JUNIOR LIFEGUARDS: Program brings more than 500 youngsters to local beaches. Page 9
JULY 4 WRAPUP: The coastline was relatively quiet over the Fourth of July weekend. Page 3 Thursday, July 8, 2010
www.beachandbaypress.com
Fun in the
sand 60,000 expected for Over-The-Line Tournament
“Charger Steve” Lordigan plans to bring the Wild Rides and Classic Car Showdown to Pacific Beach on Aug. 15. COURTESY PHOTO
Classic car show moves to PB
BY AMBERLY DRESSLER | BEACH & BAY PRESS The 57th annual Over-The-Line (OTL) Tournament will once again keep Fiesta Island true to its name when modified softball enthusiasts take a swing starting July 10-11 and concluding July 17-18. Nearly 60,000 spectators are expected to flock to Mission Bay for one of San Diego’s most popular summer traditions. The event, sponsored by the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC), mixes spirits, sport, entertainment and food while raising money for charities. OTL, created in Mission Beach, is comprised of four innings and no base running, with the objective of hitting the ball “over the line” roughly 55 feet in front of the batter. The douSEE OTL, Page 11
BY DEBBIE HATCH | BEACH & BAY PRESS
The 57th annual Over-The-Line Tournament — a mix of sports, social activity and party — kicks off at Fiesta CASEY DEAN | Beach & Bay Press Island this weekend, July 10-11, and concludes July 17-18.
Fiesta Island: Home to Over-The-Line Tournament The Over-The-Line Tournament moved a few times before settling on Fiesta Island. The Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) brings its 57th annual Over-The-Line Tournament back to Fiesta Island for one simple reason — it’s big enough. In its first two decades of existence, the tournament moved a few times due to size restrictions. Mariner’s Point was one such location, a locale that limited the event to 200 teams. “When we found Fiesta Island, it was a totally unused area,”
said OMBAC member Duke Marston. “There was brush and whatever. We sort of carved it out, it’s not real sand, it’s more dirt than anything else, but it works and we play 50 games at a time. And, so, we have enough space to do that.” More than 1,200 teams are expected this year. And like the previous three decades, Fiesta Island will play host, so San Diegans can play ball. Beach softball, that is — Amberly Dressler
The second annual Wild Rides and Classic Car Showdown will park itself in Pacific Beach this year on Aug. 15. Steve Lordigan, known to car enthusiasts as “Charger Steve,” organized the first Wild Rides Classic Car Showdown in Del Mar last year and wanted to hold it in Pacific Beach this year. “It will be a show of shows,” Lordigan said. He hopes to incorporate the best aspects of the other shows he coordinates, such as the Cajon Classic Cruise every Wednesday during summer and events for the East County Cruisers as well. Spectators can expect a pre-1980 selection of vehicles lining Garnet Avenue between Mission Boulevard and SEE CARS, Page 7
Tenth anniversary celebration planned for sunken naval ship BY RONAN GRAY | BEACH & BAY PRESS One dark night in July 2000, a 366-foot-long Canadian naval destroyer packed with explosives sat at anchor less than two miles west of the foot of Pacific Beach Drive. The deck was dark and there were no lights in the windows of the bridge. A small crew battled with an undersize pump below deck, struggling in vain to stem the flow of water that had begun to flood in through a hole in the hull near the waterline. The crew had radioed the Coast Guard for additional pumps, but none would arrive in time. Shortly after abandoning ship a little after midnight July 14, the last group of men to set foot on the HCMS Yukon watched as she floundered and disappeared beneath the dark waves to the muddy bottom 100 feet below, where she rests today. The fate of the Yukon — a Mackenzie-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later in the Canadian Forces — had, in fact, been set in motion many years before. She was destined to be sunk in this very spot — just not so unceremoniously and anonymously in the middle of the night.
FLOATOPIA: Could the end be near for floating alcohol parties after July 12 City Council meeting? Page 3
INTO THE DEEP A series of events are planned July 14-15 for the 10th anniversary of the intentional sinking of the Canadian naval destroyer HCMS Yukon. The scuttled ship was towed from San Diego Bay and sunk at Wreck Alley off the Mission Beach coastline to form an artificial reef to create new habitats for marine life and a world-class attraction for recreational SCUBA divers.
Her story begins with Dick Long, founder of San Diegobased Diving Unlimited International, a manufacturer of dry-suits for divers. Long had joined the nonprofit San Diego Oceans Foundation (SDOF) in the late ’90s after the group appealed to the local industrial and military community for help with their stewardship of the local ocean environment. At the time, the city of San Diego had set aside an area off the Mission Beach coastline as a park called Wreck SEE YUKON, Page 4
Diver Jay Schwartz, mooring coordinator for the wreck of the HMCS Yukon for the San Diego Oceans Foundation, swims past the anemone-covered bridge of the wreck just two miles off the coast of San Diego. The wreck is now an artificial reef for marine life habitat, and was prepared and sunk for recreational divers to enjoy. The 10th anniversary of the Yukon’s intentional sinking will be celebrated July 14-15. RONAN GRAY | Beach & Bay Press
Beach & Bay Press goes daily online
NEW
Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/beachbaypress
beachandbaypress.com
• Look for Beach & Bay Press on
Read more about it ... Page 6
View news updates at: