An SF Giants fan made quite the splash on Wednesday when he was broadcast getting dropped off in McCovey Cove via water taxi, which quickly went viral. It was later confirmed that the man was an off-duty boat captain.

As SFGate reports, during the first inning of Wednesday night’s Giants game against the Cubs at Oracle Park, a curious sight occurred at McCovey Cove. The Madison Lynne water taxi, owned by Westar Marine Services, pulled up to the portwalk and dropped off a person who then climbed the railing and sauntered into the ballpark.

Giants broadcasters Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow displayed footage of the legendary drop-off for fans, per SFGate. “That’s door-to-door service right there,” said Krukow. The video went viral and became a top post on several Reddit channels.

SFGate writes that the man turned out to be an off-duty boat captain who had just dropped off a ship at an anchoring spot, which was confirmed by Westar Marine Services dispatcher and “social media guy,” Jamie Horton. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s awesome,’” Horton told SFGate when he heard about the drop-off. “I guess all publicity is good publicity.”

Horton told the outlet Westar runs its taxi service from its base near Oracle Park at Pier 50 and the captain had asked for a ride to the ballpark after anchoring the ship. “We could literally throw a rock to the ballpark,” Horton told SFGate.

Horton said Wednesday’s drop-off was a special circumstance. The service usually transports captains along a designated route around the Bay. VIP service, indeed.

Image: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

A sailboat that ran aground on Stinson Beach in July has until Monday to get back in the water, a federal judge has ruled, or else Marin County authorities are going to start taking it apart. Its crusty captain made a notable appearance in federal court on Thursday, without shoes, and sparked up some weed outside.

Captain Logan Walker was the solitary sailor aboard the 33-foot sailboat named The Chandalar when it ran aground on July 31st. As Walker told the Point Reyes Light after the incident, he was headed back home to Seattle and was napping with the sailboat on autopilot when it drifted ashore — and people on the beach started yelling.

"I looked outside and saw the beach and just thought, 'Oh shit,'" Walker told the Light.

The subsequent task of trying to get the boat back in the water hasn't exactly proceeded with lightning speed, and now six weeks have passed.

Some in the community have rallied around the sailor and his misbegotten journey, launching a GoFundMe that has raised almost $7,000 of a $10,000 goal to help get the boat off the beach. But it's a matter of tides and some serious pulling power — the vessel weighs some 10 tons.

As ABC 7 reports, the past week saw a major community effort with at least a dozen people who came out at high tide, in the middle of the night, to pull the boat around 90 degrees so that its bow is facing the ocean, ready to get pulled out.

But others in the area are annoyed by the mess — Walker has been living on the boat, and images from the scene shows some detritus collecting on the beach around it. And the county sought a temporary restraining order on Walker, which was granted August 29 by U.S. District Court Judge James Donato.

Walker had to make an appearance in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday, and ABC 7 was there to catch him coming out of the courtroom after what was reportedly an expletive-filled hearing about the situation.

"What happened to your shoes?" asks ABC 7's Stephanie Sierra.

"I... don't know what happened to them," Walker replies, pulling some paper booties off that were given to him for the hearing. He walked through the Tenderloin like that!

The judge gave Walker until noon on Monday to get the boat back in the water.

"Do you think you'll make it?" asks Sierra, speaking to Walker outside the federal building on Golden Gate Avenue as Walker sparks up a weed pipe.

"Yeah, it can be out of here real soon," Walker says.

"How soon?" Sierra asks.

"The next tide," Walker says.

The whole exchange is pretty amusing, and unfortunately we don't have footage from the courtroom.

We'll see if Walker makes it out! If not, Marin County authorities say they will begin the process of disassembling the boat.

"Their fix to the problem is to cut up my boat, which is really bad for the environment," Walker says to ABC 7.

And some in the community agree, and it will likely end up costing the county a lot of money to dispose of the boat.

"I understand it's an eyesore," says Stinson resident Erica Lowry, speaking to ABC 7. "I was told $50,000 worth of taxpayer money to remove it by the county."

A recent rash of thefts at the house boats and sailboats at the 13 marinas in Alameda County is overwhelming the small number of maritime law enforcement personnel there, as thieves sometimes commandeer and steal entire boats.  

The current Oakland property crime surge is covering new ground, or rather, going past where the ground ends and the waters of the San Francisco Bay begin. The Chronicle reports today on a wave of “pirates” committing brash burglaries on boats docked at these marinas, who often approach on smaller crafts with their bolt cutters, sometimes stealing supplies, sometimes stealing the motors or others parts, and in some cases even commandeering the boats and repainting them to make it look as if they are their own.

