Working Waterfront

In their own words

Burke Beardsley

Vallejo Ferry Captain / Bay Adventures

Not to date myself, but back when I was growing up in Tiburon as a young boy there were cows on the other side of the backyard fence and the train was still running to the train pier downtown. That’s how Tiburon got its start – it was an old train town. My Dad was an avid sailor and got my brother and me into sailing at a young age. Sailing and boating adventures out on the Bay and Pacific Ocean really excited and challenged me. I think I’ve got it in my blood. My great grandfather was a ship’s captain. My brother, on the other hand pursued a more mainstream route, we’re both entrepreneurs. I joined the Sausalito Sea Scouts while in high school and after that I joined the Coast Guard. My main duties were rescues at sea aboard a Coast Guard cutter. It was very exciting and quite challenging. We were always out at sea in the worst possible conditions. That’s where I received my formal training in the maritime industry. I was in for five years.

Back then veterans received the GI bill, which paid for college, so that’s where I went. I was never really drawn to traditional career paths, but I was passionate about working on or around the water and decided to follow that passion. I was an avid scuba diver from an early age, so I decided to get my scuba diving instructor’s license and landed a job in the Caribbean. I taught scuba diving and with the maritime experience I had acquired, I decided to sit for my captain’s license. I started running dive boats for one of the local diving operations and for National Geographic dive expeditions and other organizations. I spent a few years running large yachts down there and did some traveling. I came back to the bay area and decided I really wanted to get into the maritime industry on the San Francisco Bay.

I started with Hornblower back in the early 80’s as a first officer and worked my way into a captain’s position. I was also the training officer. At 25 I was the youngest captain they ever had at the time. I stayed with them for about three years. I had always wanted to work for one of the big companies on the bay, which at that time were Crowley Maritime’s Red and White Fleet and Golden Gate ferries. I got a job with Red and White, started running all their boats and training in other areas. When Blue and Gold acquired Red and White, I made that switch. I guess between the two companies, I’ve been working on the Bay for close to 17 or 18 years, and I’ve been in the industry for about 25 years counting the Coast Guard. I am also a ferry advocate. I have been involved with these high-speed ferries for a long time. I don’t know if they are necessarily the solution to our traffic problems, but they are certainly a big part of it as long as we keep things in perspective.

I usually pilot the high speed Vallejo ferries for the Blue and Gold Fleet two or three days a week and run my own business the rest of the time. I am very fortunate that the management at Blue and Gold Fleet is very understanding of my entrepreneurial spirit.

My company, Bay Adventures, provides boat rentals, yacht charters, special events, sporting events, film services, photo services, and large group charters. One of our specialties is putting together multiple boat functions. For example on Opening Day of yachting season, one of my clients is having a breakfast party at the China House in Tiborun, a historic landmark. From there, they will be shuttled to downtown Tiburon where they’ll hop on an Angel Island ferry. That ferry will take them over to Sausalito where they will board a sailing ship decked out with patriotic decorations. They’re going to enter the “PICYA” Parade (Pacific Inter-Coastal Yachting Association). They’ll sail for two or three hours, then sail back to Sausalito- to Schoonmaker Point Marina where my business is located. We have a fleet of Boston Whalers in various sizes (17-25 feet) and some rigid hull inflatables. We’ll shuttle the guests from Schoonmaker Point Marina to my client’s house on the western side of Belvedere Island where it is quite shallow and only accessible by small boats. We give them a little thrill ride along the way and they love it.

We also provide safety boats for just about all the major triathlons, swims and sporting events that happen on the bay. Our captains are highly skilled in rescues and close quarters situations. The “escape from Alcatraz” Triathlon is the biggest triathlon on San Francisco Bay. They start with a swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. We provide boats for all the film crews. We send four or five boats out and we get very close to the swimmers for those tight shots. Each boat has one or two cameramen in it, usually from ESPN or TWI (Trans World International). The swimmers wear different colored swim caps, so we kind of “zero in” on the people they’ve interviewed before the swim and follow them as they do voiceovers for the special interest stories.

I also provide boats for the St. Francis Yacht Club, Pier 39 and some of the other local Yacht clubs for their big regattas. We provide boats for the race judges and refs, and also coach boats. A few years ago they had the Olympic trials on San Francisco Bay for the “Star” and “Finn” sailing competition. We had people from all over the world calling us because they needed a boat for their coaches so they could practice before the trials came up.
We also provide boats for a wide range of film projects. We have worked with Warren Miller productions, Lorimar productions, Warner Bros., ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and just about all of the local news stations. We also provided a boat for a Master Card commercial where these two guys cruised over to Pac Bell park. You know the “priceless” ads they’ve been running. It aired during the World Series. We also work with non-profits and take at risk kids and teens out to discover the Bay and all its wonders. Outervention is one of the organizations we work with.
After the (September 11th) attacks, business just went down the tubes for everybody. I had a lot of business on the books, too. Fleet Week was completely booked, I had all these regattas happening and everything else I count on towards the end of the year before going into winter. Everything cancelled, so I had to redirect my energy.

We focused on our web presence over the winter, www.sfbayadventures.com, and redesigned the look and feel and added the new boats we have acquired. It has been very fruitful. We get clients from all over the world as a result of the site that my businesses partner Sandra Cannon, developed. She is an expert at driving business to web sites. This year we are starting out strong. I am expanding into larger charters and larger yachts. We own 8 small boats, and we handle three sailing yachts up to 70 feet that can hold up to 49 passengers, and three motor yachts that can accommodate 6-12 passengers. We can also provided boats for larger groups by special arrangement. This winter we decided to upgrade the boats. We installed four stroke low emission outboards on just about the entire fleet. The four stroke engines are a lot more fuel-efficient and a lot cleaner burning. I am sympathetic to the environmental community’s concerns about pollution generated by boats.

I have known most of the captains that work for me for many years. They work for various companies on the bay, running the big boats. The little boats are a blast. After they drop off their passengers, they ask, “Hey can I go out for a little thrill ride?” Or their girlfriend or wife will meet them and they’ll go over to Sams’ in Tiburon. It’s one of the perks. It’s such a different animal. When you’re working on these big vessels, you feel kind of detached from the water. When you are on the little boats you’re right there, you can reach out and grab it. Sometimes I commute to work at Blue & Gold Fleet in one of my boats. It takes twelve minutes to make the crossing from Sausalito to Pier 39. It makes commuting stress-free, and actually kind of an adventure.