Despite a gloomy marine layer, the owners of the Dragonfly, a 26-foot sailboat, were all smiles and sunny dispositions as their boat passed its first inspection as part of the requirement of getting a slip at Dana Point Harbor’s newly installed boat docks.
The French-made, cherrywood boat is among 260 vessels that will move into the harbor’s first five completed docks in the next two weeks.
The docks – between Baby Beach and the Island Way Bridge – are the first of 16 phases to the renovations that will create a new 2,254-slip marina. The $115 million project is expected to take five years.
It’s been 48 years since there was a new dock in the harbor.
“We’re really excited and thrilled to be moved into the new docks,” said Lori Shelton, who with her husband, Shane Dandy, brought the Dragonfly in for inspection on Tuesday, April 11. “I love the design, the architecture and the finely-chiseled docks.”
“Instead of square ends, they’re rounded, so we can move the boat in gently,” Dandy added.
The inspection – which included checking to make sure the boat was not leaking too much electricity into the water and an overview of its seaworthiness – didn’t take long and the Dragonfly passed with flying colors, making its owners proud. In a few days, it will get another review from the U.S. Coast Guard. This is the couple’s fifth boat and their 18th year in the Dana Point Harbor.
The new docks are the first project completed in a massive $500 million overhaul to the harbor by the developer group Dana Point Harbor Partners. In 2018, the group won a 66-year lease from the County of Orange and in return the partners are making the improvements in both the marina and on land.
Joe Ueberroth, of Bellwether Financial Group, is handling the marina project; Bryon Ward, president of Burnham Ward Properties, is heading up the development of the harbor’s commercial core; and Bob Olson, of R.D. Olson, will build two hotels once entitlements from…
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