The seed that would become the Treasure Island Sailing Center (TISC) was planted many years before the Center grew to be a reality. It occurred before Carisa Harris-Adamson, the chairperson of TISC’s board and one of the Center’s founders, was even a teenager. Her father, who would drop Carisa off for sailing practice with her sister, had a vision of making sailing accessible to more people. His ideas were not well-received in the conservative, East Coast community where Carisa grew up, but she took his values to heart and brought them west to San Francisco.

Carisa was a two-time NCAA All-American and National Champion at Tufts University and placed fifth at the 1996 US Olympic Sailing Trials. After Naval Station Treasure Island was closed in 1997, and prior to the 2000 Olympics, a campaign called Goldrush 2000 was established to support Olympic hopefuls through a training center on the shore of Treasure Island’s Clipper Cove. The infrastructure from the campaign became the Treasure Island Sailing Center, San Francisco’s only 501(c)(3) community sailing center. Carisa was its first instructor, teaching twelve girls from Delancey Street’s Life Learning Academy on Navy keelboats.

In 2013, the year the America’s Cup came to San Francisco Bay, TISC started a STEM education program called Set Sail Learn, or SSL. They hired instructors to teach both the on-water and classroom components of SSL, with classes in Bay Ecology, The Power of the Wind, and Maritime History. The Center continued to grow, and by 2019 they had more than 100 boats and were serving over 3,000 adults and youth annually in their programs, with more than 80% of the youth component attending on scholarship. It was also in 2019 that TISC finally got a 66-year lease with the city, taking the edge off the anxiety of never knowing if your lease was about to be terminated, and creating security for larger capital campaigns.

An important feature of TISC is its strategic location on Clipper Cove, offering a protected learning environment for new sailors that is equaled by only a few places on the Bay. The cove was actually engineered that way when the island was built, so that Pan Am’s China Clippers—for which the cove is named—would have flat water for their takeoffs and landings (video 2:53).

If you have been a regular reader of this newsletter, you will also know that TISC played a huge role in the growth of the Sailing Science Center, with the majority of the SSC’s volunteers prior to 2020 entering the SSC through the adult Social Sailing Program at TISC. The synergy between TISC and the SSC continues, with the SSC scheduled to provide mini exhibitions on the final days of TISC’s four 2022 summer sessions. We look forward to holding these exhibitions and to growing our partnership with TISC.

Our volunteer event for April was the SSC's Pop-Up Exhibition in support of the Tall Ship Celebration and Fundraiser being held by Call of the Sea. We had all the SSC's exhibits there and a record volunteer turnout.

Call of the Sea estimated 200 attendees showed up for their celebration and fundraiser. The SSC registered thirteen new newsletter subscribers and signed up six new volunteers.

In April we interviewed Cree Partridge, owner of the Berkeley Marine Center and installer of the first hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered auxiliary on a West Coast sailboat. Cree discusses his early boating background, boatbuilding designs and materials, and makes an astonishing claim about ferro-cement boats. He also reveals his favorite boat-building material. Listen to the podcast to find out... (48:02)

[Editor's Note: We think Cree embodies what this issue is all about: finding a calling doing what you love doing and going to play every day instead of going to work every day.]

This month's banner photo is of kids playing on boats at the Treasure Island Sailing Center. During our developmental years, our play teaches us how to interact socially, informs us about our environment (Look at that! Cheerios fall on the floor.), and stimulates creativity. As adults, playing can continue to bring joy and fulfillment.