“It’s almost the Wild West,” Alameda’s Marina Village Yacht Harbor managing investor Steve Meckfessel told the Chronicle. “It’s almost as if you were on a ship and there are pirates out there, and there’s no government, no one to protect you.”

There are actually some people to protect them, but not many, and those few law enforcement personnel are overwhelmed. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office does have a Marine Patrol Unit, but it’s only a part-time patrol, and those officers have other duties as well.

The Oakland Police Department has only one maritime patrol officer, who acknowledged to the Chronicle a spike in thefts over the last six weeks. Encampments near the marina are growing, people have taken to living on makeshift boats, and according to the Chronicle, there was “even a former U.S. Navy vessel that appeared to house several people before it sank in December.”

The thieves aren’t just hitting the boats, but also maritime businesses along the marinas. Many of these business owners are forced to confront the encampments and docked stolen boats, where they sometimes find their own stolen items. But these situations could obviously turn violent, and vigilante justice is not an effective long-term solution.  

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission recently held a hearing on the matter, though that commission has no law enforcement authority.

“I’ve heard the voices of fear and terror,” Commissioner Rebecca Eisen said at that hearing, per the Chronicle. “We are obviously not a law enforcement agency, but we understand what we’re hearing. We’re going to work with others to figure out if there’s anything we can do to be helpful.”

There have been some recent efforts to sweep the encampments near the marinas, and Alameda County has offered a $10,000 grant to remove derelict boats, and Oakland City Council voted earlier this year authorizing police to seize illegally docked boats. But those strategies aren’t getting results quickly enough for the boaters, who have a sinking feeling that the problem will only get worse.

Related: Crime in Oakland Soaring Across the Board, According to New Statistics [SFist]

Image: Cris I. via Yelp

A solar-, wind-, and hydrogen-powered catamaran dubbed the Energy Observer is making a stop in the Bay Thursday evening and staying for the week.

The French-owned boat, constructed in the last decade, has been touring the world as a kind of concept vessel — a poster child for clean energy and the potential future of marine transport. One of its backers is French environmentalist Nicolas Hulot, who told the Guardian back in 2016, "I support it because it’s the first project of this kind to actually be undertaken, it’s ambitious and looking toward the future."

The Energy Observer made a stop in Long Beach over a week ago, and it's on its way up the coast, ready to come through the Golden Gate at 5:30 p.m., as SFGate reports. The boat will dock near the Exploratorium, and it will be there for locals to check out until May 13, when it sets sail for Hawaii.

"After three years spent navigating European waters, we’re going to discover and share a whole new level of energy transition in the Pacific, which is just thrilling," said boat captain Victorien Erussard at an event in Long Beach. "We’re also quite proud to get the chance to show the Californians that the French are also quickly breaking new ground, both in their area of expertise in the maritime world, and also on land."

The 30.5-meter catamaran is equipped with four Oceanwings smart wing-sails, and covered in photovoltaic panels. And as Erussard told the Guardian, "If there’s no sun or wind, or if it’s night, [the boat uses] stored hydrogen." Diagrams here and below show all the systems and how much each contributes.

In a nearly 11,000 mile trip last year, the boat traveled between 4.4 knots (5 mph) and 14.8 knots, relying primarily on solar and wind energy.

Prior to coming to the U.S. this trip, the Energy Observer passed through the Panama Canal and stopped in the Galapagos Islands.

Go down to the Embarcadero and check it out, or run out to Crissy Field or Baker Beach soon to see the thing pass under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ooh la la! French startup founders Alain Thebault and Anders Bringdal, a duo who broke the record for speed on a sailboat they designed back in 2009, were speeding through San Francisco and Silicon Valley recently to pitch their company SeaBubbles according to Bloomberg Technology.

“Every city is getting more and more crowded, with traffic jams on land, whereas waterways are abandoned,” Bringdal told Bloomberg TV. “In San Francisco we can save people an hour a day going from downtown to the Silicon Valley and back.” Another way to save time commuting to Silicon Valley is to live there, but this idea is a novel one.

According to a timeline on SeaBubbles' website, the team, whose Jaques Cousteau style head shots are a must-see, declares that they will begin production next month with their first production boats out in June. The boats, Bloomberg explains, would supposedly hover above the water and would be battery-powered and travel quickly by limiting drag on the water. True to their name, they are very bubble or pod shaped, and could ideally transport up to six people at a time.

SeaBubbles has raised $3.6 million so far thanks to French insurer Maif and venture-capital fund Partech Ventures, but Thebault told Bloomberg he wants 10 times that sum during the company's next funding round. Something about this concept would probably appeal to billionaire cheating yachtsman Larry Ellison... Maybe get him on board?

