Happy Labor Day! This long weekend, we’ve been appreciating all the forms of workmanship and technical trades that keep our lives operating. From the builder who fixes our home, to the plumber who unclogs our drains, to the technician who ensures we have internet — we celebrate them all. But the laborers we appreciate most are the ones who keep our boats sailing.

Whether they’re running the cranes for haulouts, painting the bottoms, rewiring our electric circuits, or conducting any of a myriad repairs and maintenance that need doing, we are grateful for their knowledge and skills (which clearly surpass our own). And let’s not forget those who create the boats we get to enjoy — the naval architects who draw up the designs, the boatbuilders who construct the framing and hulls, the riggers, the electricians, the craftspeople who fit out the interiors, those who install the deck hardware, the sailmakers, even those dedicated souls who take care of the timbers with new varnish and those who make the brightwork shine.

We’re pretty sure we haven’t covered everyone here; if we didn’t mention your particular area of expertise, we’re sorry. Please know we appreciate you, too!

While we’re making lists, there are some other groups we’d like to mention — the people who have made it their mission to help keep the maritime trades alive and growing into the future.

In this month’s issue of Latitude 38, we share the story of the students in Redwood High School’s Woods and Maritime Trades program. Shop teacher James Bender has been working with students who choose this class for many years, and the results have been fantastic. This year the group built an Alaska 18 beach cruiser. The project started as a stack of plans and over the school year, students shaped and fitted the keel, strip-planked the hull, built interior structures and seats, shaped oars, faired the hull, prepared surfaces for fiberglass, and learned how to work safely with woodworking tools and marine materials. There’s a growing interest in the trades in the epicenter of the AI revolution. 

The Alaska 18 project is also closely connected to Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation’s Maritime Trades After School Program aboard the historic Ocean Queen V. Through the after-school program, students are introduced to the larger maritime world around San Francisco Bay and gain exposure to trades connected to the waterfront, including boatbuilding, fabrication, marine systems, woodworking and vessel maintenance. The Alaska 18 joins many other boats launched from Redwood City since the first schooner was built there in 1851. You can read more about the students’ maritime work at Redwood High in this month’s Sightings.

In a similar realm, Rocking the Boat San Francisco at India Basin Waterfront Park in San Francisco has been engaging youths aged 14 to 18 in boat building projects. In June 2025, we wrote about the launch of the students’ newly restored 14-ft Whitehall rowboat Neptune. Last month, the group of 17 youths launched another vessel, a 16-ft wooden rowboat named Paradise. The biggest difference between the boats is that the students built Paradise from scratch using plans based on the Whitehall Alderbrook, built in a nearby boatyard in 1906. They built every part of the boat from the hull to the oars, and painted the bright yellow and red hull and the decorative design on the transom. While Rocking the Boat’s mission is to help participants develop pride, purpose and possibility by learning the unique and lifelong skills behind building and rowing wooden boats, and sailing, the skills they’re learning open opportunities for the students to find careers in the maritime trades. A plus for everyone. You can read more about Rocking the Boat and the launch of Paradise here.

On a somewhat bigger scale, two Bay Area locations are working hard to contribute to the future of the Bay Area’s maritime industry. Spaulding Marine Center and the Working Waterfront Coalition. The Working Waterfront Coalition (WWC) has created a maritime trade school on Mare Island, Vallejo (next door to Cal Poly Maritime), with the first class of students having graduated in 2024, the WWC is contributing to the local industry by recruiting and training new tradespeople for maritime careers. The programs aims are to reduce the shortage of skilled tradespeople necessary for work on recreational sailboats. They also hope to find people who grew up sailing, who’d like to roll up their sleeves and find careers in the marine trades. The school offers tracks for both shipyard work and transportation jobs such as onboard deckhands, mates and ship’s officers. The school is training students for roles in plumbing, electrical, painting, and welding, and as deckhands, mates and other transportation service workers.

Spaulding Marine Center’s Boatworks 101™ is a 12-month, paid apprenticeship at Spaulding Marine Center in Sausalito’s Marinship that introduces young adults, 18 years and older, to the marine trades through hands-on training and an ABYC-registered curriculum. The program provides broad exposure to boat maintenance and repair skills, followed by an industry placement, preparing graduates for entry-level careers in the marine industry. The program was established in 2021 and has now graduated more than 30 boat service technicians, all of whom have entered the marine industry workforce — most remaining in the Bay Area. Graduates have pursued careers in diesel engine service, shipwright work, marine electrical systems, outboard mechanics, varnishing, rigging, and other marine trades. Boatworks 101™ partners with organizations dedicated to workforce development and offers paid, practical training to meet the growing demand for skilled marine technicians. Read more about the Boatworks 101™ program here.

These ventures show that we are turning a corner, with renewed interest and growth in supporting a thriving Bay Area maritime industry. And to this end, we as sailors are the beneficiaries of the commitment and dedication of these folks who could see a need, and have taken steps to ensure its fulfillment. We thank them all: the organizers, the teachers, the students and the current and past maritime trades labor force. To try to keep up with it, we collect our trade stories on our Working Waterfront page. We hope you all had an outstanding weekend!