Big catamaran gets the boot from Newport Harbor

Cheyenne, the colossal catamaran that has been moored in Newport Harbor for more than four years, no longer has a home in Newport Beach.

The white vessel, which is 125 feet long, 60 feet wide and adorned with advertising logos, was evicted from the harbor on Wednesday, about a month after a hearing officer upheld the city’s decision to deny renewal of its mooring permit.

It is unclear where businessman Chris Welsh plans to store Cheyenne. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Harbor Resources Manager Chris Miller notified Welsh this summer that his permit was not being renewed, meaning the boat would no longer have a place in the harbor.

In early August, Welsh appealed the decision to the city’s harbor department and, later that month, the hearing officer denied the appeal.

Welsh, who plans to use the boat to haul a submarine for deep-sea exploration across the globe, approached the city Harbor Commission in 2011 to request a permit for Cheyenne to be moored in the harbor. Commissioners initially agreed, thinking Cheyenne would be in the harbor for a short time. A special mooring was built for the vessel. Typically, the largest mooring in the harbor is for a 90-foot boat, Miller said.

Welsh hopes to sail Cheyenne to the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern (or Antarctic) oceans to complete an exploration effort known as “five dives.” However, before the sub could attempt the dives, it needed repairs, some of which took longer than expected.

The most severe setback involved the submarine’s dome, which cracked during pressure testing and resulted in a delay of more than a year.

The Harbor Commission renewed Welsh’s permit seven times, Miller said. Eventually, commissioners asked Welsh to update them on the progress of the repairs every month.

During a meeting in July, Commissioners Paul Blank, Duncan McIntosh and Doug West indicated that not enough progress was being made between each update to justify extending the permit again. The commission deadlocked, 3 to 3, with Commissioner Brad Avery abstaining. In the end, Miller decided not to renew the permit.

McIntosh said in a recent interview that while Welsh’s project is worthwhile, it is time for the boat to move on.

“We just didn’t see enough progress,” he said. “It was taking up a large mooring area and displacing whatever else could have been there.”