Motion, not memory.
The Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation keeps historic wooden yachts actively sailing on San Francisco Bay, and sustains the boatwrights, riggers, and sailors who carry the craft forward. Yankee is the first project, not the whole mission.
Boats are best preserved through use.
The Foundation is built on a clear philosophy: that traditional wooden yachts belong under sail, in motion, and in capable hands — not behind ropes. There is no exhibit here, no interpretive center, no velvet stanchion between the visitor and the varnish. There is a boat, a yard, and skilled work being done well, in the open, where anyone who cares to look can watch it happen.
In plain language, the mission is this: keep Yankee, and over time other significant wooden yachts, actively sailing on San Francisco Bay. Support the artisans and sailors who know how to care for these boats. Document the work honestly and make it visible to the people who care about it.
The mission is narrow by design. A focused organization is a durable one: it does a few things, does them in public, and measures itself by a standard anyone can check: whether the boats are sailing.
And everyone is welcome aboard the story. Watch, follow, give; sailing and shipwright work are simply the crafts at the center of it. If you’re an experienced sailor or a skilled craftsperson who wants in on the work itself, we want to hear from you.
Every restoration is a payroll and a classroom.
San Francisco Bay once built ships. The yard that built Yankee, Frank Stone’s at Harbor View, launched racing yachts, steam tugs, and five-masted schooners from ground that is now the Marina District. That world is nearly gone, and the skills that made it survive in fewer and fewer hands.
Where they do survive, they pass the old way: parent to child, master to apprentice, on a working waterfront. Yankee’s restoration lives exactly there: at a Sausalito family yard in its third generation, on the same grounds as an active school of traditional boatbuilding. When you fund a phase of this work, you are paying skilled people to practice a demanding craft, in the place where it’s still taught.
That is why the Foundation exists, and it’s what makes a gift here feel bigger than one boat.
Three generations. One waterfront.
Yankee’s restoration is carried out at Richardson Bay Boatworks in Sausalito, a family yard with roots that reach deep into the working waterfront of San Francisco Bay.
The yard was founded in 1986 by Ross Sommer, son of the legendary Harold Sommer, a Crowley Maritime tugboat captain for nearly fifty years and one of the most respected vessel restorers the Bay has ever produced. Harold captained the last wooden tugboat to work the San Francisco waterfront, and his restoration of the 1883 German pilot schooner Wanderbird was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as the most significant vessel restoration undertaken by a private individual in the United States.
Ross grew up in that tradition — literally on the water, learning to read a hull before he could read a chart. He built Richardson Bay Boatworks from a rented shed into a respected name in wooden boat restoration over four decades, and serves as lead boatwright on the Yankee project.
Learning to read a hull before he could read a chart.
The third generation runs the yard today: Ross’s son Andrew Sommer oversees day-to-day operations and manages the restoration from intake through recommissioning. Working alongside the Sommers is Graham Wheelock, a skilled boatwright and graduate of the Arques School of Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding, which shares the same Sausalito waterfront grounds.
The people at the helm.
A volunteer board with direct experience in wooden boat restoration, Bay sailing, and nonprofit stewardship. No one involved takes any payment or salary.
Hans Hansen
President
Yankee’s acting captain and project lead. Grew up sailing San Francisco Bay aboard the Alden ketch Suzy-Q (Sabine II); co-owner of Velerosa (Bear #69) and president of the Bear Boat Association.
Jason Chan
Treasurer
A sailor with over 25,000 nautical miles of racing and cruising experience; co-owner of Relentless (J/92) and St. Francis Yacht Club member. Manages the Foundation’s fundraising strategy and restoration fund.
Nicholas Kolaitis
Secretary
Sailor and owner of Sugarfoot (Bear #13). Keeps the Foundation’s governance, compliance, and organizational work on course.
Will Campbell
Director
Owner of Hummingbird (Bird #22) and president of the Bird Boat Association; well connected across the Bay sailing and wooden boat community, and an accomplished photographer; much of the photography on this site is his.
John McNeill
Director Emeritus
Staff Commodore, St. Francis Yacht Club; keeper of the Yankee Archive and five decades of Yankee crew history; multigenerational caretaker.
Jon Price
Director Emeritus
Longtime West Coast Seafaring Society treasurer and Bay sailor; provides organizational continuity through the transition to the Foundation.
Plain about the paperwork.
The West Coast Seafaring Society is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that owns Yankee: the legal entity of record, holding title to the vessel, the EIN, insurance, and bank accounts. The Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation is its public-facing identity and program: all fundraising, donor communications, and public activity are conducted under the Foundation’s name, while the Society carries the legal and financial obligations.
Over time, the Foundation is intended to become the permanent organizational home, with the Society’s continuity preserved for legal and legacy purposes. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
The Foundation is entirely volunteer-run. Every dollar funds professional craft, materials, and berthing. Not overhead, not salaries.
Volunteer-run includes you, if you like: the boat takes crew for work parties at the yard, skilled trades, and shore work. Join the crew →
The record
Legal entity — West Coast Seafaring Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
EIN — 84-1776838
Program — Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation
Vessel title — West Coast Seafaring Society
Watch it happen.
A short letter from the yard, weekly, and the Logbook, always open.
Fund the next milestone.
Phase 1 is funded and under way. The survey sets Phase 2; every gift lands on real work, documented in the open.
A program of the West Coast Seafaring Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 84-1776838