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50 Years: The Department of Boating and Waterways, 1957 to 2007
P R OV I D I NG F UND S TO I M P R OV E
T HE B OA T I NG E X P E R I E NC E
Cal Boating’s Small Craft Harbor Loan Program underwrites two
types of loans for marinas that cater to recreational craft. Some loans
are made to public entities that want to make a wide variety of harbor
or infrastructure improvements such as breakwater construction and
berthing facilities, while others go to privately owned, public marinas
to fund construction. Cal Boating’s very first small craft harbor loan
was provided to Los Angeles County for the development of Marina
Del Rey in 1957. Fifty years later, the county is finishing another
project with a Cal Boating loan to make sea wall improvements to
protect the marina.
Cal Boating planning supervisors travel the state checking out
potential candidate sites for the agency’s loan and grant programs. The
Boat Launching Facility Grant Program provides grant funds to public
agencies for the construction of launch ramps, car-trailer parking,
boarding docks, landscaping, lighting, and support items.
Spring is the busiest inspection time, as Cal Boating representatives
visit lake sites in the mountains and locations up and down the
California coast, talking to people who want to apply for funds.
Department staff evaluate project feasibility and – if things look
2000
Cal Boating sponsors
legislation with state
Assemblymember Marilyn
Brewer to increase the
minimum age for wearing
a life jacket to under 12
years of age.
2002
Cal Boating launches highly
popular traveling AquaSMART
LIVE puppet show hosted
by Splasher the Frog, the
AquaSMART series mascot.
AquaSMART LIVE, which
now serves 80 schools
each year, received
the 2003 National Safe
Boating Council’s Western
Region Boating Education
Advancement Award.