Houseboats and Floating Homes in Sausalito
Insiders Tip: While visiting the Sausalito houseboats please be considerate, and remember that a paramedic or firefighter who works late may be sleeping a few feet away when you walk by on the pier.
Anyone can do a walking tour of the Sausalito houseboat community, and the gates to the docks are unlocked. Dogs are prohibited from some docks due to visitors not having cleaned up after them. You'll see everything from architectural gems to repurposed working boats to, well, a few maintenance-challenged vessels!
You can read about the two most famous "golden era" Sausalito houseboats on the Taj Mahal page and on our Forbes Island page.
Click here to see what it was like on the Sausalito houseboats when the tidal surge fPublishrom the 2011 Japanese earthquake reached San Francisco Bay.
Insiders Tip: Many members of the local community strongly prefer the term “Floating Homes” to Houseboats. Refer to them this way and you’re more likely to make friends with the residents.
Where to See the Sausalito Houseboats
The easiest places to do a walking tour of a wide variety of houseboats are around the Gate 5 Road and Main Dock area, and at the Gate 6 Road Waldo Point Harbor area, labeled "A" and "B" on the map below. You can park in the Waldo Point Harbor lot for a shorter visit, or follow the map below to drive up Gate 6 1/2 road and park for a longer stay.
Kappas Marina, "A" Dock, Issaquah Dock and Liberty Dock are just some of the areas where you'll find wonderful floating homes as you follow Gate 5 Road and Gate 6 Road to where they meet the Bay. You'll also see a few of the battered survivors from the old era of improvised houseboats of decades past. Some docks are lined by beautiful flowers in containers that are tended by the owners as their "front yards", and many of the homes have names and unique decorations.
Some of these homes were once boats of different kinds, and the architectural visions that translated them into floating houses can be fascinating. As has been the tradition, many of the houseboat community members are professional artists.
Stick to the well-maintained docks on your walking tour. There are some improvised walkways and planking in a few places but you don't need to traverse any of these areas to admire the best architecture and it's safer (and more respectful of residents' privacy) to avoid them.
A paid walking tour of the houseboats, Liberty Ship shipyards area and the yacht harbors of Sausalito is offered on Saturdays and Sundays by a local guide.
Check out our advertising sections offering Houseboats for Rent and Houseboats for Sale. We do not ourselves offer houseboats for rent, and all postings come from our advertisers.
Google Map Instructions: Use the "+" and "-" buttons to zoom in and out, the arrow keys to scroll the map, and the SAT button to see the satellite view.
Google Map Instructions: Use the "+" and "-" buttons to zoom in and out, the arrow keys to scroll the map, and the SAT button to see the satellite view.
Floating Homes, Then and Now
The famous Sausalito houseboat community chronicled in the late Phil Frank's fascinating book of historical photos (affiliate link above) has a history that stretches back well over a century. In its most famous era, from the 1950's through the 1970's, the area became a checkerboard of improvised floating homes that ranged from the elegant to the downright dangerous. The population living there likewise became, well... the people ranged from the elegant to the downright dangerous.
After a series of incidents including a murder, local officials fought a long series of battles with various groups, and eventually struck a compromise where the remaining boats came into harbors. A major benefit of this arrangement was the linking of most remaining houseboats to sewer lines. Walking around the area at low tide often was an unpleasant experience prior to this improvement... and in the 1960's and 1970's low tides produced nasty odors you'd squint at just driving by northern Sausalito on Highway 101!
Check out our page on The Sausalito Historical Society for more links on Sausalito history.
The Annual Sausalito Floating Homes Tour
We have now given the Tour its own page, which you can see by clicking here.
See the videos below for an example of what you'll see on the tour.
Video Tours of Sausalito Houseboats
Here are two video tours of the floating homes community in Sausalito; the size difference reflects that they are in different formats in YouTube. The programs give a great summary of the history of the floating homes community in Sausalito.
Did we give the right advice to architecture fans looking for fascinating houseboats? Leave out your favorite spot? Use the comments box below so our readers get the full story!
I am a resident of the largest floating home moorage in Oregon, past President of Oregon Floating Homeowners Association and current VP of the Hayden Island Neighborhood Network (HINooN). I'm going to be in SF mid November and over to Sausalito for a day. Is there anything unique to see or visit in the floating home communities while I am there? Thanks in advance for your advice.
Posted by: Ron Schmidt | 10/31/2010 at 05:12 PM