Hope for the Embattled Gashouse Cove Fuel Dock in San Francisco

To most sailors and boaters who have spent years or decades on the Bay sailing, fishing, or taking friends out to discover the beauty of the Bay, the idea of pulling up to a fuel dock to top up the tanks is an afterthought. It’s like picking up sandwiches and drinks and making sure you have sunscreen. It’s no big deal. Or at least it shouldn’t be.

Today, finding a fuel dock on the Bay can be harder than finding an EV charging station a decade ago. The last remaining fuel dock in San Francisco has been threatened with removal in the midst of remediation and redevelopment plans by the San Francisco Rec and Park Department, which manages the marina. A recent letter being sent to the BCDC from the San Francisco Harbor Safety Committee is hoping to change that.

It would seem obvious to most people that a fuel dock is essential to maintaining people’s ability to go boating. This doesn’t just mean fishing or sailing. It includes police boats, fireboats, Coast Guard boats, bar pilots and every sort of commercial, safety, rescue, law-enforcement and recreational boat. The threatened existence of the Gashouse Cove fuel dock is caught up in much bigger machinations of waterfront management. As we wrote in 2024, there are plans to redesign both the West and East harbors. In addition, the San Francisco waterfront is in the midst of an enormous environmental remediation project, with PG&E paying to remove legacy toxic waste from the sediments.

According to Rec and Park, the remediation project would require the removal/relocation of the fuel dock, and the redesign of the project is aimed to bring the marina up to modern marina standards. Youth boating advocate and Captain Maggie Hallahan says, the term “modern marina standards” is an undefined phrase with no practical standard to provide clarity regarding what Rec and Park is planning. She is a CA Boating and Waterways commissioner and says there is a “California Layout And Design Guidelines For Boat Launching Facilities” published in 2021, but there is no reference to a channel needing to be 145 feet wide. In addition, Rec and Park has claimed that the fuel dock needs to be moved to accomplish the environmental remediation.

The letter being sent to BCDC from the Harbor Safety Committee makes clear the dock closure is not a regulatory necessity from the California Water Board. In fact, CWB staff report that the area around the fuel dock is not being dredged in the current SFRP plans. The maritime agencies that use the docks, the recreational community, and the public access provided for touch-and-go stops are all threatened by the proposed unnecessary closure. She also points to the 2021 California Layout and Design Guidelines for Boat Launching Facilities, which do not specify a requirement for a 145-foot channel width, as has been suggested in discussions about the project. In addition, Rec and Park claimed that the fuel dock needs to be moved to accomplish the environmental remediation. The letter being sent to the BCDC from the Harbor Safety Committee makes clear that the dock closure is not necessary, and the various agencies that use the docks, the recreational community and the public access provided for touch-and-go stops are all threatened by the proposed unnecessary closure.

To better understand the Bay in the Bay Area it would probably be helpful for more of the San Francisco Bay Rec and Park commissioners to spend more time in or on the Bay Area’s largest park — San Francisco Bay. Visiting the Rec and Park website, you can read their mission statement: “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s Mission is to provide enriching recreational activities, maintain beautiful parks and preserve the environment for the well-being of everyone in our diverse community.” This is followed by a list of parks that include soccer fields, tennis courts and pickleball courts, but the glaring omission is the Bay and waterfront that surround three sides of the city’s perimeter.

It appears hard for most Bay Area municipalities, whose city halls are all located far from their waterfronts and whose park departments have a better understanding of mowing grass than parting waves, to recognize and appreciate the value of their waterfronts for local citizens. This comment about our recent story of new docks in Sausalito from reader Mike McCue reflects what most boaters feel about local waterfronts: “If there’s anything we can do to help boaters dock in beautiful Sausalito, I’m all in. After 30 years of sailing here in the Bay, it’s mind-boggling how difficult it still is to dock in Sausalito.” This remains a regional problem and not just a Sausalito problem.

There are numerous technical and practical reasons to keep the Gashouse Cove fuel dock open. The letter from Frederick Scott Humphrey, Chairman, Harbor Safety Committee of the San Francisco Bay Region to the BCDC, is supported by its board members, a who’s who of the local maritime industry from commercial to law enforcement, and many more who provide the critical infrastructure for the Bay far beyond recreational usage. The Harbor Safety Committee is recommending that the BCDC reject the San Francisco Marina plan in its current form.

The plans that surround this issue involve over $200 million of proposed remediation and redevelopment work. It’s hard to comprehend the scale of these debates and projects. However, what’s easier for us to understand is that a city surrounded on three sides by water with spectacular recreational boating opportunities ought to be providing the public with access to the Bay that’s as easy as a walk in the park. That doesn’t mean walking or riding a bike near the Bay. That means offering kids and adults the infrastructure needed to get into or out on the Bay.

If all goes well, the fuel dock will remain and it will be as easy to fuel up your boat as it is to get sandwiches and drinks.

Addendum – the map below is from the Harbor Safety Committee working group, which produced an extensive report on Gashouse Cove and San Francisco Bay fuel docks. See the full report here.