Who is accountable.

The Foundation employs no boatwrights and owns no yard. Restoration is carried out by the Bay’s working maritime trades — family yards, independent boatwrights, riggers, sailmakers, marine surveyors — engaged project by project for the skills each boat needs.

Engagement is deliberately formal. Every paid engagement is under written contract with a defined scope, a fixed or not-to-exceed price, milestone-based payment, and written approval for work beyond scope. We obtain comparable estimates for major phases, and where a contractor has any connection to a director, the connection is disclosed, the director recuses, and the reasoning goes in the minutes. Qualifications matter more than price alone: demonstrated wooden-boat restoration experience, standing in the Bay’s wooden boat community, appropriate facilities and insurance, and willingness to have the work documented.

What the trades get from us in return: proper rates paid on time, published credit for the work, and a client whose whole mission is that their crafts survive.

Current engagement: Yankee’s restoration is at Richardson Bay Boatworks in Sausalito — the yard’s story is told on the project site →

The West Coast Seafaring Society is the 501(c)(3) that holds title to the vessels, the EIN, insurance, and bank accounts. The Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation is its public-facing identity and program: fundraising, donor communications, and public activity run under the Foundation’s name, while the Society carries the legal and financial obligations. Over time the Foundation is intended to become the permanent organizational home, with the Society’s continuity preserved for legal and legacy purposes.

Where the governance work stands. The Foundation is a young organization building its governance structure deliberately rather than retroactively. The board commissioned a full governance review in April 2026 covering conflict of interest, gift acceptance, financial controls, project qualification, contracting, vessel operations, and asset disposition. That framework is being adopted in stages, and we would rather describe it accurately while it is in progress than imply a completeness we have not reached. What follows is the standard the board is working to.

Conflict of interest. Directors and officers are to file annual written disclosures. Anyone with a financial interest in a transaction discloses it in writing before the matter is considered and recuses from discussion and vote; the remaining disinterested directors determine whether the terms are fair and at or below market, and the determination goes into the minutes. California law caps interested persons at 49% of the board, and the Foundation intends to stay well under it.

Spending. The approval thresholds the board is adopting: under $2,500, the President or Treasurer, reported to the board; $2,500 to $10,000, President and Treasurer jointly; over $10,000, and any contract over $10,000 regardless of duration, advance board approval by majority vote. Directors and officers receive no compensation. That last one is not aspirational — it is how the organization has operated from the start.

Gifts. Cash, checks, electronic payments, and publicly traded securities are accepted without further review, as are mission-related material donations under $5,000. Gifts of $10,000 or more, vessels, real property, and restricted or conditional gifts go to the board. We decline gifts that would jeopardize tax-exempt status, and vessels whose environmental remediation costs exceed their value. Written acknowledgment is issued for every contribution of $250 or more.

Restricted gifts. A gift designated for a particular boat is legally binding on us, and we treat it that way — tracked separately in the books and reported on the Form 990. Because circumstances change, restricted gift agreements include a release: if the board determines the restricted purpose is no longer feasible or has been fulfilled, remaining funds go to the Foundation’s general mission. Donors are told this at the time of the gift, not afterward.

Meetings and records. The board meets at least quarterly, and written minutes are kept for every meeting, including votes, disclosures, and recusals.

Disposition. No vessel or asset over $5,000 is to be sold, transferred, or scrapped without a majority board vote, at fair market value supported by appraisal or survey. The preferred path for a boat we can no longer maintain is transfer to another 501(c)(3) with a compatible mission. Where a vessel cannot be saved, her spars, sails, rigging, hardware, and timber go to other wooden boats. As a 501(c)(3), the Foundation holds its assets in charitable trust: they cannot be distributed for private benefit, and they will not be.