were invited on the excursion to Pelican Bay. However, as the Morning Press dryly reported, “just 295 responded.”

The event, which was “stag” and included only men since “no provisions for women” were made, was arranged in order to solicit interest and sentiment for a protected boat anchorage. Among those taking part were elected officials such as Santa Barbara County supervisor Sam Stanwood, Santa Barbara mayor James Sloan, and city councilman Henry L. Hitchcock. Business leaders included Charles W. Kirk, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce; James Warren, president of County National Bank and the developer of El Encanto

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Hotel; James S. Morton, prominent State Street grocer; Frank Smith, president of the Stearns Wharf Company; and Captain Sebastian Larco.

A.A. Andrews offered his ninety-fivefoot palatial ketch, Zahma, to help with the overflow of unexpected guests. Guests were also transported in other Yacht Club members’ boats: Jack Pedder’s yawl, Viva; Fleischmann’s Haida; the yawl Arlight owned by Woods, Cary and Hansen; Harry Doulton’s cruiser Miramar; W. C. Porter and Elmer Awl’s racing sloop Active; Mortimer Rodehaver’s cruiser Uneme; the Yacht Club’s schooner Caprice; Elmer Boeseke’s cabin cruiser Elva; and Captain Ira Eaton’s excursion boat Sea Wolf. In addition, five of the Larco brothers’ fishing fleet boats volunteered to come down from Port San Luis to help with transportation.

Jules Valdez’s Seal, Captain Muchattee’s Ladinan, Sebastian Castagnola’s Larco Bros, Frank Nidever’s Eagle, and Captain J. Nocti’s North America came down with their crews. The Morning Press pointed out that since they were coming down to give up “the profits of a day’s catch, have granted their services for free and are coming 120 miles to show their enthusiasm for the harbor project,” it was “cited as proof that breadwinners as well as yacht owners are vitally interested in safe harbor facilities for their boats.”24 The Yacht Club’s unabashed purpose was to sell these leaders from local government and business on both the necessity and feasibility of a harbor.

As they left from Stearns Wharf for the three-hour cruise, the flotilla provided the guests with a demonstration of the

Boats anchor in Pelican Bay as part of the Santa Cruz Island Sail, October 1922.

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95 The yachtsmen and their guests enjoyed a feast at Ira Eaton’s camp overlooking Pelican Bay during the Santa Cruz Island Sail.

yachting resources in Santa Barbara. The group cruised the scenic shoreline of Santa Cruz and visited the island’s Painted Cave and other points of interest. To complement their glorious sailing experience, the passengers had musical accompaniment.

The Zahma featured a string quartet composed of Earl Gorton, Archie Bates, Paul and Perry Mitchell. Meanwhile, on the Yacht Club’s own Caprice, Welsh’s Jazz Orchestra played up a storm with George Welsh, Fred Ruiz, Harvey Leavitt, and Elmer Bone. Over on the Arlight, E. J. Boyle performed on his violin that he had played in the trenches in France when in the army during World War I. Interestingly, most of the group, in-

cluding county supervisor Sam Stanwood and Frank Smith, president of the Stearns Wharf Company and resident for some sixty years, confessed that they had never been to the island.

Jack Pedder said afterward that seventy-five percent of the passengers he took on his yacht Viva had been signed up already as Yacht Club members. By the time they arrived at Pelican Bay, one hundred percent of his passengers had enlisted to become Yacht Club members.

The group then anchored at Captain Ira Eaton’s camp on Pelican Bay and readied for a gigantic seafood barbeque picnic that had been prepared over three days by popular chef Charlie Cota and three other

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cooks: five hundred loaves of bread, one hundred pounds of frijoles, twenty gallons of Cota’s secret sauce, forty-five sacks of mussels served a la Bordelaise, and twenty gallons of coffee to finish it off.

As the enthusiastic crowd sat down to feast, the Yacht Cub members put forth their picnic presentation. Commodore Ovington served as emcee and underscored that the interest in a harbor was hardly new. He recounted the forty-year history of pursuit of a protected harbor. The commodore even related to the crowd the painting of a proposed harbor he had seen fifteen years earlier in Alexander Harmer’s studio.

The yachtsmen outlined the value of a harbor to the city and pressed the community leaders to consider a protected anchorage in Santa Barbara. To top off the presentation, the Yacht Club had also invited W.K. Barnard of the Los Angeles firm, Leeds and Barnard, consulting engineers specializing in harbor development. Bar-

nard gave a talk about the possibilities of a harbor from an engineering standpoint.

Coincidentally, his partner, Charles Leeds, had actually been the engineer reviewing the harbor site some years previously for the federal government. He answered questions and responded to suggestions. The Yacht Club laid out the plan to have a comprehensive harbor study made, to evaluate the suitability of various sites for an inland harbor, and to provide cost estimates for the different scenarios.

The response was overwhelming and positive. The crowd enthused about the project as they sailed back to the city.

County and city officials in attendance returned to their respective boards, and persuaded them to pledge five hundred dollars for the harbor study that the Yacht Club had outlined.

Councilman H.L. Hitchcock was sufficiently impressed to aver that if he and Mayor Sloan could have any sway over the balance of the city council, “I can as-

Santa Barbara Yacht Club racing, early 1920s. Collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

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sure you the Yacht Club can have anything the city can grant it. The crying need of the city is a safe harbor.”25 Commodore Ovington and other Yacht Club members made personal contributions and rounded up donations from organizations, individuals, and trade associations throughout the community to pay for the study, which would cost $1,500 (about $20,000 in 2008).

The event had been impressive, and a wholesale public relations success. James Warren, president of the County National Bank said, “We have known for some time that the members of the Yacht Club had considerable influence but it developed today that they can control the ocean.”26 An editorial from the Daily News recognized the value of the project and referred obliquely to the efforts of the local sailing group: Santa Barbara has made up its mind that it wants to become the yachting center in the Pacific Ocean and to understand that in order to realize that ambition it must have a protected harbor yachts.

That, of course, has been talked of off and on for many years, but there has been heretofore no definite purpose or plan. Now, however, the purpose is crystallizing and those chiefly interested are getting together on a plan.

What remains is chiefly work and persistency, but by dint of those two things the object can be accomplished.

Unquestionably the realization of such an object would greatly benefit Santa Barbara and everybody in it.27 At the Yacht Club’s winter dinner held at Rockwood on October 30, 1922, Mayor Sloan confirmed his support for the project and promised the club “all the influence [he could] muster towards securing an inner harbor here,” while City Engineer Morri-

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son said he would do all in his power to move the proposal.28 There were two ways to create a harbor. One was to fashion an inland harbor.

The obvious solution would be to excavate the salt pond at East Beach. This salt pond, before it was transformed into the Bird Refuge, was originally a low-lying marsh.

If it was dredged, deepened and widened, and a small breakwater extended out into the ocean to prevent sand from filling up at the entrance, it would create a secure harbor. Another inland possibility was further up the coast at the Goleta Slough.

The other way to create a harbor would be to fashion a man-made breakwater into the ocean, to provide a protective arm reaching out into the sea within which boats could moor safely. Three possibilities were proposed. One was a breakwater projecting from Castle Rock, (the present location), another was also an outer harbor created further to the west at Santa Barbara Point and the third plan called for a breakwater to the east of Castle Rock, closer to Stearns Wharf. The harbor study was begun in mid-November 1922.

The Leeds and Barnard Report of 1923 The prominent civil engineering firm of Leeds and Barnard was founded in 1913 by Major Charles Tilson Leeds and Wilfred Keefer Barnard. They had an exceptional record in marine engineering in California.

