The heart of the Dolphin Club’s fleet is our traditional lapstrake-construction wooden rowboats. Currently the club has more than 20 wooden boats of various hull forms in our Jefferson Street boathouses. Some of these were built many decades ago – the John Wieland, our oldest boat, was built in 1887 – while our newest additions, the Commodore and Semper Fi, were built more recently, in 2016.
The unique hull forms of the club’s nine singles and three doubles were developed at the Dolphin Club. These boats are the descendants of the working boats that ferried people and goods from larger ships, but with modified hull forms and the addition of sliding seats for greater rowing efficiency. These boats were developed specifically for Dolphin Club members to row the Bay and Delta water for recreation and as piloting vessels for swimmers. They are unique to the Dolphin Club, and because of this, technical drawings of our boats are housed in the Library of Congress.
More information on the boats in our wooden fleet can be found in the Wooden Boat Catalog. Interested in distance rowing? Discover more about the Club’s history of multi-day rows to Sacramento.
You can contact woodenboats@dolphinclub.org for questions about the Dolphin Club’s wooden fleet.
Every Tuesday, wooden boat enthusiasts are welcomed as volunteers at Boat Night in the club’s on-site boat shop.
Work to keep our wooden boats in top notch shape occurs every Tuesday from 6 to 9 pm, preceded by communal dinner at 5 pm.
Boat Night is fun, social, and educational. You don’t need to know anything about woodwork or boat building…just bring your enthusiasm and prepared to get a little dirty (we do a lot of sanding and varnishing). Volunteers from the membership and the public are welcome, but no children please (attendees must be 18 or older).
Contact boatshop@dolphinclub.org with any questions.
All Dolphin Club members may row our wooden boats after they have received training and certification at the club. Monthly volunteer member-run training sessions are open to all members; no past rowing experience is required.
Every year qualified members row our wooden boats on multi-day excursions throughout the Bay and into the Delta, including an annual row to Sacramento.
A history of Sacramento Rows»