Angel Island Will Get New Docks, But Not Until Next Year

The best-case scenario to repair or replace the broken docks in Ayala Cove and bring new docks to Angel Island, according to the park manager, would have construction beginning in June 2025 for a six-month project.

“Currently, half of the docks in Ayala Cove are closed,” Gerald O’Reilly, the manager for Angel Island and superintendent for California State Parks, told us in a video interview last week. The docks were last replaced in 2002, but many of the pilings date back to the 1980s.

“Two more pilings broke during a storm back in January. But the mooring fields are open,” O’Reilly said, adding that weekends at Angel Island remain busy even as the docks have deteriorated and been shuttered. We also discussed dredging and the unique challenges of running Angel Island State Park (AISP), and spoke with Angel Island Conservancy, a nonprofit that supports the park through fundraising, among other things, about their efforts to raise funds for projects.

“We ask that people be patient,” O’Reilly told us. “My staff doesn’t control the purse strings. We’re doing the best we can. We want to open the docks — we enjoy boaters coming into the docks. At other parks, you bring your RV. Angel Island is for boaters, and it’s a great way for people to enjoy the weekend and the park.”

That “best-case” scenario that O’Reilly mentioned involves getting though a lengthy permitting process to approve construction on new docks. (The worst-case scenario is that the project will begin much later than June 2025 — but it does appear that the repairs will happen at some point.) Numerous state and federal agencies must give their OK, including the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the Army Corps of Engineers, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Regional Water Quality Control Board. “These are all the hoops we have to jump through,” said O’Reilly.

As part of the requirements for building new docks, AISP had a bathymetric survey done in 2022 for the entire cove, core drilling the cove’s floor in fall 2023, and a recent biological survey.

“It all comes down to money,” said O’Reilly. “It’s an expensive park to run.” As a state entity, AISP is legally required to pay a premium when hiring contractors, as well as prevailing wages for all workers involved in projects. AISP has also requested a $1.5 million Tier II grant from the Division of Boating and Waterways, O’Reilly told us. “We’re really hoping for the grant — that’s going to be huge.”

There is no “schedule” nor a budget for planned obsolescence of AISP’s marina infrastructure, according to O’Reilly. “The park receives about $100,000 for maintenance each year, which is for the entire park,” he said. “The dock replacement funding is coming from a statewide deferred-maintenance funding budget. Large projects like the dock replacement compete for funding statewide with other projects at other parks.”

Ayala Cove was last dredged in 1972. There are no plans to dredge it at this time, but O’Reilly admitted that, “Yes, the cove is silting in — mainly in the very center of the cove.”

For years, we’ve heard from our readers that depths in parts of Ayala Cove can be an issue. O’Reilly says that those who know the mooring field know what areas to avoid on what tides. We spoke with Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing yesterday, and they told us that their Santa Cruz 50 Bay Wolf, which has an eight-ft draft, can motor up to the docks “most of the time,” meaning on most tides; their Gulfstar 50 Osprey, which has a six-ft draft, can access the docks on any tide.

There seems to be a consensus that, given the tidal action in the Bay, there’s a natural whirlpool outside Ayala Cove that deposits sediment into the center of the cove. “It’s the dynamic of the ebb current that runs through the cove that deposits silt toward the center,” a reader commented a few months ago. “During a large ebb current moving through Raccoon Strait, Point Ione [off Tiburon] catches a large stream of that current, directs it into the cove, and sets up a swift counterclockwise flow along the outside shore of Ayala Cove. This swift current keeps the edges of the mooring field deeper, but the slower-moving water toward the center allows the silt to settle out there.”

O’Reilly said there was potentially a bureaucratic bright spot if dredging is green-lighted: “All the surveys done for the docks could be applied to dredging. It could help streamline the process.”

Max Haning, the president of Angel Island Conservancy, sat in on the video call with Latitude and Gerald O’Reilly last week. “There’s definitely been some talk in the yachting community to help cover the cost of that dredge,” Haning said. “With the surveys and environmental impact studies already done for the docks, our hope is to move quickly with a fundraiser that could support dredging — the idea was an Angel Island Regatta fundraiser that could help push the needle,” Haning told us.

“However, dredging is very expensive, and we do not expect the state to have any additional budget to add to our efforts at this time.”