After graduating from West Point as a Second Lieutenant, Leeds earned a BA from M.I.T. and served in the Corps of Engineers in the Philippines and on the West Coast.

He was District Engineer for the Los Angeles District of the Corps of Engineers from 1909 to 1912 and again from 1917 to 1919.

He consulted on the boundary between the states along the Colorado River, and on

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projects for the Los Angeles County Flood Control. Among the many agencies Leeds served were the harbor commissions of San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Oakland. Another Santa Barbara connection; the Major’s daughter, Eleanor Huse Leeds, would later marry Warren Fenzi, the grandson of Dr. Francesco Franceschi, the famed horticulturist.

Wilfred Keefer Barnard graduated from Yale as a civil engineer and entered the railroad engineering corps working with Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, Salt Lake, Union Pacific and Pacific Electric railways.

He was an early proponent of a Union Passenger Terminal for Los Angeles, and was an acting engineer over the development of the marine terminal of the Union Pacific at Long Beach Harbor.29 The firm of Leeds and Barnard constructed the water supply system for the Montecito County Water District including driving Doulton Tunnel and constructing Buell Dam, provided the comprehensive plans for the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor and development of Salinas Dam. The firm supervised the construction of the breakwater at San Pedro, the creation of the Los Angeles Harbor, the engineering projects on the Colorado River, and it built the harbor at Port San Luis. Leeds and Barnard was considered the premier marine engineering firm and the best choice to carefully consider a Santa Barbara harbor project.

The engineers’ preliminary work included gathering data on wind directions and velocity. Then, starting on November 2, 1922, Leeds and Barnard began a study of the ocean and air currents, the action of the tides. They reviewed conformations of the shore, land formation, and investigated sources of materials that would be used if breakwater jetties were to be built. The Yacht Club’s experts carefully measured the depth and potential area of each site.

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With Yacht Club volunteers assisting, one of the firm’s famous investigations was studying the littoral drift. They tossed bags of sawdust and also empty bottles and jugs from the sea cliffs of Goleta and of Hope Ranch to follow the flow of sand carried by the shoreline waves. They demonstrated that a West Beach breakwater moorage would fill with sand, and likely denude beaches further down the coast.

Jack Pedder, the 1923 Yacht Club commodore, asked the city council to come to the Yacht Club meeting Monday February 5 to hear the findings of the report. The engineers had concluded that Booth’s Point provided the most favorable anchorage.

Their plan remarkably paralleled a great deal what engineer John Brackenridge had detailed ten years earlier.

The report recommended that the Booth’s Point site incorporate three components: a) an outer harbor of twenty acres formed by two breakwater arms extending offshore to form an entrance some 200–250 feet wide. b) an inner basin to take the place of the Bird Refuge. c) another twenty-acre inner basin for small craft, such as rowboats, small motor boats, that would be on the north side of the railroad tracks.

This inland harbor design would cost $495,400, and would include dredging the inner and outer basins, and the filling in the land in this southeastern part of the city, that was usually underwater for most of the year.

It was predicted that this breakwater would cause a buildup of sand along East Beach, protecting the eastern half of Cabrillo Boulevard, thereby alleviating the need for the costly ($200,000) protective seawall.

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A second breakwater proposal was for the Goleta Slough. This was much like Booth’s Point plan. It would have two outer converging line breakwater arms, and a dredged inner basin, at a cost of $1,008,100.

However, the Goleta site had already been somewhat dismissed early on because of its distance from town.

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The breakwater projection from Castle Rock was a third plan and would cost either $603,200 to provide twenty acres or $986,700 for fifty acres, depending on the size of the breakwater.

A fourth plan, the “State Street” project, projected a shorter breakwater extending from the shore west of Stearns Wharf.

In an extension of the scheme, the proposal included the idea of turning the grounds of the Ambassador Hotel, formerly the Potter Hotel, into a public park. The hotel had burned down in January 1922. The cost of this plan came to $923,500.

Booth’s Point was considered to be the “the most predictable, economical, and advisable” for several reasons:30 1) The cost was less then the Goleta or State Street plan.

2) An inner, completely sheltered harbor of another thirty acres could be created. The cost for this could be completely or largely offset by selling the dredged materials for infill and reclamation of the lowlands. This area was near the old racetrack (bounded by San-

ta Barbara, Salsipuedes, Ortega streets, and the ocean) and could be filled in one operation with dredge material.

3) The East Beach enhancements would increase the value of the land all around it. The West Beach site was already developed. Adding a harbor would not significantly increase the value. However, the eastern beachfront area was a deserted marshy undesirable acreage.

4) Because the beachfront area would buildup with sand, Cabrillo Boulevard would be protected from storm damage. If the State Street and Castle Rock projects were pursued, an expensive sea wall would need to be constructed to protect the boulevard at the eastern end.

5) The Booth’s Point project lent itself naturally to progressive development. The initial phase (outer breakwater arms) could be constructed to provide immediate protection at less cost and minimal time. Then the basins could continue to be developed.

The marine engineers’ five-step plan recommended constructing the breakwater, reconstructing the boulevard, dredging the shore area, dredging the inner harbor and landscaping, and then developing the anchorage for small craft between the boulevard and the train tracks.

A caveat to the Booth’s Point proposal was the ability to keep the opening clear to the ocean and free from sand buildup.

The entire bird refuge could provide fifty-eight acres and could be handled readily with a suction dredge. However the engineers determined that the resulting tidal flow would be inadequate to maintain a corridor to and from the ocean; it would need to be protected from littoral sand drift to keep it clear.

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The outer harbor would be used by boats of deeper draft, or those that did not want to lie in perfect calm (i.e. for the entertainment of guests). If the breakwater extended out in sufficiently deep water (ideally twenty-one feet), the less likely the harbor would be affected by wave action and expense of maintenance. It was proposed that the inner and outer harbors be dredged to a depth of twelve feet.

The engineers determined that the majority of yachtsmen would likely come from Montecito and Santa Barbara, so the Booth’s Point location would be the most accessible.

The topography of the area was another advantage. It lent itself nicely to the development of a park and with landscaping would make it one of the most attractive spots in Santa Barbara. Furthermore, the hills to the south and east meant this inner harbor would particularly be protected.

Even as early as 1923, thought was given to provide a parking area to both allure and accommodate people to participate in water sports and waterfront activities.

The most important determination made by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was that the offshore breakwater proposal would run into a problem of sand build-up. Every day, some 700–1000 cubic feet of sand is churned up from the ocean floor and carried along in the shoreline current. A breakwater arm would cause a build-up of sand, filling up the shoreline to the west, filling up the moorage basin and blocking the harbor entrance. In addition, it would then denude the beaches to the east of sand.

The Yacht Club report warned that, “The design of a harbor on a sandy coast is one of the most difficult problems of engineering.” Furthermore, the cost for a beachfront breakwater was about ten times the amount of the salt pond conversion.

After the report’s findings to the City

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Council, Yacht Club member James Lowsley recommended that Commodore Pedder create a committee of three to seven people to meet with the city council and to request a bond measure to fund the project.

Commodore Pedder appointed Chairman James R. H. Wagner to chair a special committee to that effect. Wagner was president of the Community Arts Association and was first secretary of the Montecito Association, and had been chairman of the 1903 summer festival.

Others on the committee included James D. Lowsley, vice-president of the First National Bank and SBYC Commodore in 1909; Bernhard Hoffmann, the former East Coast engineer who had only been in town three years, but was already invested as the founder/head of the Plans & Planting Committee for the Community Arts Association; W. C. Logan, president of an extremely successful Dodge automobile dealership; and W. S. Porter, manager of the Santa Barbara Abstract and Guarantee Company. Advisory members appointed were philanthropists Max Fleischmann and J. P. Jefferson.

