It’s Read Across America Week — and the Port of Long Beach is doing its part.
The port debuted the book, “Soleil the Sea Lion Explores the Green Port,” this week, distributing copies to elementary and K–8 campuses throughout the Long Beach Unified School District.
As water people, we know the Port of Long Beach is one nation’s busiest seaports, handling more than $300 billion in annual trade. This week, port officials introduced Long Beach students to Soleil, a fictional sea lion inspired by the environmental changes happening in San Pedro Bay.
Lowell Elementary School in Long Beach hosted a Read Across America Week event on Monday, March 2, during which columnist Jo Murray introduced students to the Port of Long Beach’s new book, “Soleil the Sea Lion Explores the Green Port.” (Photo by Jo Murray, Grunion Gazette/SCNG)
Lowell Elementary School in Long Beach hosted a Read Across America Week event on Monday, March 2, during which columnist Jo Murray introduced students to the Port of Long Beach’s new book, “Soleil the Sea Lion Explores the Green Port.” (Photo by Jo Murray, Grunion Gazette/SCNG)
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Lowell Elementary School in Long Beach hosted a Read Across America Week event on Monday, March 2, during which columnist Jo Murray introduced students to the Port of Long Beach’s new book, “Soleil the Sea Lion Explores the Green Port.” (Photo by Jo Murray, Grunion Gazette/SCNG)
On Monday morning, March 2, Third District Councilmember Kristina Duggan visited Cynthia Finley’s transitional kindergarten class at Lowell Elementary to read some of her childhood favorites, with third and fifth graders joining as “reading buddies.”
During the event, I shared details about the Port’s new book, which was written by media relations manager Art Marroquin and illustrated by local artist Michelle Dinh. The story highlights the successes of our “Green Port,” noting that even as cargo traffic has increased by 44%, there has been a 60% increase in marine species since 2000.
“The goal is to help young residents understand better how changes at the port affect the coastline and air quality in their own community,” according to a press release from the port.
TPM
This has been a busy week at the port with the Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference, the annual gathering for the global container shipping and supply-chain industry, taking place in Long Beach. It’s hosted by the Journal of Commerce and held at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center.
TPM is widely considered the most important conference in international container shipping — often described as the “Super Bowl” of ocean freight.
One of the fun highlights of the conference is a one-day sailing regatta viewing for The TPM Challenge Cup. The boats start at Pine Avenue Pier and race in Long Beach Harbor during the TPM conference. It’s a structured, competitive event designed for networking, team-building and a bit of bragging rights. smithREgroup organized and ran the Sixth Annual TPM Challenge Cup Corporate Event off of downtown Long Beach, with shoreside activities hosted by Gladstones Long Beach
The regatta is raced using the Catalina 37 fleet — the same one used in the Congressional Cup — and officiated by the Los Angeles Yacht Club. It serves as a great warm up for their race committee team, who will be busy with the college teams racing in Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup from Friday to Sunday, March 6-8.
Boats carry two coaches — this year, Long Beach Yacht Club Commodore Bob Piercy was one of them — so not all participants need sailing experience. The winner receives the historic Morrow Cup.
S&P Global ties the regatta to environmental initiatives, including donations to Grades of Green.
Manning Regatta
The Manning Regatta, started in 1935, was hosted by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and included more than 100 dinghies. Los Angeles YC Flag Officer E.E “Ned” Manning and his wife, Kathleen, were well-known Southern California socialites in the 1920s and 1930s, when he envisioned a “Great Gatsby”-esque regatta using the tenders that were carried on the decks and in the davits of large racing yachts. The regatta Manning conceived was named in his honor when he died in 1938 after having a heart attack doing what he loved most — racing yachts.
The Southern California Yachting Association’s Manning Regatta is only open to non-keelboats, either mono-hulls or multi-hulls, 20 feet in length or smaller. This trophy is the oldest award in Southern California for un-decked dinghies, often defined as those boats vulnerable to swamping.
Young sailors compete in Alamitos Bay Yacht Club’s 2026 Manning Regatta, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 28-March 1. (Courtesy photo by David Murray)
Young sailors compete in Alamitos Bay Yacht Club’s 2026 Manning Regatta, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 28-March 1. (Courtesy photo by David Murray)
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Young sailors compete in Alamitos Bay Yacht Club’s 2026 Manning Regatta, which took place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 28-March 1. (Courtesy photo by David Murray)
The Shadden series is for teenagers under 19 and not yet in college, and was also a move-up regatta under the advancement guidelines of the International Naples Sabot Association.
The junior sailing program at Oceanside Yacht Club is coached by Timothy Zimmerman and for such a small club, it has been seeing amazing results. Oceanside’s juniors brought home some major hardware from the Manning Regatta.
In the RS Tera Gold/Silver Division, Oceanside YC’s Huxley Leader finished first, narrowly edging out Newport Sea Base’s Paris Zhuang and ABYC’s Brooke Swezea, who came in second and third, respectively.
In the CFJ Fleet, Alex Fisher and Tiago Chapman delivered a triple crown. They won individual trophies for their CFJ fleet performance, the ABYC Manning Perpetual for winning the regatta’s largest fleet, and The SCYYRA Shadden Perpetual for winning the Shadden Series (a set of four CFJ regattas held over the past 6 months).
Alex and Tiago’s Shadden Series performance has been nothing short of spectacular. They won 16 of 18 individual races, and after discarding their three worst scores (a four, a two and a one) were left with a net score of just 15 points. That’s easily the best series score on record.
The Shadden Series is named for John Shadden, one of Long Beach’s premier sailors whose youth career included an Olympic bronze medal performance at South Korea in 1988, with Charlie McKee as crew. The driving purpose of the regatta is to promote youth sailing as part of the Southern California Youth Yacht Racing Association program. The namesake Manning Trophy is awarded to the winner of the class with the most competitors.