A much-needed lift

June Casagrande

Big boat owners take heart: The biggest travelift in Newport Harbor

is being built at the Newport Harbor Shipyard.

Until now, owners of boats larger than 140,000 pounds have had to

sail on down to San Diego whenever they wanted some shipyard

servicing. But now, boats up to 190,000 pounds and 100 feet long need

look no farther than the Lido Peninsula.

“We’ve been in business since 1983, and in that time, a majority

of our customers have gotten bigger and bigger boats,” said Jesse

Salem, owner of the Newport Harbor Shipyard. “This allows us to lift

the bigger boats.”

About 80% of the company’s business is private yachts. The rest is

commercial and fishing boats. Most come in for annual maintenance and

repairs -- painting, cleaning, hull work -- the works.

In the course of doing this job, Salem said, you get to see a lot

of really impressive vessels with some really impressive owners. Many

of the firm’s clients are well-known figures from entertainment and

business, Salem said.

And with the company’s new capacity to lift larger yachts, luxury

service at the shipyard will soon get better, he said. Though the

lift is not expected to be in operation until next week, the shipyard

already has appointments with three or four large yachts whose owners

learned by word of mouth that they wouldn’t have to make their San

Diego pilgrimage anymore.