1923 Aftermath The yachtsmen took their show on the road, speaking to service clubs and organizations to explain the importance of a protected harbor, the opportunity to attract tourists. F. W. Bingham’s pitch to the Kiwanis Club was enthusiastically received when he pointed out how Long Beach had prospered when it had developed its waterfront and harbor.

The Yacht Club took out a full-page ad in the Morning Press in support of the anchorage urging voters to work and vote for “harbor bonds and prosperity.”31 The ad featured a drawing of the proposed harbor at Booth’s Point, and was signed by

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more than four hundred of its members representing some of the most important citizens of the community. Bankers George Edwards, Alfred Edwards, and Ugo Dardi signed on, as well as physicians Albert Spaulding and Hilmar Koefod and prominent retailers Louis Miratti, Leon Levy, and the Jordano brothers—Dominic and John. Bernhard Hoffmann added his name, as did newspaper editor Thomas Storke, county supervisor Sam Stanwood, postmaster James Rickard, and philanthropists such as George Owen Knapp. At his own expense, Staff Commodore Earle Ovington took out half-page ads in the Morning Press.

The election for the harbor bond measure was set for Tuesday May 22 and only included the outer harbor. The strategy was to create the harbor in two phases.

The outer harbor would be cheaper, quicker and easier to develop. Once watercraft were in a protected harbor, (and attracting boats and visitors and tourist dollars) then the inner harbor could be funded and developed in a second phase.

The ballot also included two other significant bond measures: purchase of the Ambassador Hotel grounds (for development as a park) and the reinstallation of the water main system. Although the bond measures were approved by the voters, they did not receive the two-thirds necessary to pass. Interestingly, more people voted on the harbor bonds (3798 votes cast) then voted for the property (3786) or water system (3769) bonds.

Although the hard-fought campaign for the harbor proved unsuccessful, nonetheless the May 25, 1923 Morning Press publicly enthused in its editorial: To members of the Yacht Club the Morning Press extends both condolences and congratulations, but more of the latter than of the

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former. Condolences are for temporary disappointments they may have suffered. And it is temporary – their project has merit and it will survive defeat. The congratulations are for the fine fight they made. They are a game bunch. If there were more of the spirit in the town that animates them there would be no question as to the future of Santa Barbara.

Now what?

1924—The Yacht Club Refuses to Abandon Ship In the aftermath of the vote, there was much analysis and strategizing taking place. Was a harbor ever to happen?

The supporters of the harbor recognized a number of points: 1) The Yacht Club campaign had unquestionably educated people as to the need and purpose of a harbor. The Santa Cruz cruise with people of influence had created a buzz and it was taking hold. People were now aware and interested in the economic benefits that could be gained by a harbor.

There was particularly strong support in city hall, which understood the necessity for a protected commercial harbor because of the increase in shipping that was projected, as well as the importance of attracting wealthy recreational boaters.

2) The special bond measure had a rather low thirty-four percent turnout.

A lower voter turnout traditionally meant a more conservative and cautious voter—not likely to approve new projects.

3) Surely a part of the problem was that two other major bond measures shared the ballot. The total value of bonds being raised was about $1,000,000. Assuming the turnout was

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the same, any future harbor bond measure would need to convert thirty percent naysayers. What different information would they need, or what would be the critical number—price-wise—that

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they could be willing to support?

4) Another significant consideration overlooked by the harbor supporters was the location.

It was difficult for the general public

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—those who could understand the importance of building an anchorage—to visualize a development at East Beach.

This area was undeveloped, overgrown, smelly, and out of the mainstream of activity. Everything was happening further to the west: Stearns Wharf, the Pleasure Pier, Los Baños, and tourist shops. The grand Potter Hotel, which had burned down in 1922, had been the site for visitors and parties and action —all taking place at the other end of the waterfront.

For an entire year, the yachtsmen continued to rally and meet with City Hall to look at different options in order to keep the idea afloat.32 A plan was submitted to the city council, which in turn planned to meet with the park board and planning commission and make recommendations. The city council approved a $775,000 harbor plan. However upon closer review, prospects dwindled when it was found that the city had reached the lawful limit of the city’s bond indebtedness for non-revenue producing construction work.

Meanwhile, members of the Yacht Club and in government continued to look at the harbor concept from different angles. Yacht Club member James Hollister, Sr., a California state senator, introduced legislation in spring of 1925 deeding to the City of Santa Barbara the title of the state’s tidelands on the Santa Barbara Channel. The purpose was of this approved bill was for harbor improvement, and the provision was that it

LEFT: Max C. Fleischmann, an enthusiastic yachtsman who was the key figure in funding a harbor for Santa Barbara.

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must be done without cost to the state.

The coast was now clear, so to speak.

Honorary Commodore Max Fleischmann Now a significant player from the Santa Barbara Yacht Club entered the scene, Major Max C. Fleischmann. A multi-millionaire and heir to the yeast fortune, Fleischmann fell in love with Santa Barbara in 1911 when he came here to play polo. He built a grand estate near Summerland, and became an enormous benefactor to local charities.

The Major also loved yachting and he crewed on Yacht Club races. He owned a series of enormous yachts (all called Haida). Fleischmann was named Honorary Commodore by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club in 1924 (the only Honorary Commodore in the club’s history). As it turned out, this was a foresighted honor.

When Fleischmann sailed into town he bemoaned the lack of a sheltered harbor in which his boat could moor. He had been named to the advisory committee to advance the 1923 bond measure campaign, and remained active in the conversations that followed. In the ensuing discussion of creating an anchorage, Fleischmann recognized that if the breakwater was to happen at all, it would be an easier sell to the public if the harbor was built on West Beach.

With the clout inherent in his position as local philanthropist, he began consulting with community leaders about the feasibility of the various proposals for a breakwater. In this manner, he diverted attention away from the location on East Beach, and directed it to the debate over the three different breakwater wall constructions on West Beach.

Fleischmann and other Santa Barbara Yacht Club members such as philanthro-

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pist Dwight Murphy, along with Miramar Hotel owner Harold Doulton and Reginald Fernald, editor of the Morning Press, favored a rock breakwater (as recommended by the engineers for a breakwater) to the west of the wharf. A “riprap” construction would be made from piled hard rock and boulder layers, which would break up and absorb the impact of a wave before the wave reached the harbor. By dissipating their energy, this breakwater could also reduce wave height and minimize the disruption and havoc caused by storms.

Other civic leaders such as Judge Robert Canfield and philanthropist Frederick Forrest Peabody wanted a cement caisson constructed in the same area. This style would consist of a caisson, which was essentially a box -type hollow concrete structure, each one forming a cell to be lined up to form a breakwater.

And in a third corner was Thomas Storke, editor of the Daily News, business-

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man Ed Gilbert, and the president of the Santa Fe Railroad, Edward P. Ripley. They wanted a much more expensive reinforced concrete sea wall in much deeper water to avoid the effects of the littoral drift.

Members of the Yacht Club, of course, had always favored the salt pond location.

However, now they found that they had: no disposition to be bullheaded in the matter and if it be found that some other form of anchorage be more desirable, they will not oppose it, but will boost it for all they are worth. 34 Any breakwater, it was felt, was better than no harbor at all.

