Vallejo Yacht Club starts work on $2 million sea wall

Vallejo Yacht Club starts work on $2 million sea wall
By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen/Times-Herald staff writer
Posted: 03/16/2009

The first major renovation along the Vallejo waterfront in nearly two decades began last week, as the initial parts of a new sea wall were placed.

It took Vallejo Yacht Club members about 20 years to raise the nearly $2 million the project will cost, as well as to finish all the studies and obtain the necessary permits, said longtime club member Tom Ochs. He said though, that a serious effort has only been under way for about five years.

"The old wall is dilapidated," he said. "It was built around 1957, and we've tried to fix it, but it's coming apart."

The original wooden sea wall was installed to create a sheltered cove, to help slow the intrusion of silt into the marina and reduce the impact of waves and wakes, yacht club members said.

"Dredging is really expensive. The last partial dredging we did cost $350,000," Ochs said. "And without the sea wall, the boats would be bouncing all over each other and the slips would break apart."

Evidence of what happens when there's no sea wall can be found at the old city marina, which has become impassible because of silt buildup, said Chris Mendonca, the club's vice commodore .

The new sea wall, which will be made of interconnecting steel sheets, will add about 20 percent to the marina and alter its footprint, Mendonca said.

The work is being done by Mare Island's Cooper Crane using a vibration method, as opposed to hammering the 40- to 50-foot-long steel sheets into place, Mendonca said. This is less disruptive to the area's sea life, he said. Most of the project's steel was bought two years ago just as prices started rising, thus saving a lot money, Mendonca said.

"This is the first waterfront improvement since 1992, and it's all privately funded," he said.

The Vallejo Yacht Club was founded in 1900 and has been in its present location since 1965. The wall helps ensure the club's survival, members said.

"Without it, the harbor would eventually disappear and the area become a marsh," Ochs said. "The city would lose an important asset."

The club and the city would also lose the two-day Great Vallejo Race, the traditional opening of the Bay Area yachting season, which brings nearly 2,000 sailing enthusiasts to the city each year.

"In its biggest year, it brought 660 boats here, but the larger boats couldn't get in any more because of the silt, so they eventually stopped coming," Ochs said.

"But since the dredging in December, they can, and we're trying to get the word out that the big boats can come back," Mendonca said. "We expect they'll start coming back, which will mean more funds for us, more prestige and spillover to hotels, restaurants and other businesses."