A Working Waterfront: The Boatyard

A Working Waterfront: The Boatyard. . , With all the busy retail shops along the Embarcadero south of Harbor Street, it might be hard to imagine that this place was a productive working waterfront not long ago. Within living memory of many Morro Bay residents, the "Boatyard" was a marine service business where boats were lifted into dry dock for repair and maintenance., After World War II, the waterfront was home base for people who made their livelihoods from the sea, and for the businesses that supported them. The Embarcadero, built by the U.S. Navy in 1942-1943, and used as an Amphibious Training Base during the war, provided a perfect platform for services needed to support a commercial fishing fleet., After the war, docks were built to allow fishing boats to tie up sideways to make the transition from land to boat and back again easier. There were many of these "landings", many of which served sport fishing boats, beginning with Virg's Landing in 1954, and including Graham's Landing, Rose's Landing, and Hart's Landing, among others. Often a landing consisted of a dock, a plant to process the catch, and a small restaurant on the front. , , With the growth of commercial fishing, especially from the 1950's forward, there was demand for marine services to support the boats. By the 1970's, there were businesses to provide supplies and tools, maintain electronics, offload and transport landings, supply ice for fish storage in holds, repair refrigeration, and help maintain boats. Morro Bay was a favored port for fishermen along the Central Coast. , Marine Ways, the old boatyard, was built on "bare land" about 1958 by John and Erma Norek. In 1972, Ralph and Shirley Gunther acquired the lease and continued to operate the boatyard, but it was never very profitable. In 1997, the Gunthers sold the lease to Kurt Steinmann (and later his son Josef). The Steinmanns intended to remodel and upgrade the property, but a fire broke out the night of February 13, 1999, and destroyed the boatyard and other buildings on the leasehold., The loss prompted the Steinmann family to rebuild, with new retail-oriented businesses opening in 2001. , The demise of the Marine Ways boatyard is a good marker for the evolution of the working waterfront south of Harbor Street. Commercial fishing landings were generally in decline around the year 2000, and marine service businesses declined in parallel. Economic activity along the bay shifted toward serving tourists. , (aside:), Explore the Hidden History of Morro Bay , The Hidden History Project tells stories of Morro Bay's past, often revealing truths that are right in front of our eyes if we only knew what to look for. , Discover additional interpretive panels with descriptive Hidden History stories of Morro Bay at various locations throughout the city. , Visit www.historicalmorrobay.org (the HSMB website) for more information about the boatyard.