Minutes of the SF Marina Harbor Annual Meeting Thursday Feb 13, 2025

Minutes of the SF Marina Harbor Annual Meeting

Thursday Feb 13, 2025 – 7 to 9 PM – Ft. Mason Center – Room C205

27 members in attendance plus:

District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill (sherrilstaff@sfgov.org) his Chief of Staff Lauren Chung (lauren.l.chung@sfgov.org)

SF Rec and Park Project Manager Monica Scott (monica.scott@sfgov.org)

Harbormaster Scott Grindy (scott.grindy@sfgov.org)

President Bruce Stone (bruce@brucestone.com) opened the meeting with a welcome and reviewed our role:

The purpose of our Association is the betterment of SF Marina Harbor and especially attaining a high-quality experience for boat owners, crew and guests. Berths need to be safe, accessible by land and navigable water, with appropriate sizes to serve our community. Tonight, we invite our members to hear from harbor management and East Harbor project planners, and provide them with feedback from you, the actual users of the harbor.

The minutes from last year’s meeting were approved.

The following were elected by unanimous consent:

President & Treasurer – Bruce Stone

Vice President – Risley Sams  

Secretary & Webmaster – Kurt Hemmingsen

Directors – Theresa Brandner, John Rivlin, Mark Hensley, Jeff Spoering, Andrew Zimmerman (plus the three officers above)

Harbormaster Scott Grindy discussed upcoming dredging in August/September, possibly reverting to the old-fashioned key system as the electronics are failing, new staffing, the wait list, and removing derelict boats.  He mentioned attaining 88% occupancy, repairing sinkholes caused by broken pipes, and extensive damage to the seawall between the St. Francis and Golden Gate Yacht Clubs from winter storms.  He said the seawall does not have proper riprap to protect it.  He also said they are sleeving weak pilings in East Harbor as temporary patches until the entire harbor can be ripped out.

Monica Scott outlined revised designs for the East Harbor project.  Her exhibits may be found at 2024_12_05_SF Marina_CM3_web_202412161444574618.pdf

The new plan shows reorienting the slips to facing East-West instead of North-South, a sheet pile breakwater instead of a floating wave attenuator, and the fuel dock in West Harbor at the existing pump-out dock.  To widen the turn-basin and mitigate congestion in the channel, the pump-out/gas dock would be moved further to the south.  The Scott St mole would be shortened and a new ramp installed from the mole to the pump out/gas dock.

There was substantial opposition to this West Harbor location for the fuel dock due to potential interaction with boats waiting to fuel up, possibly blocking the fairway needed by boats transiting into Inner West. Most felt this would compromise the safety of junior sailors coming to and from their practice area and create conflicts with all boats without motors (junior dinghies, Folkboats, Knarrs) who need room to tack back and forth to reach their berths.  

We expressed concern about a fuel truck coming every 2-3 days to refill the fuel tanks, adding commercial traffic to an awkward space near the current trash depot in West Harbor.  Right now, sight lines are difficult for cars passing in either direction, given the food trucks block the view.  Finally, the venting from such tanks would be directly upwind of children enjoying Marina Green, an unsafe practice.

The consensus among attendees was to install the fuel dock on the newly created guest dock in East Harbor. This provides much faster access for police/fire boats and commercial boats. We requested RPD provide renewed consideration of this location.

We suggested revising the business model to include some regular paying berths or guest berths along the new dock that will be just inside the north-south sheet pile breakwater.

We also suggest some paying berths along the new north-south guest dock. 

Supervisor Sherrill mentioned he would speak with the Port of San Francisco to see if the Hyde Street fueling station could be reopened and handle both gas and diesel.  It is currently closed due to a dispute between the Port and the fuel concessionaire regarding responsibility for a fuel leak.

East Harbor Breakwater:

RPD has accepted our proposal for a fixed breakwater to be located along the west side of the entrance channel at East Harbor, instead of the “wave attenuator” that was proposed for the east side of that channel, close to Ft Mason piers.  This will provide vastly superior protection for the boats in the new slips.

New “I” dock slips and West Harbor Breakwater:

RPD proposes to build slips in the “I” dock area to the East of Golden Gate YC.  These are the same slips that were destroyed by silting of West Harbor.  To protect these slips from wave action and from silting, Monica Scott described a new 225-foot sheet pile breakwater running from the Wave Organ jetty to the East.  Aside from knocking down waves, RPD claims this will send silt to the East, enabling them to avoid dredging West Harbor every year – in fact, they claim a 10–15-year interval. There was general skepticism that this interval is achievable. The Morphological Study (soils deposition forecast) is available on our Association website at www.sfmarinaharbor.org.    

