One wants to say Dockside Attraction in Old San Francisco, because visiting the Dolphin Club feels a bit like time travel. Especially once you get through the front door and see the rooms full of wooden boats. The Dolphin Club, founded in 1877, is not only a rowing and swimming club, but also a place to learn how to build and repair these boats. The club has 20 wooden Whitehall-style rowboats of the type originally used in New York to taxi goods out to ships in the harbor. Whitehall rowboats (named after the eponymous street in NYC) performed a similar function in old San Francisco, and the club has Jon Bielinski, a master of the boat builder's art, to maintain them. Mr. Bielinski has also built several of the club's Whitehalls, which range from 14 to 22 feet. The oldest boat in his charge was built in 1917.
Where else can you find someone to show you how to build a wooden boat these days? Especially at the membership rates offered by the Dolphin Club. I was invited to swim there on a recent Sunday morning by a friend who had joined at the "out of town" annual rate of $119. Locals pay $475, and there's a $111 initiation fee. There's got to be a catch, right? Well, not exactly a catch, more like a hallowed tradition…
The Dolphin, while it is a swim club, does not have a pool. Members swim in the same place they do their rowing: San Francisco Bay. On the day I was there, a lively group of men and women stroked smoothly through the water, some of them going impressive distances, including my friend Alfred, who cranked out half a mile. The water temperature that day was 56 degrees F. Wetsuits? Nobody was wearing one. They aren't prohibited, but a sign indicating that wetsuits are not allowed inside the building conveys the message that bringing a wetsuit for your swim might be considered a failure of tone, like bringing a bottle of Ripple to a wine-tasting event.
The Dolphin Club is located at 502 Jefferson Street at the Aquatic Park. The creaky old wooden building smells of salt air and varnish, and if you can wrangle an invitation it's worth a visit just to take in the artifacts and the atmosphere. It's also not far from the Maritime Museum pictured below, a 1939 WPA project and a stunningly pure example of Streamline Moderne style, which deserves an essay of its own, and will get one soon.
Footnote: The author left his wetsuit fifty miles south with his surfboard, and couldn't persuade himself to experience the joys of water temps in the mid-fifties without it. Maybe next time…
Photo credits:
All photos by the author.
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