Fleischmann directed his efforts first with three influential men: Mayor Henry Adrian, City Manager Herbert Nunn, and Dr. Rexwald Brown who was president of the Chamber of Commerce and a founder of the Santa Barbara Medical Clinic. All three

The Haida I, Max Fleischmann’s yacht. One reason Fleischmann was willing to put up money for a harbor was to secure a safe anchorage for his pride and joy.

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were supportive of a harbor being built, but had no strong compunctions about any particular construction type. Fleischmann then had attorney Francis Price act as his agent in order to consolidate the opinions and approval of these men.

The piece de resistance was a cash incentive.

Following the Yacht Club’s campaign, Fleischmann recognized that there was now a great deal of enthusiasm and interest in a harbor among the voters, but probably not the two-thirds needed to pass the bond.

He figured if the location was right, and the price was not quite as high, perhaps the rest of the voters could be persuaded.

In May of 1925, Fleischmann had attorney Price approach the city council with a hypothetical offer: If an “anonymous donor” were to make a donation of $200,000 toward the construction of a harbor, would the city be willing to match it? The only provision was that the harbor must be sufficient for yachts at all times of the year. The city took all of a split second to concur with the plan.

Furthermore, it was believed that the upcoming Southern California Yachting Association regatta to be held in August in Santa Barbara would stimulate and demonstrate the interest in having a harbor. The city began consideration holding an election on the bonds during that very regatta week.

A dramatic break in the action and on the debate occurred June 29, 1925, when an earthquake leveled the business district of the city.

Earthquake Regatta De La Guerra Plaza outside of City Hall was set up as command center for the city, where Red Cross workers and safety personnel toiled under the summer sun. The Santa Barbara Yacht Club brought in the

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biggest sail they could find to City Hall where it was hoisted up and stretched out over a wooden frame in order to provide desperately needed and appreciated shade for the Red Cross workers and other volunteers.

As the dust was settling from the earthquake, the local sailors realized they were to host the Southern California Yachting Association (SCYA) regatta in just five weeks. The SCYA offered to call it off, because of the earthquake damage. With a grand sense of daring-do the Santa Barbara Yacht Club said it would put on the regatta if the other sailors from down south did not mind a few inconveniences.

The idea that the Santa Barbara Yacht Club was going to carry on “business as usual,” and so soon after the quake, provided a terrific morale boost to the local community. A great sense of Santa Barbara spirit kicked in to come to the aid of the party. E.P. Dunn, the manager of the Arlington Hotel on State Street, offered a wing of his hotel to be used for the regatta headquarters and to house visiting skippers and crews, despite damage to parts of the building. This was tremendously appreciated, as the sailors would only be twelve blocks from the beach. Their other choice was to use the Samarkand Hotel located several miles from the shore.

Although much of the downtown area looked like a war zone, it mattered little to the sailors who were so excited to keep the regatta going, and in fact, kept the earthquake theme as part of the festivities. A newly formed organization, “The Quakers,” donated four new “one time” race trophies—comprised of bricks “from prominent Santa Barbara buildings.” These trophies included pieces of tile from the Old Mission and glass from the broken lenses of the wrecked lighthouse, all suitably inscribed.

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Staff Commodore Ed Gourley told the visiting yachtsmen “...we don’t do things by halves. We just pulled off the biggest earthquake of the year, and now are devoting our talents to pulling off the biggest regatta. Sixty percent of our hotels are unharmed and will be ready to accommodate yachtsmen and their friends... It will probably remind old-timers of the 1908-1909-1910 regattas with the exception of the loss of the Potter Hotel and enjoying the blessings of Prohibition.”35 As it turned out, the regatta that year was the biggest and best.

Rear Admiral Ashley Robinson sent two eagle boats to represent the United States Navy at the regatta. The final banquet and ball, and distribution of prizes were at the La Cumbre Country Club, at

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that time a large wooden building undamaged by the quake. The event solidified the club’s and the city’s esteem among sailors statewide: You’ll never have a finer spirit than that which put over the regatta last year in spite of the earthquake, and which went ahead with the plans for this yacht harbor, after all the disasters your club was forced to meet.36 More importantly, the amazing regatta did more for the Santa Barbara Yacht Club than just earn them respect from the regional yachting community.

The event underscored the importance of the waterfront and the contributions of the local yachtsmen to Santa Barbara. It no doubt was a significant factor in the

A large sail provided by the Yacht Club sheltered the Red Cross headquarters at De la Guerra Plaza in the aftermath of the 1925 earthquake.

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greater community response to yet another bond measure.

The Return of the Harbor Plan As the city focused on repairing, renovating, and rebuilding, Major Fleischmann sought to harness that energy and focus it on construction of a harbor. He asked Francis Price to review with council members the offer made before summer. Price was then to advise Fleischmann whether the city council would get behind the Major’s offer. Francis Price wired Fleischmann in late fall of 1925: I would consider that for you to advance the two hundred thousand dollars now would be the greatest incentive to the upbuilding of Santa Barbara because conditions are at a low ebb and for you to express that much confidence in the city would not only revive the spirit of the people here but restore confidence elsewhere.

With this vote of confidence, Fleischmann wrote out a check, postdated for January 1926. Just six months after the earthquake, he officially presented the check to the city for the munificent sum of $200,000 on the condition it was to be matched by the city to build a breakwater.

It might have been just enough incentive for the historically slow-to-move council to get things speeded up. Then Mother Nature helped push things along once more.

A month after Fleischmann’s offer, on February 11, 1926, a devastating storm swept the South Coast. Destruction from the high tides and heavy seas was felt from Santa Barbara to Ventura. Several hundred feet of East Cabrillo Boulevard were washed away and further south the Rincon causeway was drastically weakened. The Miramar pier was damaged,

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three piers at Summerland badly battered, and Stearns Wharf was so badly damaged that it closed for repairs. In short, the waterfront was in a mess.

The Yacht Club house at the base of Stearns Wharf was washed out to sea, with only the chimney left standing. Members of the Yacht Club had posted a sign on the chimney with the words, “Santa Barbara Needs a Breakwater.”

City Hall had officially accepted Fleischmann’s challenge, and put the bond measure on the ballot for May 4, 1926.

In another wildly uncharacteristic move, the citizens of Santa Barbara overwhelmingly approved the harbor bond measure for $200,000: out of six thousand votes, there were only three hundred dissenters, a twenty-to-one margin.

The city wasted no time getting started.

Francis Betts “Drydock” Smith, an internationally acclaimed engineer who had designed Pearl Harbor, was retained by the Harbor Commission to design the breakwater.

Work started in January 1927, with A. J. Grier as the contractor. He bit off more than he could chew and ran into financial difficulties, abandoning the project by December of 1927. The bonding company engaged Merritt, Chapman and Scott, who took over in January 1928, starting construction in April.

Ultimately, what the city began constructing was a 1,200-foot detached breakwater running parallel to the shore, 600 feet from shore. Volcanic rock was blasted from the cliffs of Santa Cruz Island at Fry’s Harbor, and screened carefully to eliminate soft stone and porous ash. The suitable stone was material of dense lava (rhyolite, andesite, and dacite) and 250,000 tons were barged in to form a wall going down some 40 feet to the ocean floor. The base of this wall was 130 feet wide, and the top the wall varied from 12 to 20 feet.

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Fleischmann determined that the breakwater was not sufficiently long, and in August 1928 contributed another $250,000 to pay to extend the breakwater another six hundred feet.

