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A Word With... Janet Holstead
Janet Holstead, a West Coast boater since she was a child, decided to make a profession out of it when she grew up. Today she’s the marina administrator at the Bellport Lido Yacht Anchorage in Newport Beach, California, one of the largest marinas in the state. PMY recently talked to Holstead about the business side of marina life.

Q: First of all, do you have a favorite boat at the marina?
A: I have several! There’s a beautiful 100-foot Nordlund called the Safari. I also really like the Dulcinea; she’s a 94-foot Knight & Carver. We have so many good-looking boats, it’s hard to choose.

Q: What’s the most challenging part of your job?
A: Deciding which boats would fit best in which slips—it’s like solving a puzzle, only on top of that, you also have to time everything just right, so that you don’t have any vacancies.

Q: You must see a lot of unusual things—collisions, odd maintenance issues, strange boaters, etc. What comes to mind?
A: Well, I saw a seal jump into a boat once with someone [in it]. That was interesting. I haven’t seen any major collisions, fortunately. Of course, we have people who occasionally hit the dock. One time someone pulled up to the dock—a wood dock—while their boat was on fire. That was an adventure. We have to put out small fires from time to time.

Q: Do any celebrities keep their boats there?
A: Yes, some celebs do stay at our marina. Unfortunately I can’t give out names—I’m sure you understand. Generally they are very pleasant to work with. When we see them, they are out doing what they enjoy—spending time on the water.

Q: When is your job the most fun?
A: When we rent out slips the night before a big water-ski race or poker run. It’s always a great group of people that love to have fun. In general, though, everyone we deal with is in good spirits because they are out boating.

Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to be a marina administrator?
A: Go for it! It’s never boring.

POWER & MOTORVESSEL?
In the eyes of most U.S. schoolbook publishers, the name of this magazine is not only outdated, but also downright offensive.

They believe that the word yacht (along with other words, such as polo) is too elitist for schoolchildren and therefore should not appear in any written texts. In her new book The Language Police, Dianne Ravitch reveals how words like these are routinely banned from the nation’s educational lexicon due to a growing (some would say out-of-control) sensitivity to sexism, ageism, and elitism.

Ravitch, a former education official under President George H. W. Bush, argues that the push to delete all biases from language in textbooks has gone too far. As an example, she points out that every word of the title of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (except for “and” and “the”) has a sensitivity problem: “Old” is ageist, “Man” is sexist, and “Sea” is useless because landlocked students might not be able to grasp the concept of a large body of water.

Maybe they should just rename it The Y-Chromosomed Hexagenarian and the Expanse of Salt Water.

Newsclips
Expanding its boatbuilding operations even further below the Mason-Dixon Line, Hinckley Yachts acquired a Chesapeake Bay boatyard in May. The renowned builder, based in Southwest Harbor, Maine, obtained the Crockett Bros. Boatyard and renamed it Hinckley Yacht Services.

According to the company, the marina and boatyard in Oxford, Maryland, will help boost sales and improve service of its line of high-end jet boats.

Got an interesting boating story for this column? Write to FYI, Power & Motoryacht, 260 Madison Ave., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10016. Fax: (917) 256-2282. e-mail: eileen_mansfield@primediamags.com. No phone calls please.

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