SF Bay Liveaboard Marina near San Jose

[tekguyonroad]

Greetings;
I'm looking for information regarding liveaboard marinas close to San Jose; specifically, does anyone know the status of the marinas at Bair Island? Is this area going to fall to real estate development? Can anyone make any suggestions regarding nice marinas to live at, keeping in mind I have to get to work everyday in San Jose. Any help would be appreciated. I just moved out here from Boston and I'm not familiar with the area and local politics!
Thanks,
Hank

[jim lee]

Oyster cove in South SF, would be one. There's a nearby train station that goes into San Jose. Or, if you can swing it, Redwood City would be a closer. I don't know if they allow live-aboards. All the harbors south of Redwood city are silted ip solid. (Palo Alto, Milpetas, Alviso..) For some unknown reason SF Bay is pretty livaboard hostile.

Good luck!

-jim lee

[Charlie]

Bair Island was bought by a developer around 2000 they kicked out all the boats and liveaboards b/c they were going to tear down the offices around the harbour and rebuild adding condos etc. The tec blow up put that on hold as office space stopped being in such high demand. I don't know what happen to the Marina. We left in 2001.

Forget Redwood City. Nothing available. Oyster Cove advertises, but the wind there is awful. We looked into it, and really did not like the marina.
FWIW, Moss Landing has slips, and live aboards occasionally come up if you are on the list. It is a one hour commute to south San Jose. We made that commute for 6 years, and it isn't too bad. The train runs from Gilroy, a 1/2 hour commute from Moss Landing. In the bay, according to Pete of Pete's Harbor discrace, there is a minum boat length for live aboards of 36' on deck. The Delta does have live aboard slips, but they are a rough commute due to traffic.
Is your boat out here? Or are you looking to purchase a boat with a slip?

TekGuy,

As you can see you will gets lots of different answers to this question.

You have gotten a mix of information so far, some of it out of date, some of it wrong.

Blair Island Marina does in fact exist. It is a new and pleasant marina, with an "official" no-liveaborad policy. That said I lived there for a year without a hassle. I keep a clean boat and sail it regularly, which seems to always help. There was a larger marina nearby in Redwood City that was demolished as part of a development project.

Pete's Harbor in Redwood City might have a 36-foot minimum for liveaboard boats, but there is no general rule that restricts liveaboards in the bay to larger boats.

The practical rule is that each marina sets its own policies. Some forbid liveaboards and enforce it totally, some forbid liveaboards and enforce it selectively, some forbid liveaboards, but don't really care, some allow a limited number of liveaboards and charge extra, some just don't care at all. Some of these policies are “not legal” but it is the way it is. Basically, if you don’t like it you can live on the hard ;-)

I am currently up in Sausalito. I am too far in distance and time to help you with south bay marinas. You need to be creative and be able to understand when "No liveaboards" is said with a wink and when it is meant for real. A walk on the docks in the evening can help you figure out which is which.

By the way, there are two marinas in South San Francisco, Oyster Cove is run by the county and always has lots of empty slips. They have a limited number of allowed liveaboard slips. I do not know if any are available. I considered moving there, but really did not want to deal with the insane bureaucracy of the county marina. There is a reason that they run such a high occupancy rate even though marina space is tight in the bay!

Oyster Creek is privately run nearby and is always full. They do have liveaboards there, but I do not know if they are “official” or not. It is a clean well run place with low turnover.

I know it would be easier if someone could tell you “There is liveaboard slip waiting for you at marina X” but it is not that simple.

[Craig Harlamoff]

I have friends at San Leandro. They say it's the best. You have local shopping, a decent marina and are about 35 minutes from SJ.