Harbour

Waldo Point Harbor

Name: Waldo Point Harbor
Address: Sausalito, US
Telephone: +14153326220

Sausalito, United StatesSan Francisco Bay

Type: Harbour

Floating-home harbour at the north end of Richardson Bay in Sausalito, home to the most photographed houseboat community in the Bay Area.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Approach Richardson Bay from Raccoon Strait by the marked channel. The harbour sits at the head of the bay just south of the Strawberry shoreline, in shallow water.

Practical

282 berths, all occupied by floating homes since the 1970s. No transient berths for cruising yachts. Visitors can walk the public sections of the pontoons to see the houseboats.

History

After Bechtel left the Marinship shipyard at the end of the Second World War, Don Arques bought the Waldo Point land from the War Assets Administration in 1946. Returning sailors, artists and musicians built homes from surplus barges and lifeboats. Conflicts with regulators in the 1960s and 1970s led to the formalisation of the harbour.