City Celebrates Opening of New Public Dock and New Electric Patrol Vessel

By Newport Indy Staff – September 15, 2024

Source: Newport Beach Independent https://www.newportbeachindy.com/city-celebrates-opening-of-new-public-dock-and-new-electric-patrol-vessel/


The City of Newport Beach celebrated two significant milestones in Newport Harbor on Wednesday, August 27: opening a new public dock and welcoming the first electric patrol vessel in the Harbor Department fleet.

The new VITA Seal electric boat is also the first all-electric work vessel delivered to any public agency in the United States.

Newport Beach elected officials and harbor commissioners performed a ceremonial ribbon cutting on the 29th Street Public Pier, at 29th Street and Lafayette Avenue, before christening the new electric vessel.

The 29th Street pier brings the total number of public piers in Newport Harbor to 15, following the dedication of the Balboa Marina Public Pier in March. Use of the pier is free for up to three hours during the day.

The 29thStreet dock, near the terminus of the Rhine Channel, can accommodate up to four 20-ft. boats or two larger vessels. It is part of an ongoing expansion of publicly accessible docks, owned and managed by the City, to provide greater access to boaters.

The new electric boat can be utilized throughout a typical 10-hour shift for the Harbor Department without the need to recharge. With a top speed of 30 knots, the boat will generally carry a crew of two staff members and can accommodate up to eight people. In addition, at Marina Park, the City is developing what will be the first publicly accessible vessel charging station in Southern California.

The 29th Street Pier was designed by Moffatt and Nichol and built by Swift Slip Dock and Pier Builders, with a construction cost of $262,000.

The cost of the electric vessel, $229,000, was funded by the City and partially offset by a Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) voucher from the State of California.


By Newport Indy Staff – September 15, 2024

Source: Newport Beach Independent https://www.newportbeachindy.com/city-celebrates-opening-of-new-public-dock-and-new-electric-patrol-vessel/

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Newport Harbor Underwater Cleanup

The Newport Harbor Underwater Cleanup, in partnership with the City of Newport Beach, has announced the 4th Annual Newport Harbor Underwater Cleanup scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21 at Marina Park in Newport Beach.

Launched in 2017 by Help Your Harbor’s founders—former Newport Beach mayor Marshall “Duffy” Duffield and local environmentalists Billy Dutton and Mark Ward — NHUC hosted three years of sold-out cleanup events at the Balboa Bay Club before being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re thrilled to expand this year’s event at our new location,” says Billy Dutton, co-founder of NHUC and Help Your Harbor. “The Newport Marina Park site allows for much greater community participation, with volunteers helping to clean up our harbor both above and below the water. The addition of the International Coastal Cleanup Day celebration at Marina Park that afternoon will bring together over two dozen organizations and their volunteers, all committed to protecting our precious marine environment.”

After years of advocacy and enforcement actions, we are excited to see the Corps’ dredging project proceed with an improved design that better considers the health of Southern California’s coastal ecosystem,” said Garry Brown, founder and president of Orange County Coastkeeper. “The new plan for the dredged material is a big win for our waters and helps lower costs. Rather than burying contaminated sediment underneath Newport’s turning basin in a poorly designed disposal facility, the material will be repurposed and contained in an expansion project at the Port of Long Beach.

On August 1, the Newport Aquatic Center welcomed Beyond Blindness, a nonprofit in Santa Ana providing support for visually impaired children and their families, to their facility as part of Beyond Blindness’ inclusive summer camp, taking the campers on outriggers in the Back Bay.