Page 43 - Sonoma County Gazette June 2017

PETALUMA RIVER cont’d from page 42
The Floathouse will have 120’ of low dock, ideal for launching and landing small craft, a 20’ x 22’ floating office, and seven pilings, which PSCC hopes will be driven during the “fish window” of July 1- September 30, 2017. The pilings and docks are ready and waiting. Once built, The Floathouse will be “a beacon of boating”, the venue for rentals of a wide variety of craft, as well as events: not only the summer camps the group already offers (currently at the rowing club’s docks and the public docks by the yacht club), but also evening classes, spring break camps, VIP tours by electric boat, special community gatherings, local history boating tours, and more. There are many ways to donate, including naming opportunities and legacy gifts.
Down river, PSCC plans a home for all of the clubs currently operating on properties up and down the river. At the moment, the NBRC boatyard serves as a de facto community boatyard. Situated behind Van Bebber Brothers, accessed through the Foundry Wharf parking lot at the end of 2nd Street, it hosts NBRC juniors and masters, SSU Crew, River Town Racers kayak racing club, and He’e Na’lu. All told, probably 150 boaters share the crowded space, communicating closely to schedule workouts and camps. PSCC holds two of its three summer camps there, NBRC has four juniors rowing camps and three adult Learn-to- Row sessions just over the summer months. The space is filled to the bursting point.
The Community Boathouse has already been sketched, under a pro-bono agreement, by Dahlin Group Architects, which will be proscribing the form
of the single family homes for Comstock Homes at Riverfront, a Basin Street development. Although years away from completion, this boathouse will answer the clubs’ dreams to finally have a common home, docks, and a place to welcome the community to enjoy lessons in rowing, racing kayaking, and Hawaiian outrigger canoeing, and to consider membership in the various clubs for year-round outdoor activity on “Petaluma’s longest park”.
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