Wooden Boat AtlasDesigners, builders & classes · v3.0

Atlas / Builders & Yards

1913 – ; the family shaped the Sausalito waterfront for a century · Sausalito, California

Arques Boatyard

Napa Street then Johnson Street, Sausalito

A barge and workboat yard that became, through the family's postwar landholdings, the origin of Sausalito's houseboat community — and, through the Arques Trust, of its boatbuilding school.

Founder
Camillo Arques, boatyard at Napa Street from 1913, Johnson Street from 1915; wooden barges for commercial and military clients
Succession
Sons Donlon 'Don' and Bub Arques; the family came to manage large parts of the former Marinship property after WWII
Legacy
The Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding, endowed by Don and Vera Arques and founded by Bob Darr in June 1996; housed at Spaulding Marine Center since 2007
Don Arques
Died 1993. Known as the godfather of the waterfront for letting G.I.-Bill veterans convert surplus Marinship barges and hulls into houseboats at Waldo Point
  • 1913 onwardWooden barges
Sourcing notes & unresolved questions
  • A 1914 photograph is captioned 'Crichton and Arques Boatyard' and one compiled list names 'Crichton & Arques' among historic Sausalito yards, but who Crichton was could not be confirmed from any institutional source.
  • Corrected 29 July 2026. This atlas previously implied the Arques School began at Spaulding in 2007. The school was founded in June 1996 by Bob Darr on the Arques endowment; 2007 is when it moved to the Spaulding Marine Center.

Wooden Boat Atlas v3.0 · built 30 July 2026 · a project of the Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · open data · corrections