You guys are a bit older than me, (there are fewer people I can say that about every year) and I spent my most of my puppyhood a bit north in Long Beach. I didn't really spend a lot of time in Newport until college, when I had a car. Costa Mesa/Newport was the boat building capitol of the world - at least with plastic. SoCal was still wood boat friendly, but that's mostly gone now. One Newport phenom that I do remember from back when I was just a grommet was the flight of the Snowbirds. It was before I had the slightest clue about sailing. All those sails...it was...organized confusion. The typical, light Newport breeze was just strong enough to get the boats moving. They were bobbing and weaving, and headed everywhichdirection; but they didn't seem to be hitting each other nearly as often as I guessed they should have been. I actually flew once myself. By the time I got around to it, the flock was greatly reduced in size. I think they finally went extinct. I really hate to see traditions like that disappear, but to be honest, I didn't really like the boats.