The Dolphin Club, also known as the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club, is an athletic club in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. It caters to

open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water human swimming, swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when L ...

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

, kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, and 4-wall

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

. The clubhouse and

boat house A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

buildings are owned by the

San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park i ...

and leased to the club. The club had 1,000 members in 2010, and claims 1,500 members today.

History

The Dolphin Swimming and Rowing Club was founded in July 1877 by a small group of German immigrants, including John Wieland, Valentine Kehrlein Sr. and their respective sons, together with Edward J Borremans, Louis Schroeder, Edward Peterson, Adolph C. Lutgens and Ernest H. Lutgens, who wanted to form a private sporting and social club, along similar lines to the

Turnverein Turners (german: Turner) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics. Turners, especially Francis Lieber, 1798–1872, were the leading sponsors of gy ...

, a club which they had been members of in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. Membership of the club was originally limited to 25 members. Emil Arthur Kehrlein, the eldest son of Valentine Sr., served as the club's inaugural president. The club petitioned the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to erect a small clubhouse/equipment shack and pier at the junction of Beach and Leavenworth Streets, an area known as Bilge Water Cove. They were granted permission in April 1878. A surplus building was acquired from the

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. ...

and the new building took a month to erect. In 1881, the club expelled seven members including Emil and his brother Valetine Jr. The brothers would later establish the nearby Triton Rowing Club, and, in 1899, founded the Hotel Nymphia brothel. By 1886, the club had increased to over fifty members and was formally incorporated in 1888. In 1887, the club added the river

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

, ''John Wieland'', to its fleet. In 1895, facing increasing development of the waterfront the club resolved to relocate to a more protected site at the foot of

Van Ness Avenue Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed Van Ness Avenue in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness. The main part of Van Ness Avenue runs fro ...

. Adolph C. Lutgens, an architect, was responsible for designing the club's

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

in 1896 The club constructed a new clubhouse in February 1897, at a cost of $1,800, at the edge of Black Point Cove. The clubhouse/

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

has since been moved twice, once in 1927 and again in 1937 to what is its current location on the corner of Hyde and Jefferson Streets. The relocation of the building was necessitated by the extension of Van Ness Avenue, the construction of municipal

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

, and the development of Aquatic Park Cove including the municipal public bathing bathhouse (which was originally intended to be the home of the Dolphin and South End clubs) and grandstand in 1936. Since 1949, the club has maintained a print magazine called the ''Dolphin Log''. In 1956, Les Hedry, a rowing member who had done races with the club on the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

near Stockton, organized a row from the club to

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, approximately 105 miles, initially to visit the

State Fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in th ...

. The club would soon make the Sacramento Row an annual event. In 1976, six women brought up a lawsuit that resulted in the Dolphin Club and the South End Rowing Club allowing women to become members. Their lawyer noted that "the basis of the suit was not gender bias, but federal law that governed any institution operating on public parkland". Women officially joined in 1977, and as of 2019, make up about a third of the membership.

Boat fleet

Dolphin Club rowboat in early morning light with oars and flotation seats

The Dolphin Club has more than 34 wooden, fiberglass and carbon rowboats, almost all with sliding seats. The club also has

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s, standup paddleboards, and motorized

zodiacs The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...

. The whitehalls and other wooden rowboats are built from oak, mahogany, cedar (seats, breasthook, burden boards), apple (breasthook, knees), and black locust (breasthook, ribs). Three kinds of cedar are used, Port Orford cedar from Oregon, Alaskan yellow and Spanish cedar. Two kinds of mahogany are used, Honduras and African mahogany. Since 1990, the club has harvested black locust wood from a grove in

Isleton, California Isleton is a city in Sacramento County, California, United States. The population was 804 at the 2010 census, down from 828 at the 2000 census. It is located on Andrus Island amid the slough wetlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, on ...

. Black locust are known for its resistance to rot, durability and straight grain, making it desirable for use as fence posts and wooden boats.
Dolphin Club rowboat in early morning light with oars and flotation seats

Activities and events

Members include local residents and athletes training for swimming the English Channel. According to a video from KQED, many swimmers do not wear wet suits. Dolphin club back deck

The Dolphin Club hosts a polar bear swim challenge where members attempt to swim in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

inside Aquatic Park during the winter season. Since 1956, the Dolphin Club has hosted an annual row from the club to

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

.Sacramento Row references from Dolphin Club and its members: * * * In 1984, Jon Bielinski started hosting a weekly boat night, where members and guests would socialize and do maintenance and repair on the club's wooden boats. About twice a month, the Dolphin Club hosts a weekend swim in the San Francisco Bay. Most of the swims leave the Aquatic Park Cove. Swimmers are piloted by club boats for protection. Out-of-cove swims include swimming the length of the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

from south to north (approximately ), swimming from the Bay Bridge to the Dolphin Club (approximately ), and the Escape from Alcatraz swims (approximately ), the last of which has been part of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlons.

Notable members / alumni

* Kim Chambers, open water swimmer * Walt Stack, founder of the Dolphin South End Runners

References

External links