Many residences provide views of San Francisco Bay. Homes up in the Berkeley Hills or on Twin Peaks and Mt. Sutro are perfect examples of this, and there are shore-side homes that come with great Bay views as well. Lying under the radar, though, there are also some lesser-known communities nestled on the Bay’s shores.
Floating homes, like these in Sausalito, cannot move under their own power and need assistance if they need to move to a new location. They occupy a permanent berth, comply with all applicable codes, and are hooked up to all utilities. Photo by Larry Burgess
By Captian Ray
Published: October, 2011
Many residences provide views of San Francisco Bay. Homes up in the Berkeley Hills or on Twin Peaks and Mt. Sutro are perfect examples of this, and there are shore-side homes that come with great Bay views as well. Lying under the radar, though, there are also some lesser-known communities nestled on the Bay’s shores.
On the south shore of Corte Madera Creek, just as it enters San Francisco Bay, there is a distinctive community called the Greenbrae Boardwalk. A long, narrow boardwalk leads out onto the mudflats to a wonderful collection of homes. Some are very new, others obviously quite weathered, some are converted watercraft, others with origins difficult to discern. But each is one-of-a-kind, reflecting the soul of its owner or—in some cases, I suspect—many owners. While the homes receive water, power, and sewer services like any other residence and are directly across from the Larkspur ferry landing, there is an aura of remoteness, even wildness about the location.
Scattered about in several locations around the Bay there is a type of residence called a floating home. Floating homes are distinguished from houseboats in that they do not have engines: they cannot move under their own power and need assistance if they need to move to a new location. They occupy a permanent berth, comply with all applicable codes, and are hooked up to all utilities. (A houseboat, on the other hand, is capable of self propulsion because it has an engine or perhaps two, and uses tanks for its water supply and to contain its sewerage.) There are four floating home locations that I am aware of here in San Francisco Bay.
Perhaps the most famous floating homes are in Sausalito. There is even a guided walking tour available of this area. The earliest of these (called "arks") appeared in the late 1800s as summer or getaway houses for well-to-do San Franciscans. Many of these became permanent residences immediately after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Some of these were later pulled ashore or hauled up on pilings for more convenient access and are still easily visible near Napa Street.
Just a short walk south of Napa Street you will find the most famous of Sausalito’s floating homes, the Taj Mahal. This lacey white dreamboat is moored out at the end of the pier at Johnson Street. About one mile north of Napa Street up the Bridgeway, there is a much larger collection of floating homes centered around Liberty and Issaquah Docks.
On the east side of the bay, there are three collections of these distinctive living arrangements. The Berkeley Marina contains about a dozen of these interesting structures, ranging from a cute cottage-like design to three-story townhouses. They are easily visible from the parking lot on the east side of the marina.
Down in the Oakland estuary, across from Jack London Square, the Barnhill Marina in Alameda holds another 50 or so homes. The well-landscaped public shoreline path provides a very good view of the homes facing inshore, but those on the waterside can only be seen from across the estuary or from a boat.
I know of one other place with floating homes—three and a half miles off the freeway, at the end of a pothole filled road. Privacy is valued there so I am not going to name the location. It is remarkably rural and very isolated for being so close to a freeway. I saw deer and a coyote as I drove the road. Cresting the last hill, nestled amongst a variety of sail and motor craft, I could see another small collection of these intriguing living arrangements.
Ray Wichmann, is a US SAILING-certified Ocean Passagemaking Instructor, a US SAILING Instructor Trainer, and a member of US SAILING’s National Faculty. He holds a 100-Ton Master’s License, was a charter skipper in Hawai’i for 15 years, and has sailed on both coasts of the United States, in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Greece. He is presently employed as the Master Instructor at OCSC Sailing in the Berkeley Marina.