West Harbor Dredging and Occupancy:

Members commented that the entire West Harbor is in dire need of thorough dredging, a main reason for the inability of the Harbormaster to find tenants for the numerous shallow slips.  The Harbormaster claimed to have filled 11 more berths recently and that he will fill more by allowing smaller boats to occupy larger berths, while paying a rate based on the size of their boat rather than the size of the slip.

Rent Increase and Future Economics:

RPD proposed and the Supervisors accepted sharply higher rates. Mr. Stone commented that the sharp rate increase should have been on the base rate, not on the base rate plus the 21% dredging surcharge.  He also said:

“..while RPD denied this had anything to do with the East Harbor project, they needed to do this because the proposed East Harbor will have half of the berths initially projected when the City signed its agreement with PGE.  This failure of project planning is now being charged to all berth holders.”

The Board of Supervisors’ Budget Analyst accepted RPD’s argument that the existence of the wait list supported the rate increases, claiming there will be no additional vacancy, despite our pointing out to him that most people on the wait list defer taking a slip because the available inventory is either too narrow or too shallow…and many on the list do not actually own a boat and are just keeping options open in case they acquire a boat.” He contended there is functionally no wait list, and it is a poor predictor of demand.

Furthermore, he stated “East Harbor boat owners will vacate their slips during construction, with some going into West Harbor and others relocating, though we expect many to sell their boats. Those who do move across the Bay will enjoy warmer weather and lower rates and might not return once East Harbor reopens.  Many feel that East Harbor will be starting at near-zero occupancy, and the Harbormaster will struggle to fill the available slips, especially at the newly inflated berth rates.  He concluded that the renovated harbor will be a financial disaster and is concerned that RPD will come back again with unconscionable rate increases.

To mitigate this, in a letter sent in January 2024 to then President of the Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin, he asked the Supervisors “to use funds from the PGE contract to pay off the existing loan from the State of California, as the debt service weighs heavily on Harbor cash flow.  The logic is that there should be surplus funds since they are neither completely rebuilding East Harbor as originally planned, nor building the offsetting extra slips in Outer West that were opposed by the neighborhood.  However, the City did not allow enough contingency for inflationary cost increases and now claim there will be no reserve…”

The City responded that they cannot divert funds from East Harbor toward paying off the legacy loans.

Stay up to date at www.sfmarinaharbor.org under “Latest News” which includes relevant exhibits and studies, including the justification for the 225-foot breakwater extension, and the proposed designs for East Harbor and the fuel dock.

The meeting concluded at 915 PM.

Annual General Meeting Notice: Feb 13, 2025 – 7-9 PM Ft Mason Center Room C205

Agenda:

Monica Scott, Project Manager for East Harbor, will present an update to the scope of work and seek your feedback.
Scott Grindy, Harbor Master, will report on harbor operations.

Election of Officers & Directors – The Nominating Committee recommends:
President & Treasurer – Bruce Stone
Vice President – Risley Sams
Secretary & Webmaster – Kurt Hemmingsen
Directors – Theresa Brandner, John Rivlin, Mark Hensley, Jeff Spoering, Andrew
Zimmerman (plus the three officers above)

A detailed agenda is attached, with an extensive discussion of our concerns regarding the proposed fuel dock, breakwaters, and related issues. So please read it carefully and come prepared with questions and comments. This is your chance to put a constructive spin on what’s needed.

Agenda for SF Marina Harbor Association Annual Meeting Feb 13 2025

Fuel Dock Relocation – input to RPD by Bruce Stone (Jan 31, 2025):
The attachments show the report they prepared evaluating alternative fuel dock locations and the existing and proposed marina plans. Note that the marina plans chart has three pages. On page two, Bruce Stone has marked where they should install the fuel dock on the guest dock in East Harbor. On page three, Bruce Stone marked in red a suggested new guest dock that could provide added revenue to the harbor fund, offsetting any lost revenue from a few small slips to be removed to enhance the turning basin for boats refueling.

