TISC Opening Day and Safe Boating Day packed Clipper Cove with 723 excited attendees. Thank you staff, sponsors, volunteers and Mother Nature for providing free sailboat rides & paddling on protected waters, fun, games and free life jackets.
Next week is National Safe Boating week. The Treasure Island Sailing Center hosted its combined Opening Day / Safe Boating Day on April 30th to kick off our season and get a head start on summer safety. And to pass out 140 life jackets plus water safety and boating guides courtesy of California Division of Boating and Waterways
Planning and promotion starts months in advance. Then our trusty army of 50-plus volunteers starts arriving Friday afternoon, early Saturday morning and stay well past closing. Opening day would not be possible without volunteers from the Cal Boating team, the Vanguard 15 racers, Envision Academy Sailing Team (E*A*S*T), TISC tenants who helped with set-up & boat driving, and the local Treasure Island community.
Visitors from all over the Bay Area lined up for the free sailboat, kayak and paddle board rides.
Our fleet of J/24’s, RS Ventures, kayaks and stand up paddle boards were all voted MVP’s of the day.
US Coast Guard Auxiliary answered questions and further stressed safe boating. And passed out the free DBW life jackets.
Talented supporting cast from Glitter in the City and TISC volunteers kept kids of all ages psyched and occupied during the day. Needless to say Peets Coffee in Berkeley and Beauty’s Bagels in Oakland were morning favorites, while Adam’s Grub Truck was the preferred afternoon stop for many hungry sailors.
Clipper Cove is the only venue in San Francisco Bay that can host events like this because of the steady winds, protected space, lack of current and easy water access via docks and ramps. 
It’s no wonder nearly 4,000 children, youth and adults sailed or paddled on Clipper Cove last year. This number 1,338 San Francisco 4th graders who took part in 51 TISC-sponsored hands-on STEM classes plus sailing in RS Ventures during 2015 (since Fall, 2013 SSL inception, TISC has sponsored 3,566 students in 135 classes from 31 SFUSD elementary schools).
On this picture perfect day all areas of the cove provided a fun, safe and protected place to sail and paddle. 
As ideal and safe as Clipper Cove is for our opening day festivities we still had several safety boats on duty. In a few cases even the light winds lead to a few paddlers “calling for a taxi”.
I didn’t see much traffic to and from the marina, however the boats I did see were careful and respectful of the smaller craft that dotted the cove.
Not everyone was ready for getting out on the Cove, and our team had plenty of fun and games lined up for the future sailors.
Which is not to say kids were left ashore. To the contrary they were focused and engaged in all points of sail (including the very active 2 year-old who triggered our man-overboard drill when he threw his dad’s new hat overboard).
Based on the many phones and cameras I saw, I’m guessing Facebook, Twitter and Instagram had plenty of action from our visitors.
Clipper Cove is a great place to admire the new Bay Bridge. 
Hard to see in the above photo, however the eastern area of the cove is very shallow before getting much deeper as you depart the cove and head to the flats. And this bottom bathymetry is exactly what keeps the high currents out of the cove.
So another TISC Opening Day is on the books. Now YOUR family’s fun can begin. Here’s the link with an overview of the many classes offered by Treasure Island Sailing Center: http://tisailing.org/basics.
And as you head out onto California waters this summer, WEAR YOUR LIFEJACKET.
Regards from On The Cove, Dave G
PS – A special tip-of-the-hat to Valerie Santori and Andrew Shaw for many of the photos in this blog post.
In the wake:
Here are a few more links to the California Division of Boating and Waterway website:
- You can find a wide range of useful information on their home page: http://www.dbw.ca.gov
- Here is a fun, interactive page your kids can use in the car on the way to their favorite water spot: http://www.dbw.ca.gov/AquaSmart.
- This page contains a special kids section including Spanish and English safe boating coloring books: http://www.dbw.ca.gov/AquaSmart/html/kids_activity_books.html