Related: Billionaire Yachtsman's Cheating Team Ordered To Return America's Cup Trophies

Fleet Week is officially upon us, and that means that in addition to the Blue Angels flying above, the Bay is going to be teeming with Navy vessels all week long. To kick things off, ABC 7 captured the cool time-lapse video embedded above showing the USS San Diego entering the Bay yesterday.

The video also depicts a Navy tradition of the ship's crew "manning the rails." Apparently it developed as a way, before radios existed, for a crew to demonstrate to a port they entered that they had no hostile intentions.

You can see more ships at 10:00 a.m. this Friday during the scheduled "Parade of Ships."

Previously: Fleet Week Starts Today: Complete Schedule, Where To Watch The Blue Angels, And A Reminder To Hide Your Pets

In Inverness, California, near Point Reyes National Seashore, shot by andertho.

Aside from bed and couch, there are no optimal places to be very hungover. However, there are some locations that will make matters worse: the backseat of your parent’s car, for instance, or while babysitting your nephews at Great America under the heat of the midday sun. However, sitting aboard a smallish cabin cruiser that’s rocking side-to-side on the Bay has got to be up there. And yet that was where I found myself on Saturday morning, gasping for fresh air on the crowded bow of The Princess while our unflappable Kiwi race MC reiterated over the intercom just how very, very excited he was indeed for the races to begin.

Here is what this whole America’s Cup deal looks like, to someone who has not watched a single race or kept much track of wins, losses and general stakes beyond a casual appreciation of the Luna Rossa team’s jaunty track jackets (come back, Italians!). As a privileged spectator, I got to set sail from the Emirates New Zealand team’s compound on Pier 32, but not before browsing through a couple cavernous hangars and a besponsored lounge area, where the coffee was piping hot and the elegant Emirates flight attendants in fabulous hats stood about, ostensibly in case you needed help with your seat belt and tray table.

We were then herded onto The Empress or, on our case, The Princess, which I imagined to be slightly smaller than her counterpart and immediately developed a fierce us-against-them attitude about. Filled to the brim with mostly enthusiastic Kiwis and a contingent of preppy Frenchmen, we motored off onto the Bay, soon passing within spitting distance of an ostentatious mega-yacht courtesy of the man himself. Larry Ellison's Musashi is absurdly huge, with multiple layers of gleaming whitewashed decks and railings that evoke wishful thoughts of a Jason Bourne hit (“For chrissake, you’re the one who picked the yacht as a goddamn strike point!”). The sighting of the yacht, devoid of visible passengers, brought up some uncomfortable realities about this America’s Cup: insanely expensive and relatively inaccessible to the common person (Sportscenter won’t touch the stuff), who and what is the America’s Cup even for, exactly? Was this entire clusterfuck simply another Musashi, a gilded prize in the hands of the super rich Ellison, to be enjoyed only by your more boat-nerdy friends? Why had I decided to spend four hours onboard a ship that seemed to be actively trying to get me to puke overboard, when I could be lying very still in a darkened room? And how the hell had I managed to forget my sunglasses?

In the midst of this existential murk, the AC72s sped out onto the Bay. To call the wing-sail catamarans birdlike would imply fragility: I’d say a pterodactyl is a better comparison. You’ve seen the pictures, but it’s hard to communicate just how large and muscular these floating, flying contractions are up close. Oracle’s black-winged boat in particular resembles a vaguely menacing sci-fi creature with a terrifying attack speed and a crew that, from far away, looks like so many panicked hostages running hysterically from side to side.

Our tireless and informative commentator had been explaining just how the race worked with the aid of real-time graphics displayed on the onboard televisions, and had I not been sunk down in a seat with a too-large Giants cap over my eyes, I would have absorbed a lot more of it. But the general gist was that unseen currents play a huge role in race strategy, and that wind is a factor both in how fast the boats go and if they can race at all: as we’ve seen the past couple of days, high wind speeds can cancel a race altogether. In fact, that’s exactly what happened in the second race of the day, but let’s stick to the positives: one Saturday’s first race began, I was forced to confront the fact that it was totally, surprisingly thrilling.

Though I'm no maritime reporter, here is my approximation of what went down out there. Picture two pterodactyls that can swim and are hunting for dolphins by skimming across the surface of water (paleontologists please advise). Now imagine each is racing from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge on their giant, leathery wings, making hairpin turns with a clan of oompa-loompahs seasoned sailors clinging to their backs for dear life. And then, dear readers, imagine this happens:

I mean good christ! The Emirates team almost completely capsized, and under all powers of earth and heaven I don't know why they didn't. The moments that Emirates boat hung vertical seemed to stretch and warp into another dimension where the laws of physics and the logic of dinosaur science held no sway. In that instant, blood curdled and hangover almost completely forgotten, I'm pretty sure I became an America's Cup convert.