Page 1: 2025 Marina Plans with BJS suggestion on fuel dock and guest dock for East Harbor

Page 2: 2025 Marina Plans

Page 3: 24_1010_SF Marina Alternate Fuel Dock Locations

SF Marina Harbor Annual Meeting and RPD presentation on East Harbor Project – Jan 19, 7 pm, Ft. Mason Center

Agenda for Annual Meeting

Kelli Rudnick, SF Rec & Park Presentation:

2023 01 19_Marina Harbor Association_sm

SF Marina Harbor Association Annual Meeting Feb. 10th 2022 – Minutes and Video

Minutes of Annual Meeting

Here’s the recording of the Feb 10 SF Marina Harbor Association Annual Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/TaBtruoURe-_krdTq3KL7HqoPHb40uqZ03MyGSonjIBowmNF622bijH0mSDuHKXm._ZF_yxeeGbvG6df7

Passcode: &9xmiFZi

In the meeting, Harbormaster Scott Grindy and Rec and Park Project Manager Kelli Rudnick reported on various initiatives,  Some highlights:

Berth holder bathrooms – BCDC’s EIR that authorized the West Harbor project specified two new berth-holder toilets in the west end of the harbormaster hut when his office relocates to the degaussing station. This document is attached.

At the east end of that building, there are two rooms for berth holders, each with two showers – one ADA-approved and one normal.  In November 2014, we proposed removing the normal shower and installing a toilet and sent drawings to the Harbormaster (see attachment).  Now, 8 years later, he has announced that Rec and Park will make this conversion.

The harbor entrance is getting narrow and shallow.  See the attachment of readings on 02-09-22 at a +0.8 tide. At a normal 0.0 sea level, just deduct 0.8 from these readings and you will understand what it means for a typical boat like a J/105 drawing 6.5 feet – running aground unless hugging the northern side and avoiding the green buoys.  Also, note that these readings taken by the harbormaster staff are rounded off to the nearest foot so could be 0.5 shallower.  In the areas marked 7 feet on this diagram, there could be just 4.5 to 5 feet of water at a low tide.  It will continue to silt in, and not be usable for keelboats in a few months.  Also, the channel marked by these buoys is in the wrong location as the dredging was done to the North, closer to the jetty.  For the past two years, we have been requesting these buoys be relocated in a curve to the North, guiding boats in a safer path, but the Harbormaster said that takes a year and is expensive to study and implement. The harbor’s budget runs from July 1 to June 30, and fresh funds become available in August; therefore the Harbormaster stated he must wait until next fiscal year to dredge.  We pointed out that the harbor is being choked off and we’re not getting the benefit of the bargain in the slip fees we pay.  We suggested that the Coast Guard and the Fire Department cannot get their larger boats into the harbor and nor can deep draft boats visiting for a cruise or passing through for a regatta, and it will get worse.  He said he cannot do anything about it, and to avoid transiting the entrance at low tide.

The BCDC EIR also counted on the continuation of the sandpit just outside the jetty to mitigate shoaling of the harbor.  The Harbormaster says that was handled by the Department of Public Works and is outside of his jurisdiction.

Kelli Rudnick, Project Manager for the East Harbor renovation, described the calendar for the project.  Concept design and community outreach in 2022-23, design and permitting in 2024, bidding and then vacating the harbor in 2025, and then a three-year construction period to 2028.  Berth holders would be expected to relocate to other parts of SF Bay.  The Department is reviewing three options but favoring not rebuilding the shallower south end of the harbor. We pointed out that rather than abandon that area, we favor building a platform to support a community boating center like in Alameda and Redwood City, with classrooms, showers, and dry boat storage for skiffs, dinghies, small keelboats, kayaks, paddleboards, and secure storage of boaters’ gear. This would generate rental income.  See attachment. We would seek funding from various corporations and foundations to cover the cost of lessons for SF public school children. We also believe the harbor needs a sheet-pile breakwater along the East axis, close to the adjacent Ft. Mason pier, to protect the harbor from northeasterly swells.  As this would also benefit Ft. Mason, we requested that the Department reach out to the National Park Service and our Congressional representatives for a cost-sharing program.

Fuel Dock – Kelli stated that the fuel dock would be relocated to West Harbor, near the pump-out station across from Golden Gate YC, so on our plan we drew in a launching area for dragon boats in the area to be vacated. However, on further study, we have learned that the Fair seawall along Marina Green is unstable and that it would be unlikely to support fuel tanks.  Also, the West Harbor area is congested, so adding commercial traffic in there for refueling would be unsafe for the large number of non-motorized boats sailing in and out of the harbor.  The best location is the current location in East Harbor, and we suggested that the Department dredge that section to accommodate it is staying there.