Council votes for antique boat’s move

The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday gave a local ship builder six months to remove from his yard an antique, 72-foot sailing ship that his neighbors have labeled as an eyesore.

“I just wish they would leave me alone and let me finish my boat,” said master shipwright Dennis Holland in an interview before the council meeting.

Holland said he was too emotional to attend the hearing, choosing instead to watch it at home on television.

The shipbuilder saved Shawnee, a 1916 ketch, from sinking in Newport Harbor three years ago. The boat sailed from Southern California to Tahiti in the first Tahiti race in 1925. Holland is fixing up the boat, which towers over his Newport Heights neighborhood. The prow of the vessel juts over the city street.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance that bans large construction and maintenance projects in residential areas. City staff became aware of the issue after receiving complaints from resident in Holland’s neighborhood.

The new ordinance also labels storing any boat more than 34 feet long in a residential area as a public nuisance.

“We’re all for renovating the boat, but it needs to be done in a shipyard,” said Mike Lugo, who lives behind Holland.

The Shawnee towers over Lugo’s backyard, an unwelcome guest when he is entertaining guests at his home, he said.

Holland’s neighbors also have complained to the city about the lead paint and other toxic materials they might be exposed to while the boat is being restored. Under the new ordinance, Holland has six months to move the vessel.

The fragile Shawnee would be destroyed if he is forced to move it, Holland said, because he is still in the process of restoring the old wooden hull.

Holland also said moving the boat would cost him at least $14,000, and storing it at a dry-dock facility would cost at least $25,000 more.

The shipbuilder is also battling prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones in several places.

He hopes to keep working on the boat as long as his health will allow.

He claims the stress from the conflict with his neighbors over the boat has made it hard for him to continue his work.

“We’re all concerned about his health,” said Bob Thagard, one of Holland’s neighbors. “But his health is not the issue.”