With a breakwater arm running parallel to the shore, it was thought that the littoral drift of sand would pass through down the coast. However, as predicted by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s engineers, sand was soon building up in the harbor. In order to forestall the filling of the harbor, Fleischmann provided another $100,000 in 1929 to connect the breakwater 600 feet inland to shore at Point Castillo (Castle Rock), which was completed by the next year, along with a promenade. The breakwater’s total length came to 2,435 feet at a cost of $775,000. The original length funded by the bonds was 1,000 feet.

For nearly eighty years, the town of Santa Barbara had advocated for a break-

water, to provide a safe anchorage and deepwater port of entry. The town endured no less than six rejections for harbor improvements from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1872 through to 1924.

Yet with the encouragement, research, advocacy, organization, and financial advancement of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and its members, the Santa Barbara community at its own expense had amazingly, but finally, built the long awaited and much needed breakwater.

Literally and Littoral-ly Drifting When the breakwater was first built, the harbor basin was much deeper, and accommodated the large yachts coming up from Los Angeles, such as the 103foot Norab, owned by Baron Long, the hotelman who was part owner of the

Construction of the breakwater has begun. Initially it was only to run parallel to shore.

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Due to sand drift problems, the breakwater was connected to the shore in 1929.

Agua Caliente racetrack. Interestingly, before World War II, only pleasure craft were allowed on the west side of the pier, under the protection of the breakwater; fishing boats were anchored to the east of Stearns Wharf.

By 1933, however, the sand had backed up along the perpendicular breakwater, and was filling in West Beach, as the Yacht Club had predicted early on. In less than ten years, a huge quantity of sand had been deposited immediately west of the breakwater creating the beach area—ironically now occupied by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

Ten acres were added to Leadbetter Beach in the area between the harbor and Shoreline Park, including the extensive parking areas and La Playa Field of Santa Barbara City College. These new areas were all created by this littoral drift deposit, a side benefit of the breakwater being built.

On the down side, literally and figuratively, however, was that after Leadbetter Beach filled with sand, the longshore drift built a shallow sandbar along the outer side

of the breakwater. By 1939, the bar extended to the breakwater’s east end where refracted swells captured the drifting sand and dumped it into the harbor, creating shallows and eventually a bar across the harbor entrance. Santa Barbara Yacht Club member Max Fleischmann once again came to the rescue and provided $80,000 for a hopper dredge to keep the harbor basin open.

Furthermore, the beaches further down the coast were rapidly eroding. The city thought of building groins—a series of small jetties perpendicular to the shore—to protect the beaches against further erosion. These groins, placed approximately at sites of the Cabrillo Pavilion, the Bird Refuge/Clark Estate, the Channel Drive city limits, the Biltmore Hotel, the Edgecliffe Beach Club, and Fernald Point, were added, but were not very effective. In 1939, a substantial underwater riprap wall was installed to protect East Beach which helped to retain the sand. In addition, sand was dredged from the harbor and deposited on the other side of the wharf, which also helped replenish East Beach.

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The Next Eighty Years

Tourism

The harbor breakwater was the most notable community contribution by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, but it was certainly was not the only one.

The Yacht Club has continued to make a positive impact on the community in five areas:

Even before the turn of the nineteenth century, the Yacht Club was targeting industrialists and men of wealth to Santa Barbara through yachting activities.

Throughout the twentieth century, sailing competitions continued not only to sell the beauty of Santa Barbara, but provided very real revenue to the city. Currently there are more than forty races and regattas each year, ranging from the prestigious International Star class race to the weekly “Wet Wednesdays” after-work rivalry in which colorful sails unfold dramatically to catch the wind as well as the attention of hundreds of spectators. Annually, several thousand skippers, crew and their families contribute to the local economy through docking fees, bed taxes, while enjoying a range of local visitor services.

• As an attractive draw for visitors (both as participants and as spectators) in a variety of regattas and sailing events; • Supporting the community with service and fundraising for local charities; • Serving as marine ambassadors for navy and military officers and personnel; • Implementing and promoting positive programs for youth; • Providing material enhancements to the waterfront.

Santa Barbara Harbor, 1933.

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Semana Nautica The 1903 Summer Tournament undoubtedly sowed the seeds for Semana Nautica. This was the first summer outdoor sports competition with events highlighted throughout the city, and in which naval ships came to participate.

The current week-long sports festival took root in 1933 with the visit of five U.S. Navy battleships in the Channel, including the USS Arizona, USS Nevada, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, and USS New York. All of the battleships except the USS New York would be attacked in Pearl Harbor eleven years later. Local citizens and sports teams challenged the crews of the battleships to a series of athletic and sporting events on the beach during the time they were here, and they dubbed the event “Fleet Week.”

Semana Nautica started out as purely a boating organization, sponsoring sailing and power boat races and parades of yachts. The resulting enthusiasm for the event inspired the City Council to charter the event the following year and change the name to reflect the town’s Spanish heritage —Semana Nautica—“Nautical Week.”

Semana Nautica was held under the auspices of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

They incorporated their Star Lipton Cup trophy regatta into the week, to attract expert sailors from the Star fleet class. Other boat races and a marine pageant were part of the 1934 festivities.

The Semana Nautica Association formed officially in 1935, to present the sports festival annually over the Fourth of July weekend. Mayor Harvey T. Nielsen was its first chairman and Gordon Davies the president. It was incorporated in 1937

Santa Barbara Harbor, 1940. Note the buildup of West Beach and the accumulationof sand at the harbor mouth.

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Semana Nautica began as a boating festival then added sporting events and pageantry through the years.

Among the latter was the “Battle of the Flowers,� a parade of decorated sea craft.

under its president, R. F. McFarland, who stayed at the helm until 1951.

Wiley Cole, Santa Barbara Yacht Club Commodore of 1947, became president of Semana Nautica in 1954 and was its guiding force throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

For more than seventy years, Santa Barbara has continued to celebrate the tenday Semana Nautica Festival surrounding the Fourth of July holiday. Over the years Semana Nautica has grown into one of the city’s most important events, with programming expanded to include land events of every kind: golf, tennis, baseball, equestrian events, badminton, horseshoes, lawn bowling, and even Chinese Checkers!

Today Semana Nautica is a sports festival that incorporates hundreds of various events, from the extremely physically challenging to those that welcome participants of all ages and abilities. Spectators attend the events held throughout Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta free of charge to

cheer amateur competitors at the various sites. The Santa Barbara Yacht Club now participates primarily with dinghies and small keel boats. (The Star Lipton competition is held as a separate event later.)

More than a million people have visited Santa Barbara during Semana Nautica since its inception as a water sports competition between the U.S. Navy and the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

Yacht Racing Trans-Pac The International Trans-Pac (Trans Pacific race) was re-started by Santa Barbara, and was launched from Santa Barbara Harbor to Hawaii. It was a popular starting point for the race because yachtsmen felt that boats leaving Santa Barbara Harbor got away from the mainland and into the trade winds faster than any port on the California coast.37

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Star Lipton The International Star Lipton Cup regatta continues not only to attract sailors from all over, but more intriguingly, the most renowned sailors in the country have come to local waters to gain the title: Owen Churchill, Charles Driscal, John Driscal, William Ficker, Robbie Haynes, Tom Blackaller, Lowell North, Paul Cayard, and America’s Cup Dennis Connor.

Because of both the beauty of the location and the prominence of the competitors it attracts, the Star Lipton Trophy Regatta is well covered in sailing magazines and sports columns throughout the world, bringing much attention and publicity to the Santa Barbara community.

King Harbor Race The Santa Barbara to King Harbor race is an exciting competition held in the summer and is the largest Southern California summer sailing event. The seventy-mile course is a favorite for Southern California racers who flock to the event. The start of the race is particularly well attended since it coincides with Old Spanish Days Fiesta in early August, and the visiting racers and spectators are happy to join in the local revelry before the launch the following morning.

