Master Mariners Benevolent Association

The Master Mariners Regatta

The Master Mariners Regatta is the Master Mariners Benevolence Association crowning event that takes place every year on Memorial Day weekend. The Regatta consists of a full-day of racing on the bay between 80 and 100 classic wooden sailing vessels in over a dozen different classes. The regatta start is in front of the St. Francis Yacht Club, and all boats finish near Clipper Cove behind Treasure Island after traversing the bay according to class courses. Many boats fly the house flag of a local sponsor who is also honored at a formal luncheon the week before at the St. Francis Yacht Club.  A post-regatta raft-up, party, and dinner with music and dancing takes place at the Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda.  Many boats spend the night and sail home the following day after a pot-luck breakfast. 

Originally a race between the working boats of San Francisco Bay sponsored by the Boatmen’s Protective Association as part of the Fourth of July festivities beginning in 1867, the event continued on and off under the Master Mariners Benevolence Association until 1891. The revelry started with lively wagers and thousands of cheering crowds on deck, on shore, and from Telegraph Hill and concluded with the gala ball where the winners were awarded a silken Champion pendent emblazoned with a strutting gamecock. The event continued until steam technology overtook the age of sail at the end of the late 18th century.

After being nearly forgotten for over seven decades, the spirit and tradition of the Master Mariner’s Regatta was revived in 1965 for National Maritime Day and has continued uninterrupted every year since. The modern MMBA regatta has been primarily attended by classically built wooden pleasure craft rather than the hay scows and lumber schooners of previous generations. The National Historic Landmark scow schooner Alma, berthed at Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco’s National Maritime Historic Park, represents the last of an era of the working boats that originally raced in the Master Mariners Regatta.