Galilee Harbor Celebrates 30 Years

The story of Sausalito’s Galilee Harbor should be inspirational to anyone who thinks ‘you can’t fight City Hall’. In 1980, after the city tore down the rundown WWII-era boatyard that occupied that piece of prime waterfront real estate, some former boatyard workers and others who were living along the Napa St. Pier decided to mount an effort to preserve their waterside lifestyle.

Last Saturday, three decades later, some of the same folks – and many newcomers – were on hand to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Galilee Community Association at its Maritime Days festival. The Association now owns the much-upgraded property, and will soon impliment Phase Two: construction of a wooden boatbuilding shop where tenant shipwrights can practice their craft.

In addition to listening to the wide range of local musicians who entertained throughout the day, visitors perused flea market stalls, learned about traditional lofting techniques from Arques School maestro Bob Darr, toured houseboats and the Chinese junk replica Grace Quan, took free boat rides aboard the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center’s historic sloop Polaris, and sampled homemade pies. But the visual highlight was undoubtedly the dinghy races, where determined helmsmen braved 30-knot gusts to run a buoy course within sight of the festival. 

Look for more on Galilee’s unique maritime community in next month’s edition of Latitude 38.