Sure, it cost millions of dollars. Yes, the boat's pricetag marginalized nations that couldn't afford them, the event is widely accepted to be a wholesale disaster and it's hard not to feel personally punked by Larry Ellison and his power (boat) trip. And let's not forget that one man even lost his life when the Artemis team capsized earlier this year.

But as we all nurse our collective America's Cup hangovers, let's also take a moment to appreciate the sporting event that delighted foreign visitors (even the preppy Frenchmen got excited), bore witness to some once-in-a-lifetime racing, and stirred this jaded and bilious reporter to life. America's Cup, you are a real son of a bitch. And I salute you.

Previously: All America's Cup coverage on SFist

In inevitable startup news, that one guy who was telling you that his idea is "like Airbnb, but for boats!" got funded. The result is Boatbound, "the first fully insured 'pier-to-pier' boat rental marketplace." It's basically the logical outcome of housing and ride-sharing startups (like Lyft, it will have a quirky marketing gimmick/accessory: a captain's hat to wear while at the helm. "All we ask is that you leave it on the boat when your rental is up so the next person can feel the power too!")

The idea sort of makes sense, seeing that most boats are a) amazing and b) sorely underutilized, except maybe as alternative housing for people going through breakups (and seniors letting off some steam). We've all gazed longingly at the glistening boats docked at our many marinas, dreaming of the day that our one friend with a boat will invite us along for a ride. Now, totally inexperienced boaters and sailors can have a go at it, too.

Bay Area prices range from $30/day for a kayak to around $1800/day for a fully equipped, music-video worthy Nordhavn 47 (picture above). But partiers, take heed: the website's terms of use expressly forbid smoking, operating a boat under the influence of drugs or alcohol, drug trafficking, beaching, competitive racing and other "dangerous activities." Posing for Instagram photos in exchange for free rental credits and swag, however, is expressly encouraged.

[TechCrunch]
[HuffPo]

According to the Chronicle, yesterday's kickoff to the America's Cup drew "throngs to the waterfront." The controversial race, dating back to the Victorian era, will pit four countries against each other: Oracle Team USA, Segelsällskapet Artemis Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, and Luna Rossa Challenge. Tourists visiting San Francisco really seemed to enjoy the nautical merriment happening right before their very eyes.

The Chronicle has more:

"Yeah, I don't see a whole lot of sailing in Kentucky, so it is really nice to come out here and check this out," [Melanie Leach, visiting San Francisco from Kentucky] said. "My brother lives in the Marina, so he invited us out to watch the race and the fireworks.

"Golly, this is nice," she added after a pause.

Tens of thousands of Independence Day revelers braved the fourth day of the BART strike and flocked to the waterfront to soak up the afternoon sun, celebrate the official opening of the America's Cup race season and, after all that, ogle the fireworks show.

But all isn't well for the nascent 2013 race. Max Sirena, skipper of the Italy’s Luna Rossa Classic, said today that his team might sit out Sunday's race in protest over new rules about rudder elevators. An American's Cup director, you see, wants wider rudder wings "to help control the 72-foot catamarans and to help prevent pitch-poles." When asked for his thoughts on the Italian team's plan to protest, Oracle Team USA Russell Coutts said, “I think they’re behaving like a bunch of spoiled babies.”

Also, today's time trials were canceled due to strong winds. "At 9 a.m. the wind is over 20 knots on the race course area and the forecast is for it to increase as the day goes on," Principal Race Officer John Craig explained to the Mercury News. "The right decision is to keep the AC72s out of the parade and time trials today to keep everyone in good shape for the first day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the America's Cup challenger series, on Sunday."

Also, at an event earlier this week, boozy media hounds threw temper tantrums online after it was announced that the bar at the official media event was cash-only. Shudder.

All of SFist's America's Cup coverage.

[Chron]
[Mercury News]

The New York Times is good at reminding us about everything we're not. We're not especially fashion conscious by comparison, we're not preoccupied by Ivy League admissions (thank god), and we're certainly not the owners of this insanely nice houseboat floating on Mission Creek.

We've always sort of dreamed of living in a houseboat, mostly because we figured the cramped quarters, relative inaccessibility and plumbing challenges might give us a chance to actually own one one day. We'd have a deck with some tangled up fishing gear, maybe some bleached fish bones and a tacky wind chime. We'd have a waterlogged rowboat, a couple cats and a collection of vintage canned food. It'd smell like mildew, sure. But it would be our mildew. What a world it would be!