COMMUNITY SERVICE When the yachtsmen and women of the Santa Barbara Yacht club are not busy sailing, or selling the local seas to other sailors, they can be found working through the Yacht Club to serving their community in marine-related events and activities.

Community Support Throughout its existence, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club has had at its core the cream of the community’s leaders in gov-

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ernment and business. These gentlemen— as individuals and collectively—had given generously to their community in terms of both time and money.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Yacht Club members raised money and donated manpower or services of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club to help a number of organizations serving the needs of the youth and marine communities: G.O.O., Girl Mariners, B.O.A.T., Semana Nautica, Sea Shells, Youth Foundation, Sea Scouts, San Marcos Sailing Club.

Charity Regattas At the end of the twentieth century, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club decided to take a focus as an organization to help other deserving non-profits in the community that were non-marine related. This began in the 1990s when several regattas were held to benefit local organizations, Hospice of Santa Barbara and Villa Majella.

In 2005, a major milestone was achieved when the entire Yacht Club got behind creating the SBYC Charity Regatta, which had some thirty-five boats participating and raised $50,000 for Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara.

The following year, the success and popularity of the event had attracted nearly double the number of participants—with some sixty skippers signed on. Each participating boat paid an entry fee, which became a contribution to Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care.

An exciting feature of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club Charity Regattas was the Special “Charity Regatta Handicapping System.” Usually, some sort of handicapping system is required to score a sailboat race. Fast boats have low handicaps, and slow boats have high handicaps. Handicaps are expressed in seconds per mile. If boat

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‘A’ has a handicap of 30, and boat ‘B’ has a handicap of 60, ‘A’ owes ‘B’ 30 seconds per mile. On a five-mile course, ‘A’ would need to finish about 2.5 minutes before ‘B’ in order to win.

To make it fun, competitors in the Yacht Club Charity Regattas can secretly change their rating and the rating of other boats by purchasing seconds per mile. ‘B’ could buy down ‘A’s rating by twenty seconds per mile, and could buy up its own rating by twenty seconds per mile. ‘A’ would now have to beat ‘B’ by almost six minutes. However, since the purpose of the Yacht Club Charity Regatta is about raising money for the community and having fun in the process; the sailors remain good sports.

In 2006, Mayor Marty Blum presented the Santa Barbara Yacht Club with a Proclamation from the City of Santa Barbara declaring the day as SBYC Charity Regatta Day, which ultimately raised $75,000 for Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara.

The following year, the Yacht Club raised even more money for Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara, and the US Coast Guard cutter Blackfin joined the fleet of spectator boats.

Marine Ambassadors The Santa Barbara Yacht Club has served as an unofficial chamber of commerce for the waterfront, welcoming visitors and yachtsmen from around the state, country, and world who pull into port.

One of the significant roles the Santa Barbara Yacht Club has played is “Com-

LEFT: The Santa Barbara Charity Regatta was launched in 1995. Collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

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munity Ambassador” to the Navy and other armed forces. Since the nineteenth century, Yacht Club officials have hosted and entertained naval officers and dignitaries.

No place that I have ever visited as part of the American Navy has made a deeper impression on me than Santa Barbara.

Admiral Hugh Rodman Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet38 In 1906, Mayor Wood, a Yacht Club member (later Commodore) hosted a large dinner at the Santa Barbara Country Club for Admiral Asa Walker, who had commanded the U.S.S. Concord in Manila.

Other Yacht Club members who were leaders in business and government welcomed the navy official.

The Yacht Club played a significant role in welcoming the naval dignitaries accompanying the Great White Fleet arriving in Santa Barbara in 1908.

In 1919, Admiral Hugh Rodman sailed into the Santa Barbara Channel with the flagship New Mexico and the Pacific Fleet.

The entire fleet, which included the superdreadnought Mississippi, battleships Wyoming and Arkansas, cruisers Birmingham and Anthony, and fourteen destroyers, was strung out for three miles, extending from the city to the Montecito shoreline.

Santa Barbara’s yachtsmen organized a flotilla to sail down the Channel to greet the navy ships and accompany them back to the harbor. Allan Loughead, early Santa Barbara aviator, happily buzzed over the ships in his airplane, the bottom of which was painted, “Welcome to Santa Barbara!” He went on to become famous with his brother, Malcolm, as co-founders of Lockheed Aircraft.

The officers were received and entertained by Yacht Club leaders such as John

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Percival Jefferson. He provided the first society function for these Navy guests, at his home, Miraflores, which later became the home of the Music Academy of the West.

In 1925, the Los Angeles Times reported that a Santa Barbara Yacht Club delegate was among the one hundred prominent distinguished civilians called to a dinner honoring Rear Admiral Ashley Robertson, commander of the Eleventh Naval District, along with Admiral Robert E. Coontz, commander in chief, and thirteen other admirals.

A three-day celebration honoring Navy Day and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday was planned by a committee of Santa Barbara Yacht Club leaders in 1927. It commenced with the arrival of the USS Colorado, which Captain Gatewood L. Lincoln opened for public visits.

The British warship HMS Durban

brought Prince George Windsor (later the Duke of Kent) into Southern California in September 1928.

Prince George and several junior officers were cordially greeted by Santa Barbara Yacht Club officials. J.P. Kennedy, president of the Chamber of Commerce, drove the visitors along Alameda Padre Serra on a sightseeing tour on the way to a dinner hosted in their honor by Yacht Club member J.J. Mitchell at El Mirador, his Montecito estate.

During the 1960s, the Yacht Club opened up its clubhouse to the Air Force Academy for Cadet Day—a luncheon and leisure day for 420 officers and cadets. The City of Santa Barbara and Vandenberg Air Force Base donated food, which was prepared and served by the Yacht Club women. The men took the three hundred cadets out on cruises in the Channel. The young ladies of the Yacht Club were asked to

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club as it appeared in 1960.

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help hostess the other activities, which included swimming, ping-pong, volleyball, and a dance.

Youth Programming The Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s work in youth sailing programs is one of the ways in which Yacht Club members have been able to make a positive an impact on their Santa Barbara community.

The club as an organization as well as its leaders and individual members have fostered relationships with youth groups to teach sailing and seamanship through a variety of programs.

Sea Scouts. A number of Yacht Club members helped launch and run the Sea Scout program in Santa Barbara where it was active from the 1920s through World War II. The Sea Scouts, modeled after the Boy Scouts, used boating and

nautical skills to foster confidence, teach management, develop leadership, and instill character.

Yacht Club leader (Commodore 1952) Tom Crawford led the local Sea Scouts for most of its years. Tom trained and tested his teens on knot tying, boat handling, rowing, and boxing the compass.

He also taught them how to read the weather and the ocean conditions and how to take care of their boats. During the annual Sea Scout jamborees held in Newport Beach, the Santa Barbara Sea Scouts would often sweep all the prizes—whether swimming, water safety, life saving, or racing sailboats.

Crawford taught many local boys not only sailing, but seamanship—including discipline and pride in their appearance.

They wore black shoes, tropical white uniforms, and smart white sailor hats with the Sea Scout logo. Their discipline, skill, and knowledge were well-known through-

Today’s Santa Barbara Yacht Club, which opened in December 1966.

Collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

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NOTICIAS Tom Crawford, foreground, was the key ďŹ gure in the development of the Sea Scout program. Here he inspects a group of Scouts, 1934.

out the state. In fact, the boys were so well trained that visiting yachtsmen would call on Crawford for a Sea Scout to help them when sailing up and down the coast. Yacht Club member Major Max Fleischmann regularly used the Sea Scouts as side boys for his Haida.

