Be part of the completion.
The hardest structural work is already done. Ten deliberate phases remain, each with a clear scope and budget, each unlocking the next, and every dollar lands on professional craft, materials, and berthing. Gifts become planking and boatwright hours at a working Sausalito yard, and the Logbook shows you exactly what they built.
Simple, direct, tax-deductible.
Six ways, one destination: boatwright hours at the yard. All gifts are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law; receipts always follow.
Online — Benevity
Online giving is arriving with our giving partner, Benevity: one click, receipts handled, employer matching built in. We’re testing the donor experience end to end before switching it on. Until then, every method on this sheet works today.
Bank transfer — ACH or wire
The Foundation banks with Bank of Marin, and our account accepts ACH transfers and wires directly, the cleanest way to move a substantial gift, with no processing fees taken out of the work. Write to us and we’ll send transfer instructions the same day.
By check
Make checks payable to West Coast Seafaring Society with “Yankee Restoration” in the memo line.
West Coast Seafaring Society
PO Box 420117
San Francisco, CA 94142
Stock & donor-advised funds
Gifts of appreciated securities and grants from donor-advised funds are welcome, and often the most tax-efficient way to give. Write to us for our brokerage details or DAF listing, and we’ll respond personally.
Employer matching
Many employers match gifts, especially across the Bay Area, where most corporate portals run on Benevity. Search your company’s giving portal for the West Coast Seafaring Society. A matched gift funds twice the boatwright hours.
Major & legacy gifts
Considering a phase sponsorship, an endowment gift, or a bequest? These conversations are best had person to person, with the president, aboard the story itself. We’d be glad to walk you through the yard.
Every gift comes with the story: donors are invited aboard the weekly Logbook letter. Subscribe here → And there is a seventh way to give: time. Work parties, skilled trades, shore crew — join the crew →
Engraved in the saloon.
Gifts of $1,000 and up are engraved in brass in the saloon, among a century of racing trophies. The plaque will read simply Yankee, the Foundation, and the names of the people who brought her back — names, never amounts. In Navy tradition the crew who bring a ship into commission are her plank owners; fund her planking and the title is literal. Add your name at any level below.
Rating IFastenings
$250+- Your name on the online honor roll
- A postcard mailed from her first day back under sail
Rating IIPlanking
$1,000+- Your name engraved in brass in the saloon
- Archival print of Lester Stone’s 1906 sail plan, numbered and inscribed
- everything in Fastenings
Rating IIIKnees & Frames
$5,000+- A Foundation burgee flown aboard on relaunch day, then sent to you with a dated certificate
- Invitation for two to the relaunch at the Sausalito yard
- everything in Planking
Rating IVKeel Circle
$25,000+- Your name set apart on the plaque
- A private daysail on San Francisco Bay for you and five guests, in her first season back
- A phase of the restoration recorded in the Logbook with your name on the milestone
- everything in Knees & Frames
Rating VMasthead
$50,000+- A place aboard on her first sail, including a turn at the wheel of a boat that has never carried a winch
- The highest point on the boat, reserved for the gifts that raise everything else
- everything in Keel Circle
Recognition is always yours to shape: engrave a family name, honor a shipmate in memoriam, or remain anonymous. Names are engraved once a year, in brass, by hand. Levels are cumulative across the campaign.
This is not a charity appeal. It is an invitation to stewardship.
Haul-out, survey & stabilization — $10,000
Yard intake, protective measures, a fresh professional survey of the hull and the completed structural work, verification of stored spars and components, and a realistic, buildable work list. The yard confirming, plank by plank, that the lines still hold.
The survey sets the scope and cost of Phase 2. That’s the next milestone, and when it’s in, you’ll read it here first.
This is a completion, not a rescue. The most demanding structural work (frames, stem, forward planking) was finished at KKMI in Point Richmond before the pandemic paused the project. Her eight refinished spars and a complete suit of new North Sails wait in private storage; more than 1,000 board feet of prime Douglas fir is stacked at the yard. Every dollar funds professional craft, materials, and berthing. No salaries, no overhead.
