By Tobias Young

The nonprofit Petaluma Small Craft Center, which operates the Floathouse on a dock in the Petaluma River Turning Basin, has come a long way since 2007 when it was founded.

The Petaluma Small Craft Center was envisioned as a means to bring awareness and public access to the Petaluma River while exploring the river’s possibilities, said founder Greg Sabourin.

If the Bands on the Basin concert on Saturday, July 11, is any indication, it is succeeding.

Scott Ferrara, the creator and main force behind Bands on the Basin, said the idea came to him during COVID. He loves live music, he was bored during the days of social distancing, and inspiration struck while he was at Taps, a bar and restaurant overlooking the river.

Ferrara said social media indicates 2,000 people have indicated an interest in coming to the concert, some from as far away as Alaska. If even half that many actually show up, it would be a record, he said.

It is difficult to estimate how many people go to the show, since it is free and can be enjoyed from boats, docks, rooftops, and nearby pubs and restaurants. Perhaps 100 people came to the first show in 2020, Ferrara said. Each year, it has drawn bigger crowds.

This year the lineup includes local bands Sebastian Saint James, The SoulShake, and Foxes in the Henhouse.

The Floathouse itself, which serves as the stage for the concert, is a million-dollar dock and rental center that invites people to explore the Petaluma River’s tidal slough by renting out nearly 60 kayaks, paddleboards, and other small water crafts.

The Floathouse and Bands on the Basin are only two of the entities under the umbrella of the Small Craft Center. The Floathouse organizes history tour paddles, paddleboard lessons, river races, free yoga, full moon rowing, sailing lessons for kids with help from Petaluma Yacht Club volunteers, and other events.

“We’re a small but mighty nonprofit,” Sabourin said. “We don’t get a lot of publicity. But we did get this million dollar project up and running. Our mission is to improve access to the Petaluma River. If people get out on the river, we feel they will want to protect and improve the river.”

History lessons on the river

Leslie Scatchard, a retired teacher who previously operated and directed the Clear Heart Children’s Theater in a barn at her home off Petaluma Boulevard, came up with the idea for a kayak river history tour. She researched the characters and wrote the script.

The 90-minute tour takes place monthly, May through October, on various Sundays. The next tour is 10 a.m. on Sunday, July 12. It includes as many as six characters dressed in period costume from the late 1800s, who interact with the tour group at various locations on shore.

The characters help tell the story of Petaluma, a bustling river town that was helping to feed the gold rush towns that had sprung up beyond Sacramento and San Francisco, shipping produce and meat through the rivers and bays.

The characters tell stories about girls as young as 9 who worked in Petaluma factories, boys who were roused at 4 a.m. to work the farm, a bridge tender who lived in the tiny room that operates the city draw bridge, dock workers, and Scatchard’s favorite, a woman named Fanny Brown.

Brown, an authentic Petaluma figure of history, ran a bordello out of a Victorian on the Turning Basin when prostitution was the biggest occupation for California women after the gold rush. Brown limited her crew to six women, taught them math and reading and writing, paid them a salary, and even took them to the opera, Scatchard said. Given the options, working for Brown proved to be good employment.

“She was really quite lovely to work for,” Scatchard said, according to the historical evidence. “If you were lucky enough to work for her, you were doing very well.”

Almost three dozen flat-bottomed scow schooners plied the tidal slough in those days, delivering supplies and shipping out food. The sailors were usually stuck waiting for the next high tide, which meant plenty of business for the town’s 42 saloons and roughly 20 brothels.

Visions of a community boat house

The Petaluma Small Craft Center has also been pursuing the construction of a community boat house. There is little city, county or state land ownership along the river banks to grant a lease, so Sabourin and others are looking at additional options. One of those opportunities may be the McNear Peninsula, a 24-acre property just south of the Turning Basin.

Sabourin said the center is in talks with the Petaluma River Park Foundation who purchased the land for a public park. Sabourin describes the River Park Foundation as “working on turning the peninsula into the Central Park of Petaluma.” He is hoping the Small Craft Center can sign an agreement with the River Park Foundation to allow for construction of a boat house, which could be used by boating clubs and for functions of other community groups.

Several boating clubs use the river

The oldest boating group on the river is North Bay Rowing Club, which Sabourin founded in 1984. The club supports rowers of all ages and skill levels, ranging from recreation to competitive racing. Among its many programs, it offers a competitive high school rowing team, a Sonoma State University crew team, and masters competitive racing.

Other clubs on the river include three outrigger canoe clubs using Hawaiian-style outrigger canoes; and the River Town Racers, an all-ages kayak and surfski racing team. The biggest problem these boating clubs have is a place to store their boats.

“Most of these clubs, particularly the rowing club and the racing club, are poised for growth,” Sabourin said. “Right now they operate out of shipping containers.”

A boat house could alleviate that problem, providing a permanent home for the clubs and their gear. No money is currently raised or earmarked for the boat house, but the fundraising will come after a location is identified, Sabourin said.