When the Girl Mariners attracted the attention of a Hollywood studio, a motion picture feature short was made about them in 1932. The Santa Barbara Yacht Club set up the Girl Mariners at their site on the wharf for the filming, and lent a hand behind the scenes. Warner Brothers filmed the Girl Mariners in uniform going through their drills and first aid demonstrations at the Yacht Club clubhouse.

By 1938, the group had become an official division of the Girls Scouts known as the Mariners, and subsequently were called the Girl Scout Mariners.

Carpinteria Girl Mariners 1930s. The tremendous focus the Yacht Club had brought to the waterfront boating activities during the 1920s decade provided the environment for the community’s interest in and support of the Girl Mariners.

The Girl Mariners group was founded in Carpinteria in 1931 by two women and was comprised of young women aged fifteen to nineteen who were members of the Girl Scouts and earned their badges from watercraft expertise. Their program was modeled after the Sea Scouts, and within two years the organization became established nationally. The girls were trained in all aspects of sailing, taking cruises to the Channel Islands on their flagship or utilizing boats loaned by Yacht Club members.

Yacht Club Skipper Tom Crawford was tapped for guidance on special projects.

Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation. In spring of 1967, a group of Yacht Club members gathered with members Bill Wilson, William Gerard, and Gordon Butcher at the office of Carl Robinette to create a new student sailing program.

The initial idea was to promote the instruction of and training in the basic skills of sailing to local children to make them competent sailors. Another goal was to interest and motivate these children to become proficient enough to represent their nation in the Olympics and other international and national competitions.

The unique aspect of this youth sailing organization was its unabashed emphasis on racing. The cornerstone of the program was the race. Teaching sailing through racing resulted in a high learning curve compared to simply conducting sailing lessons.

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It also created teamwork and an incentive to excel. All of these were sound principles for youth to learn not only about sailing, but succeeding.

The Youth Sailing Foundation was formed by members of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club to meet the need for a youth sailing program in our community. The purpose of the Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation is to develop in young people, through the sport of sailing, attributes of self-reliance, responsibility, teamwork and sportsmanship, together with a constant awareness of the requirements of safety.

The organization was originally incorporated as the Santa Barbara Yacht Club Youth Foundation in 1967, and later changed to The Youth Foundation when established as a unique non-profit corporation separate from the SBYC. In 2006, the name was changed to the Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation to more accurately reflect its mission.

All involved in its management were SBYC members, primarily Carl Robinette, Bob Kieding, Bill Wilson, Bill Gerard, and Sheridah Gerard, volunteering their time.

The Yacht Club also supported the program by providing boat and gear storage space, and the use of the Fleet Room for meeting and instruction.

Sailing classes are conducted by qualified US Sailing-certified instructors who are paid for their services. Unlike most yacht club sailing programs which train students on their own family boats, the Youth Sailing Foundation is provided with boats to use for instruction. In this manner, students who do not own boats or have no related experience on the water develop both an appreciation for sailing and the hands-on skills to be able to sail. The format of the program was then as it is today—a sailing school for youngsters un-

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der the age of twenty-one, and open to any youth who wishes to participate.

1984 Olympics. An important chapter in the history of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the Youth Foundation was the role they played in the 1984 Olympics.

Three years before the Olympics, Yacht Club member Bob Kieding was president of the Santa Barbara Rowing Foundation, which promoted competitive rowing for UCSB as well as individual masters rowers. He was contacted by the Olympic Organizing Committee to help run the rowing venue for the 1984 Olympics to be held at Lake Casitas. Yacht Club member Barry Berkus was the overall head of rowing for the 1984 Olympics.

Kieding mobilized other Yacht Club members to organize a group of forty young men and women, ages fourteen to eighteen, to help with the rowing competitions. The Youth Foundation formed the nucleus of this group to assist the participants in the Olympic rowing events by handling competitive equipment, docking and departing, and by aligning boats on the water at the starting line. To train for these responsibilities, Youth Foundation members traveled to many locations in California to perform these duties at intercollegiate rowing events.

When the Olympics began, Youth Foundation youngsters were ready for, and up to, the task. They performed well and were televised worldwide doing their essential duties.

School Programming. The Youth Sailing Foundation administers a two-pronged year-round sailing program open to all young people ages eleven to twenty-one years. The first portion is a summer program and a high school sailing program.

The original “Summer Learn to Sail

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Program” is still maintained as a ten-week summer session, in which up to 150 youth come to learn to sail, or develop their sailing skills further.

The Youth Sailing Foundation initially took some college programs under its wing, in particular the UCSB Sailing Team as it was getting off the ground, however, the primary focus remains with junior/senior high school programming.

In the 1990s, in addition to the “Summer Learn to Sail Program,” the Youth Sailing Foundation expanded to become a yearround program when many California high schools began developing high school sailing programs. In 1993, the Youth Foundation incorporated a high school sailing program for local high schools. Students enrolled in the Youth Foundation High School Program receive independent physical education (IPE) credit for high school sailing.

The Youth Sailing Foundation provides the instructors, capital equipment, and facilities that would otherwise be unavailable through the school system. This program encourages daily practice sessions and interscholastic competition for both boys and girls at local, regional, and national levels. This program is coordinated with the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association (PCISA) of which there are more than seventy active high schools on the West Coast. The Foundation also sponsors several informal sailing clinics to prepare students for the intense summer racing schedules.

With the increased popularity of the boating classes, opportunities for Junior Sailing grew very quickly. From 1995 through 2002, schools from Santa Barbara competed in sailing for the National High School Championship. San Marcos High

Yacht Club members enjoy a gorgeous Santa Barbara day of sailing.

Collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

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School became the first local high school to qualify for the Interscholastic Sailing Association’s National High School Championship. In 1999, the San Marcos High School sailing team finished fourth in the U.S. for the Mallory Perpetual Cup. In the new millennium, Santa Barbara High School became the regional powerhouse in high school sailing and participated in the National High School Championships Then, in 2002, the Santa Barbara High School sailing team also took fourth place in the nation.

In 2005, the Youth Sailing Foundation added a middle school sailing program for the fall and spring. These young sailors proved to be quite competitive and were encouraged to compete in the U.S. Sailing -sponsored championships.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club also actively fundraises to support the Youth Sailing Foundation. Tuition generally provides about one-third of the revenue needed for operating and capital expenditures (costs of instructors, boats, sails, and equipment).

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club Women made the Youth Sailing Foundation its major fundraising and support project. Then, to encourage young people to compete in the National Championships, Olympics, and other events, the Youth Foundation’s Competition Fund helps with fees and travel expenses ... sending local teams to world championships, such as the ones held in Ontario and Toronto.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club members felt it was important to help underprivileged youth, so they also established the Deardorff Scholarship Fund program to accommodate all students who wished to participate. Not infrequently, the applicants were children of single mothers who were trying to provide good role models for their children by placing them in the successful sailing school. One con-

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dition of the scholarship was that the student had to pay some part of the cost, even if it were only ten dollars. This was part of the character building philosophy: sacrificing and saving taught the students more than getting something for nothing. It was important to help students establish self-esteem through motivation, endeavor, self-reliance, and accomplishment.

A campaign to bring an increased awareness of the Youth Sailing Foundation both within the Yacht Club and within the community paid off, as annual contributions increased from $15,000 to over $55,000 to cover instructor salaries, insurance premiums, dock fees, equipment, and regatta expenses. To provide financial security for the Foundation an Endowment Committee was formed in 2005 and within three years raised $1 million to establish a firm financial footing for the organization.

