Sailing, rowing, and boatbuilding aren’t typical afterschool programs. Rocking the Boat may change that.
Kids who grow up in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco live near the water, about as close as you can get without living on a houseboat. But getting on the water has been out of reach for many, historically, on this site of a former Navy shipyard. And while boating struggles with perceptions of elitism and limited access, one nonprofit is shaking up the status quo and making boating accessible to teens. Since 2024, “Rocking the Boat” has been teaching Bay Area high schoolers historic boat building practices and the sport of rowing, and they next plan to launch into sailing.
“We make sure the program is easy to access. It’s free of charge,” said Chris Childers, Executive Director of San Francisco’s Rocking the Boat. “We know many of our participants don't have swimming ability and may even have traumatic experiences around the water, so we provide swimming lessons for free to all participants in the summer.”
Like boating, swimming has also come to be recognized as prohibitive, because many don’t grow up with access to a pool. In recent years, more nonprofits and activists have worked to make swimming more accessible, and Rocking the Boat teaches participants a range of services and skills, including swimming, adding to teens’ confidence on the water.
“We know full bellies promote learning, so we provide a warm meal at every program offering,” added Childers, a familiar figure on San Francisco Bay who has taught hundreds of kids to sail. “This makes learning to do boating easier. We provide Family nights to get moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, brothers and sisters on board. We also realize high school kids are dealing with a lot, so we partner with a Social Work clinic to provide behavioral health and social work support to students at every program offering.”
A team of teens spent the past year building a 16-foot boat from scratch during afterschool work sessions at Rocking the Boat’s waterfront workshop. The handmade wooden rowboat is a replica of the historic Whitehall, “Alderbrook.” Students christened, launched, and rowed the boat for the first time on August 8, at India Basin Waterfront Park in San Francisco. Launch Day was attended by 16 student boat builders and their families, local residents, officials from the City, and even San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. The new boat will be housed at India Basin Waterfront Park as a resource for the community, with public rows every other Saturday.
“It’s not your average after school program, and it’s not as easy as it might look. You need space, you need equipment, you need materials, you need a boat builder,” said Kim Howard, Development Manager for Rocking the Boat San Francisco. Howard says the nonprofit is a tribute to the history of boat building at Bayview-Hunters Point, and serves the community through a combination of youth programs and job readiness skills.
“For many kids, the idea of being on and around the water is anxiety inducing, and so the reactions come in stages: timid participation at first, then curiosity and interest, and then eagerness,” said Chris Childers. “We have more than a few students who have been incredibly nervous about getting on a tippy rowboat, and it has taken weeks or months to get them to warm up. Much of the warming up is the result of repeated exposure, leaning into safety and positive risk-taking, all known benefits from playing in boats.”
This is the second location for a project originally founded in 1996 in the Bronx, New York. Rocking the Boat next plans to launch a sailing program locally, after a sailing program was already proven successful at their sister location. Expect to see the Rocking the Boat teens sailing soon on San Francisco Bay.
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