Oh, the naivete. Witness this newest addition to the Mission Creek houseboat community, a floating two-story gilded lily coming off a $400,000 renovation. Expansive hardwood floors! Waterfront views! An improbably tall bed! This is the stuff dreams are made of, if those dreams came with a successful-person budget and some very good architects.

As envious as we are, we can't find a bad word to say about these happy, lucky people. Through our tears, we salute you, owners of this floating property, real-estate gods and future child. As for us, we hear cardboard boxes float just fine.

[NY Times]

Vincent Lackey, the owner of a rotting houseboat that has been stuck in the mud in India Basin for months, is about to see his dreams of opening a waterfront restaurant come to a watery end. Lackey, who planned to convert his dumpy houseboat in to a floating eatery just in time to serve hungry America's Cup fans, has now had his glorified piece of driftwood confiscated by the Port of San Francisco while they figure out how to salvage the vessel or scuttle it entirely.

Yesterday, port officials took it upon themselves to free the boat and tow it towards pier 70, claiming it as abandoned under harbor code. The whole sad rescue effort cost the port $25,000, which they hope will be reimbursed by a state fund for dealing with abandoned boats.

According to Port spokeswoman Renée Dunn Martin, the port is still working with Lackey to get the boat taken care of. Lackey, for his part, claims the boat is not abandoned at all and he has plans to move it to a pier in Oakland. The last time Lackey claimed he had plans for his dilapidated vessel, however, he told the press he had everything in order to convert it to a waterfront restaurant at Pier 1 complete with a 3,000 square-foot concert dome. "I've got a dream and I keep going for it," Lackey told the Examiner.

On the other hand, as Dunn Martin told SFist earlier, Lackey's plan is most likely not allowed under Port guidelines. Meaning the would-be waterfront entrepreneur is probably just spraying this stuff out of his blowhole.

Previously: A Houseboat Stuck In The Mud Is Our New Favorite NIMBY Problem
[SFEx]
[QuesadaGardensBlog]

Oops. Team Korea capsized their boat on Saturday, August 18, while training for the America's Cup World Series in the San Francisco Bay. "We were in a little race with Energy Team and we were trying to sail past them, so were really on," skipper Nathan Outteridg explained to Sail World. "And then I guess we found the limit of how far we can push it."

Watch the capsize below:

Don't forget that the America's Cup World Series begins tomorrow, August 21.

A local man who has spent the past 20 years building a houseboat that he hopes will become Pier 1's next great restaurant has suddenly found his plans literally stuck in the mud. Vincent Lackey, the man at the helm of the incredibly optimistic restaurant project, had hoped to finish his project in time for the America's Cup next year, but has instead found himself run aground in India Basin where his questionably seaworthy houseboat has also run afoul of the neighbors.

Lackey's houseboat, which was illegally parked at Pier 96 until a couple of weeks ago, now sits in 16 inches of mud about 50 feet offshore from Shoreline Park in India Basin on the north side of Hunters Point. Although Lackey says he moved the boat in order to continue working on his restaurant, that plan seems now more like a pipedream. According to representatives from the Port of San Francisco, Lackey only claimed ownership of the boat when they attempted to have the thing salvaged for parts.

His plan to convert the vessel in to a floating waterfront eatery called "The San Francisco Bay Sanctuary" (which is not a good name for a restaurant, by the way) doesn't really to hold water either. Lackey told the Examiner he planned to open a 3,000 square-foot concert dome on Pier 1, complete with a guy in possession of "a voice like Tony Bennett" to provide the entertainment. As Renée Dunn Martin, a spokesperson for the Port, told SFist this morning however, no formal discussions about the project ever took place and it probably wouldn't be allowed under Port or BCDC guidelines anyway. In other words, Lackey was probably just floating ideas by the Harbor Master.

Back in India Basin, the neighbors naturally don't like the sight of the thing. Lackey, who now lives in the East Bay, promised that his imaginary restaurant would be good news for everybody. (By clearing up the view, we guess?) As the President of the neighborhood association in India Basin succinctly explained Lackey's sinking dream: “It’s a big nuisance...and probably some sort of health hazard.”

Now Lackey is dodging the various organizations that want him to pull up anchor and head somewhere else. No organization will take responsibility for removing the vessel and according to Supervisor Cohen's office, the city will need to get the title on the boat before they can haul it away — an endeavor that could cost as much as 20 grand. After trying to unstick the houseboat by himself Tuesday afternoon, Lackey changed clothes and headed back to shore, poling himself along on wait appears to be a depressingly homemade raft.

[SFEx]