Spaulding Wooden Boat Center, Maritime museum in Sausalito, California.
The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center is a maritime museum on the Sausalito waterfront in Marin County, California, where wooden boats are built and restored by hand. The site combines open workshops, exhibition space, and a school of traditional boatbuilding all in one waterfront compound.
The center traces back to 1951, when yacht designer Myron Spaulding began building wooden boats on the Sausalito waterfront as a private endeavor. After his death, his widow Gladys established a charitable trust in 2002 to keep the work going as a public organization.
Visitors can watch boat builders shape and assemble wooden hulls using tools and methods passed down over generations, which gives the place a workshop feel rather than a museum feel. The setting attracts people who want to see craft work happening in real time, not just read about it on a wall panel.
The workshops are most active on weekdays, so a midweek visit gives a better chance of seeing boat builders at work. The site sits right on the water, so bringing a layer of clothing is a good idea since the bay breeze can be cool even on warm days.
The Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding, housed on site, teaches plank-on-frame construction, a method that few boatbuilding programs in the country still teach in a hands-on way. During active courses, visitors can watch apprentices building real boats under the guidance of experienced builders, which is not something most waterfront museums offer.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
