Auction your Tug for Charity

[Hydraulicjump]

No, I don't mean the boat, but rather a day-on-the-whatever.

For six years now, we have offered our boats (R27 followed by the current R29CB) to several non-profits that we support for a cruise on San Francisco Bay or a tour of the Delta. We did one yesterday for the Water Education Foundation and I thought I would prod other tug users to do same. It is a fun way to give back. And we have done this for four different NGOs and raised many thousands of dollars.

The way we work this is we put up a "day on the bay" auction, or a "day in the Delta". We pick a marina to meet six people, which is all that can fit on the command bridge at one time. If a full day we take them to a morning destination (example: short hike on Angel Island), we then buy them lunch (example: outdoors at Sam's in Tiburon, Scott's seafood at Jack London Square, or a picnic on the boat, although sometimes they pay out of generosity), then ply them with wine and beer for destination sight seeing in the afternoon (example: Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge, new Bay Bridge, Oracle park, Oakland Estuary, etc). This always, as locals know, depends on wind and tide combinations. It can be brutal on the Bay with a west wind and an ebb tide. We have also done Fleet Week, with ships coming in under the Golden Gate Bridge and a Blue Angels' "machines that convert fuel to noise" fest. And on two occasions we have ended the day with a stop at South Beach Marina and a Giants game, followed by a night cruise on the San Francisco waterfront back to their starting point. All are exhausted, but happy, including the NGO.

Seems to me there are tugs all over the place that can do this. Give back and have fun doing what you like to do at the same time!

Jeff

BTW, there was a very good looking blue-hulled R-31 between Berkeley Marina and Angel Island headed north yesterday in the late morning. Just about the only other boat nearby on a warm, calm, late fall day on the Bay. What is wrong with these San Franciscans? Why aren't they out on their boats?

 

[Karll]

That’s a great idea, I have done similar things to raise money for school scholarships.

 

[Djrisen]

Jeff,

We have a 25ft SC and decided to go down the delta to the Bay this past July 4th. When leaving the Carquinez Straight we hit some pretty bad 6-8 ft swells. We we're more on the south side of the water way and not within the deep water passage on the Vallejo side. Is that typical? We we're white nuckling it for an hour or so. As I looked off towards the right at the deep water passage, the turbulence looked similar there too.

Appreciate your advice.

Dale

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[nzfisher]

Sounds like a great way to give back. Have taken friends whale watching just outside the gate on windless days between tide peaks as well as around the islands. Amazing the lack of boat use in SF bay. There are roughly 7 million people in the area and you are lucky to see 30 boats on the bay unless it is a sailing day on the weekend. You could make a living taking out boats for maintenance reasons to keep them from deteriorating.

 

[baz]

Yes.... this is a commendable way to give back to your community. It's something I've been doing for past several years to aid my local Arts Community.

The Arts Community holds an Auction event each year, and I offer my boat for two sunset cruises of 4 to 6 hrs duration for 4 adults, to be done at a time I decide. My daughter & husband offer their time and provide food/refreshments for the 4 adults while I drive the boat. This past year these two auctioned sunset cruises raised $1,500 for the Arts Community. The overall funds raised by all the various auctions offered was close to $450,000. This kind of funding keeps/supports the local Arts Community to be vibrant and ongoing.

The boat cruise auction is started off with some pictures of my R29 CB and a short video of past sunset cruises, and then the auction starts.