Within twenty years of its establishment, the Youth Sailing Foundation had already taught the basics of sailing to more than 2,500 local students.

As a testament to the vision of its founder and the dedication and skill of its instructors and supporters, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s Youth Sailing Foundation has sent out young accomplished sailors who have achieved national and international recognition: • Larry Harteck: Won the World Championship NACRA Catamaran Class, 1995.

• Kevin Connelly: Three-time National Champion Olson 30s, he also established a sail-making company that was anchored in Santa Barbara for thirty years.

• Scott Deardorff: Mallory Cup US Men’s National Champion, 1990.

• Gary Weisman: One of the most

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accomplished big boat sailors and now President of North Sails.

• Eric Arendt: 1990 World Competition contender in J24s.

• Bill Gerard: Three-time Star Lipton Cup Winner, 1970, 1980, 1997.

• Steve Curran: Olympic Trials contender, 1968.

• Alex Bernal & Ted White: US Team 29er World Championships.

• Leslie Deardorff: Olympic Trials contender, 1992.

• Oliver Toole: US Team International 420 Class World Championship, 2009.

• Numerous semi-finalists in the US Junior Championships.

WATERFRONT ENHANCEMENTS The Santa Barbara Yacht Club continues to add assets to the development of the waterfront for the enjoyment of the community.

The Small Boat Launch /Hoist In 1968, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club together with the Santa Barbara Sailing Association raised the funds to provide a small boat hoist on the marine center pier for the public to use.

Youth Sailing Foundation Float Yacht Club members worked to proIn 2006 the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, working with the city’s Waterfront Department, restored the colorful flags to the breakwater. Photograph by Hank Boehm.

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vide adequate water space at the beginning of Marina One for the Youth Sailing Foundation program. The Yacht Club members acquired and set up an old marina float for the Youth Sailing Foundation to use. Later, new floats were added to expand the racks, storage, and landing areas.

Breakwater Flags The Flag Project was originated in 1978

by Paul Mills, Director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, to fly historic flags at the breakwater. The flags were supported through a non-profit organization dedicated to locating sponsors, fundraising, and maintaining the twenty-six flagpoles and their colorful flags on the breakwater.

After twenty-five years, the organization was folding and needed the Waterfront Department to take over management of the flags project. Waterfront staff was reluctant to do so because of the expense and time commitment involved in fundraising and obtaining sponsors for the flags.

Due to their poor condition, the flags had been taken down and were not flown for several years, but there was still much

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interest in the community to restore the flags to the breakwater. With the flags flying, the harbor looked great and took on a festive ambiance. The Flag Project was important for tourism and therefore to the city and the merchants, but no group was in a position to take over the project.

Yacht Club Commodore Bud Toye and his wife Sigrid went to the Waterfront Department to determine what it would take to get the flags flying again. Primarily, the city needed a responsible group to provide stewardship of the project.

In June 2006, the Santa Barbara Yacht Club stepped forward to restore the flags to the breakwater. Not only were the flags a colorful attraction to the breakwater, but they also had an additional benefit of helping sailors judge relative wind speed and direction when starting a race. The Yacht Club indicated it would be willing to have its staff raise and lower the flags, and also to undertake the burdensome task of locating sponsors for the flags.

The city agreed to maintain the flagpoles and rigging. The Yacht Club took on the task of selecting and maintaining the flags, purchasing replacement flags at its own expense, raising and lowering the flags, and carrying liability insurance to cover operations.

The Waterfront Department provided approximately $3,000 for the first set of twenty-six flags to get the project restarted. Sigrid Toye spearheaded this effort and her team selected and ordered the first set of flags.

To ensure that Paul Mills’ legacy was not forgotten, the Yacht Club created the Paul Mills flag, which flies next to the Yacht Club burgee.

Marinas The first marina was built as a private enterprise by Yacht Club member Harry

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Chanson in 1955 at a cost of $60,000; it contained 105 mooring slips. In 1964, the city purchased back the Chanson marina and four years later this marina was rebuilt, expanded to hold 169 slips, and renamed Marina 2.

Two years after Harry Chanson built the first marina, a group of seventy investors, comprised mostly of Yacht Club members, formed the Harbor Improvement Association. Their aim was to develop a second marina and they collected $55,000 to deposit with the city.

Santa Barbara Yacht Club member Covert Robinson, Jr. originally designed the marina with concrete floats and wooden decking just inside the harbor breakwater, to hold forty double slips, however, the plan was revised to use plywood floatation tanks covered with fiberglass, and was built for $58,000. The investors were assured of a slip for ten years, with a mooring and maintenance fee at a rate of fifty cents per foot. Some of the investors had paid for two or three slips and these were sublet. On the south side of the walkway to the forty slips was six hundred feet of tie-along space that the city could rent for moorage at one dollar per foot. In 1963, the city constructed an additional forty slips in Marina 1, dubbed the “Yacht Club Marina,� and a final expansion in 2003 added another seventy-eight slips.

Once again, the collective commitment and financial support of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club members had enabled the city to provide significant improvements at the waterfront for the enjoyment of both residents and visitors.

Proud to belong to one of the oldest organizations in town, Santa Barbara Yacht Club members have been renowned in their community as leaders in business, civic affairs, and philanthropy. They have sought not only to support sailing, but

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also to contribute to their community —in youth activities, charity fundraising, infrastructure improvements, tourism, and business—through the pastime and sport of yachting.

NOTES 1. Rochelle Bookspan, ed., Santa Barbara by the Sea (Santa Barbara: McNally & Lofton, West, 1982), 49.

2. Santa Barbara Press, 29 January 1873.

3. Santa Barbara by the Sea, 50.

4. “Certain Harbors in California,” Report of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 11 December 1878.

5. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 16 May 1887.

6. Daily Independent (Santa Barbara), 23 June 1887.

7. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 25 May 1887.

8. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 18 May 1887.

9. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 6 June 1903.

10. ”An Inner Breakwater for Santa Barbara,” December 1918.

11. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 26 October 1913.

12. Ibid.

13. Los Angeles Times, 4 January 1917.

14. Los Angeles Times, 13 May 1920.

15. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 20 November 1920.

16. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 16 December 1920.

17. Letter, Thomas Lipton to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, 23 November 1923, collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

18. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 24 June 1923.

19. Mercury, publication of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, 26 November 1922.

20. Ibid.

21. “Commodore Voices Approval of Council’s Action to Consider Improvement of Marsh.”

Letter to the editor, Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 9 May 1922.

22. Earl Ovington, “Santa Barbara Yacht Club Boosts for Harbor,” Mercury, 1922, clipping in the collection of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

23. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 5 May 1922.

24. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 21 September 1922.

25. Daily News (Santa Barbara), 2 October 1922.

26. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 3 October 1922.

27. Daily News (Santa Barbara), 4 October 1922.

28. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 31 October 1922.

29. Los Angeles Times, 23 January 1936.

30. Daily News (Santa Barbara), 6 February 1923.

31. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 22 May 1923.

32. Los Angeles Times, 14 July 1924.

33. Los Angeles Times, 24 July 1924.

34. Morning Press (Santa Barbara), 12 September 1922.

35. Los Angeles Times, 15 July 1925.

36. Letter, Southern California Yachting Association to the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, 1926.

37. Santa Barbara News-Press, 12 May 1938.

38. Los Angeles Times, 25 August 1919.

Santa Barbara Harbor, 1994, just one of the community legacies owed in no small part to the efforts of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club.

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