The Freebooters' Legacy

A bohemian enclave on the Sausalito mudflats becomes the defacto standard for Floating Home Communities.

In the early days, Joe Tate lived rent-free on a series of floating homes and boats anchored out and then later docked at Gate 6. In the free-wheeling community that sprang up spontaneously on the mudflats after World War II, Joe and his friends in the Gates lived on a collection of old boats, barges, ferry boats, and structures nailed together from whatever materials they could find in the former navy boat yard, courtesy of owner Don Arques. They paid their rent with their own sweat and adventurous spirit.

When Joe wasn't sailing or building something, he fronted a rock band called the Red Legs, whose community parties gloriously celebrated the free spirit of the residents.

It was as a freewheeling bunch who loved the waterfront, their gardens, handmade and recycled store, and compost toilets.

When authorities moved in to drive out the freebooters and build more conventional marinas, he found himself immersed in the infamous houseboat wars of the late 60s and early 70s, and the star of an unlikely movie known as Last Free Ride that chronicled the adventures of the rough-hewn community and its struggles to maintain a free-wheeling lifestyle in the face of pressures to develop the mudflats.

Over the decades, in spite of hard-fought battles, lawsuits, and community sympathy for the water dwellers, the developers and authorities extended their control over the waterfront. Yet the spirit of the freebooters remained.

Developers built new piers, and added amenities. Fancy houses with convection ovens and chandeliers shoved aside sagging ferry boats and landing craft, but the creative spark that made the harbor so unique in the first place left an indelible mark on the architecture and culture of the community even as the houseboat colony became one of the largest, and most diverse floating home community in America, and by any standard, the most iconic.

In the 70's Tony Williams still only paid $75 a month for a slip for his liveaboard at Kappas Marina, a dock that included pleasure craft, sailboats, and fishermen. Come Sunday night the wondrous aroma of barbequed salmon cooking right on the dock filled the air. All were invited.

The fishermen are long gone, but Tony still lives at a nearby dock with his wife Rusty. Only now he pays closer to$1500 a month to dock the otherworldly 3400 square foot floating home he bought and re-built in layers over the last 25 years. Called Wolf Island,

William's houseboat is on the end of a finger pier that extends into Waldo Point Harbor, the center of the Sausalito houseboat community. Here hundreds of newer upscale houseboats, some of them worth millions, surround eccentric dwellings from earlier times, competing to display the creative spirit that made the waterfront unique in more bohemian times.

The straight lines of the docks are broken up by occasional zigs and zags, and planter boxes full of flowers, ferns, and small trees. Houseboats are adorned with bright colors and whimsical touches.

=

Joe and his wife Donna now live at the entrance to the South Forty Pier, on the Becky Thatcher, an ark originally built in 1903 for one of the upper crust families who kept floating summer cottages at nearby Belvedere.

It was moved to Sausalito in the 1960s and placed on pilings.

For a number of years Joe was harbormaster at Galilee Harbor, one of two co-ops formed by the bohemians to protect themselves from being driven off the waterfront. There he met Donna who still works for the harbor.

The only community actually within the city limits, it was saved by public repugnance to a heavy handed attempt to evict the boat dwellers.

Eventually the group found grant money to buy the land and water and establish the harbor, which is neatly laid out and well maintained.

Joe also built the house where his former wife Pam lives. Pam is the president of the Gates Cooperative, the last vestige of the free-form community where she and Joe lived before the developers took over.

The co-op is responsible for collecting rent from the inhabitants of the eccentric boats and homes on makeshift docks arranged in seemingly random patterns. It's one of the few places in Marin County where low cost housing is available, one of the reasons it has managed to endure so long.

For several years it has been scheduled for demolition, with the Marin Community Foundation picking up the tabs for new floating homes for some of the residents at a new pier, now underway. The new homes are safer, with more amenities but some old timers are concerned about being housed in rows of boring, unimaginative boxes.

A few still insist on an even cheaper way to live. Despite efforts by the county to remove them, there are still roughly 45 “anchor outs” in the bay, where they live untethered from the grid, rolling with the tide, and riding out winter storms.

Until his recent death, Artist Julia Gilden shared a small boat several hundred yards off shore with her partner Ale Ekstrom, a jovial sort with red hair and a long beard, who sang sea chanties and played the concertina.

"See San Francisco out there, it's always changing. Nothing beats this." said Community Elder Larry Moyer, who divided his time between his anchor-out art studio and a houseboat on Liberty Dock that used to belong to his friend, author and poet Shel Silverstein.

Moyer is gone now too, and Silverstein's funky old house, assembled from collected parts was recently listed, with extensive interior renovations, for just under $800,000.

Recent years have seen an influx of arrivals from middle America, drawn to the waterfront for the setting and peaceful way of life.

Larry Clinton, who lives at the north end of the harbor at Gate 61/2, moved to a floating home from the canal area of San Rafael. A writer who is active in the floating home association and Sausalito Historical Society, Clinton has written about the early history of the waterfront.

"I love the tranquility and quiet", Clinton says. "You don't hear your neighbors. But there is a sense of community, a close-knit community. People stick together. People energize each other. When a boat sinks or burns or someone has a problem they show up ready to help". "Living on the water makes it easy to go canoeing and boating", adds Clinton, who has three kayaks. "It also makes for a short commute to the city."

Broadcast professional Dana King has lived on the waterfront since 2004. . "Everybody is very different", King says, "I like that."

A dog walks in from the much smaller, more casual boat next door and sprawls across the floor.

"That's Otto, laughs King. "As far as he is concerned, this is just part of his home."

. "I wanted something more interesting than a boxed apartment", she explains. "Something my daughter would think was cool."

"I feel very safe here," she adds. "My daughter used to babysit for the neighbors. We all help each other."

King remodeled the house -- putting in wood floors, and painting and decorating it. She is also a fine artist with a studio downstairs, and is working on a masters degree in fine arts. Her paintings can be seen at www.danakingart.com. King also boxes at a community gym.

Otto's other family is next door in a smaller houseboat called the Sunflower that was originally a World War II landing craft. Otto shares it with another dog called Inga, and their master and best friend, Louise Miller, who bought the place some time ago for $1000.

I sleep well just knowing I'm on the water," says Miller. "I love waking up to see the sunrise reflected off the water onto my ceiling."