Rocking the Boat San Francisco Launches First Student-Built Boat
Just over a year ago, we shared the story of Rocking the Boat San Francisco as they launched their newly restored 14-ft Whitehall rowboat Neptune on June 7, 2025. Neptune was built by students in Bronx, NY, and shipped across the country to S.F., where she was worked on by Rocking the Boat students. Upon her launch she joined sister vessels La Bella and Phoenix for her first full season of community rowing at the park. Last Saturday, August 8, the students launched another vessel — their first-ever boat built from scratch — a 16-ft wooden rowboat named Paradise.
Paradise was crafted over 13 months from plans based on the Whitehall Alderbrook, which was built in a nearby boatyard in 1906. Alderbrook is part of the collection managed by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and was brought over to the Rocking the Boat facilities to join the celebration of her new replica.
In front of an audience of 75 supporters, several students and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie performed an official christening with cups of sparkling apple cider and water from the Bay.
The group of students, which began as six individuals in March 2025, has grown to a cohort of 17 youths aged 14 to 18 who have come from various youth programs in the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods. They each devoted around six hours a week during the school term and five hours a day four days a week during the summer. Together they built every part of the boat from the hull through the oars, and painted the bright yellow and red hull and the decorative design on the transom.
Rocking the Boat was founded in the Bronx, NY, by Adam Green. The program’s mission is to help participants develop pride, purpose and possibility by learning the unique and lifelong skills behind building and rowing wooden boats, sailing, and restoring the Bronx River and San Francisco Bay. “We create community, teach through transformative experiences, and make nature available to everyone, inspiring young people to determine their own future against a backdrop of systemic inequity.”
A new boat build will commence in September.