Ten phases, fully transparent.
Each ask corresponds to a defined scope and a concrete milestone. Public asks lead with the current milestone, never the total; the whole course is charted here.
Survey, Stabilization & Restart
Yard intake, protective measures, a fresh condition survey of the hull and completed work, verification of stored spars and components, and production of a realistic, buildable work list.
A verified hull and a firm plan, under way now.
Phase budgets for Phases 2–10 are preliminary estimates, refined by the detailed condition report produced in Phase 1.
Hull & Frame Completion
The hull is watertight, but work remains. Complete the interrupted frame repairs, finish installing new laminated frames, and address any planking and fastening issues identified in the survey.
A fully sound hull structure, ready to accept clamps and shelves.
Clamps & Shelves
Rebuild and install the longitudinal structural members that tie frames to deck beams and carry the load of rails and bulwarks above. Foundational joinery that must be right before anything above it goes on.
The structural platform for deck and topsides work is in place.
Deck Restoration
A potentially extensive phase. Restore deck planking and structure, rebuild or replace deck beams as needed, and ensure the full deck can carry rig loads, hardware, and crew.
A sound, sealed deck.
Rails, Bulwarks & Exterior Joinery
Reinstate toerails, bulwarks, covering boards, and exterior trim using the stockpiled Douglas fir. This is where she starts looking like a yacht again.
A complete exterior profile.
Cabin House & Cockpit
Repair and restore the cabin house structure and cockpit: hatches, companionway, coamings, and the structural elements that define the living and working spaces on deck.
The on-deck structures are complete and watertight.
Deck Hardware & Essential Systems
Reinstall deck hardware (cleats, blocks, chainplates) and address essential systems: engine, electrical, bilge pumps, and navigation lights, to a standard suited for a working and racing traditional yacht.
A functional vessel, ready for finishing and rig.
Caulking, Fairing & Finish
Caulk all seams, fair the hull, prime and paint: topsides and bottom, waterline to rail. Late in the project, once structural and joinery work is complete.
A finished, painted yacht.
Spars & Rigging
Inspect and step the two masts, five booms, and bowsprit, all refinished and waiting. Install cable standing rigging and running rigging.
A fully rigged schooner.
Sails, Launch & Sea Trials
Bend on the new North Sails suit, install canvas covers and safety equipment, launch, conduct sea trials, and secure a permanent berth.
Yankee under sail on San Francisco Bay.
Campaign goal, Phases 1–10: $160,000–$255,000
Every dollar funds professional craft, materials, and berthing, not overhead or salaries. Each phase unlocks the next.
Contributions fund professional shipwright labor, marine-grade timber and bronze fasteners, rigging and sail work, berthing and yard fees, and marine survey and insurance. The overwhelming majority goes directly to the work that returns Yankee to the water.
And then she has to stay sailing.
Interior restoration
$10,000–$20,000 · materials only
With Yankee sailing again, attention turns below: cabin, galley, berths, and interior brightwork. Funded for materials; the labor comes from Foundation volunteers and skilled members contributing their time and craft.
Endowment: sustaining Yankee
$150,000+ · ongoing goal
A permanent fund for the long term. Annual costs (berthing, insurance, haul-out, bottom paint, routine upkeep) run roughly $25,000–$35,000 a year. The endowment means future stewards never defer maintenance or hunt for emergency funding. This is how she sails for another century.
What your gift gets you
Proof. Every phase is documented in the Logbook: photographs, dated entries, plain accounting of what got done. You’ll watch your gift become planking, fastenings, and boatwright hours at a working Sausalito yard.
Questions first?
The FAQ covers the Foundation, the budget, the governance, and what happens if plans change. Or write to us; we welcome conversations with prospective supporters.
Tax-deductible giving
All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
A program of the West Coast Seafaring Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 84-1776838