CSC partners with the Rose Foundation to promote sustainable sailing in the Bay

Last summer, the Third Vice-Commodores at the Cal Sailing Club identified an ambitious goal: to replace a gasoline motor with an electric one on one of the keelboats in our fleet. We at the Club enjoy sailing on the San Francisco Bay and want to protect the Bay’s watershed and wildlife for future generations to come.

In November of last year, a group of volunteers at the Club came together to write a grant to the California Watershed Protection Fund at the Rose Foundation. One month later, the club received the good news that it had been awarded $6,000 to achieve that goal. This grant brought the CSC one step closer to its long-term objective of turning its entire keelboat fleet greener one boat at a time.

While we had planned to acquire the motor by January 2026, we discovered that the price of the one we needed was $8,800, nearly $3,000 more than the grant we had received from the Rose Foundation.  So, we pursued and eventually secured this additional funding to bring us closer to the total and were able to draw from our budget to cover the rest. 

On May 15, 2026, Ryan Alder and another volunteer started working to install the new ePropulsion Navy Evo 3.0 with an E163 battery, roughly equivalent to the Club’s existing gasoline outboard motors.  They managed to get the motor mounted and hooked up to the battery and verify everything was working, yet the battery didn't quite fit, so they had to go back to the drawing board on how to mount it.

On June 28, 2026, after some more work and adjustments, our keelboat Meritorious was up and running and ready to join the fleet, offering free rides to the general public during the Club’s celebration of Pride 2026. That day alone, Timmo, the boat’s captain, along with his crew, gave nearly 20 rides to 80 total people, proud not only to be celebrating Pride, but also to know that they were the greener (and actually most yellow) keelboat in the fleet.

By substituting a gasoline-fueled motor with an electric one, the club saved more than 10 gallons of gasoline between May and August 2026 alone. Meritorious has taken dozens of trips with hundreds of passengers. It has saved the Club hours of buying, transporting and dispensing gasoline to the motor, and has prevented any additional potential gasoline spills.

The Rose Foundation made this all possible by trusting the Cal Sailing Club with the initial grant to buy the electric motor. We look forward to growing our partnership with the Foundation in order to continue protecting the San Francisco Bay watershed.