Sandbar blocks San Francisco Marina harbor, city promises reopening this week
A sandbar left West Harbor nearly unusable, stranding boats and squeezing emergency access. City officials now say San Francisco Marina should reopen by week’s end.
Boats sat in a channel so shallow that, at its tightest point, there was only about a foot of water, turning San Francisco Marina’s West Harbor into a months-long choke point for boaters, waterfront businesses, nonprofits and emergency responders. City officials now say the harbor should be open by the end of the week, but the bigger question on the Marina waterfront is why a blockage that obvious took so long to clear.
The sandbar cut through a working harbor in one of the city’s most visible neighborhoods, where access to the water is not just recreational but part of daily operations. In a place that once helped the city respond to catastrophe, the blockage carried special weight: during the 1989 earthquake, the fireboat The Phoenix used West Harbor seawater to help firefighters after water mains failed. That history made the loss of access feel less like a nuisance than a safety problem.
The Recreation and Parks Department said small- and medium-sized vessels were again able to navigate the channel, and it moved to soften the blow for berth holders by waiving the dredging fee for July through September billing for boaters in good standing. That relief does not apply to new berthing licenses that took effect June 1 or later. The department also said the Marina Yacht Harbor is San Francisco’s oldest recreational marina, with vessels berthed in the West Harbor since before the 1906 earthquake. Today the harbor spans about 35 acres and includes 727 berths, along with guest berths and a commercial fuel dock.
Harbor users were already feeling the disruption by late April. The Blue Water Foundation said dredging problems were still affecting operations and that the Golden Bear had been moved temporarily to make room for the work. The St. Francis Yacht Club said dredging began in March but progressed intermittently, then said a new contractor, the Dutra Group, started dredging operations on April 29. That timeline suggests the problem had been building for weeks before the public saw a clearer fix take shape.
The delay also points to the slow machinery behind routine waterfront maintenance in San Francisco Bay. Dredging and disposal require coordination through the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Dredged Material Management Office, under the Long Term Management Strategy framework that ties together federal, state and local agencies. A 2017 Army Corps public notice shows the city had already sought a 10-year permit for maintenance dredging at West Harbor, underscoring how long-known sediment problems can still linger when approvals, contractors and timing do not line up.
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