Rocking the Boat Launches Into Next Project

On June 7, the nonprofit youth organization Rocking the Boat reached a milestone: the first-ever Spring Launch Celebration at India Basin Waterfront Park. With the park full of friends, family and community members, a dedication ceremony for Neptune featured students and staff christening her with water from the Bay. The joyous occasion marked the culmination of the students’ effort restoring the 14-ft Whitehall, which was built by students in Bronx, NY, and shipped across the country to be worked on by the first cohort of students at Rocking the Boat San Francisco. Now fully restored, Neptune and her trident-toting purple octopus will join sister vessels La Bella and Phoenix for the first full season of community rowing at the park.

Rocking the Boat makes nature accessible to the youth in the boatbuilding program as well as community members of all ages, through free community rowing events on select Saturdays during summer and fall months. Stepping into a traditional wooden boat built with the dedication, focus, teamwork and skill of young teens is a magical experience! With favorable tides and weather, and the usual cast of birdlife, the deep blue cove off India Basin Waterfront Park beckons one to spend the day in maritime history, surrounded by the beauty of the Bay.

For the next adventure at Rocking the Boat S.F., boatbuilding program manager Anton Hottner is collaborating with John Muir, curator of small craft with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, on plans for the first boat that students will build from start to finish. With the tangible accomplishment of launching a boat restored by their own effort, combined with teamwork, the students are eager to embark on an exciting new project — a replica of the 16-ft Whitehall Alderbrook, a boat steeped in San Francisco history.

One of the most prolific and successful boatbuilding operations on the West Coast at the turn of the 20th century was located just blocks from the Rocking the Boat workshop at the park. The original builder of the Alderbrook, George W. Kneass, established several boatbuilding shops in San Francisco, including one at the base of Potrero Hill, the neighborhood adjacent to Bayview-Hunters Point. G.W. Kneass maintained a reputation for the quality craftsmanship of the boats he built, which by the turn of the century were in great demand in the maritime trades as well as the recreational boat market of the West Coast. According to the Maritime National Historical Museum, Kneass’ workshops specialized in building sturdy, utilitarian small craft, and offered a wide variety of proven designs and vessel types. The first solo transpacific crossing was made in an 18-ft Kneass boat, the schooner Pacific, sailed by Bernard Gilboy in 1882. Pacific completed the 7,000-mile journey from San Francisco to Australia in 162 days.

The Alderbrook is a carvel-planked [planks laid edge to edge] Whitehall and is constructed of eight wooden planks fastened to 17 ribs. The boat has a small keel with a metal shoe that goes up the bow post. The stern has an iconic wineglass shape typical of Whitehall boats. Participants in Rocking the Boat’s Youth Development Boatbuilding Program will put math and engineering into practice, engage in following plans, and use hand and power tools to precisely measure, design, and shape the 16-ft replica of the Whitehall Alderbrook. There is no better program to preserve the legacy of the historic shipyard at India Basin Waterfront Park and instill a sense of pride and possibility in young teens of Bayview-Hunters Point than the boatbuilding program of Rocking the Boat San Francisco. Participants gain self-confidence and learn to work together as a team, likely forming lifelong friendships, and all through the engaging medium of traditional wooden boatbuilding!

A full summer will see our enthusiastic young boatbuilders embarking on their next project as well as swimming lessons and field trips to partner organizations like the Sea Scouts, National Maritime Historical Park, Dolphin and South End rowing clubs, and Hyde Street Pier. A few spots are still open for current and rising 9th and 10th graders! Apply here.