Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
It seems that Saturday afternoon between 1pm and 6pm, the MegaYacht called Invictus moored up next to the Lido Isle bridge.
The yacht is owned by Rick Caruso, builder of “The Grove”, and carries over 50,000 gallons of fuel, powered by twin Caterpillar 3516 main engines. This gives the beast a 5,000 nautical mile range at 12knots (14mph). The five-story yacht measures an eye-popping 215ft long with a 43ft beam can sleep up to 12 guests with a whopping 19 person staff. I was unable to locate the total square footage of this beauty or the total cost of the boat. I reached out to Harbor Commissioner Chris Miller to determine how long the boat has a pass for in our harbor, and Miller informed me that the boat has 17 days spread over a number of weekends in 2-to-4-day-increments per weekend, lasting until the end of September.
While the East Coast has plenty of large sheltered harbors, Newport Beach is the largest non-commercial protected harbor on the West Coast. That means that our little beach town is essentially the regulator of all pleasureboat sizes on the West Coast, and– aside from special exceptions like this– we’ve got a cap of about 140ft.
The special permit for the Invictus is contentious with Lido Isle residents. Some like the boat and would like to see it here more often. Others are upset that it blocks the view which they paid a premium house price for, and they are concerned that it will lead to other large view-blocking yachts to join in. Yachts of this size are also known for their parties, which Lido Isle is especially sensitive to.
What do you think? Should we encourage more of these types of beautiful yachts in Newport Harbor? Or is this conflicting with our traditional harbor usage?
