The Nunes Brothers Boat and Ways Co.

By Annie Sutter

The Nunes brothers, Manuel and Antonio, came from the island of Pico in the Azores. They emigrated to California in the late 1800s and began boatbuilding on the Sacramento river circa 1898. In 1925 the brothers made the move to Sausalito, taking over the Reliance Boat and Ways Co. at Second and Main. Over the next 35 years they designed and built a great variety of vessels. Power cruisers, sailing yachts, luxury yachts, fishing boats, large commercial vessels, runabouts and race boats were launched regularly.

In 1927 they built the yawl Truant, a 66-foot racing yacht. In 1928 they took on the construction of two huge tuna clippers, the 112-foot Funchal and Greyhound. In 1929 they were commissioned by the banker, Templeton Crocker, for a yacht so large it had to be built in the street alongside the shop, the 127-foot schooner Zaca.

The son who would eventually carry on the business was Ernie, who was 15 when the yard moved to Sausalito. He built his own boat, a 30-meter racing sloop Teaser, and raced in regattas with Myron Spaulding, Joe McAleese, and Herb Madden, to name only a few of the Sausalitans competing on the bay in the early 30s. Star Boats, Bird Boats and Golden Gates were popular.

It was during the ‘30s that most of their successful class racing boats were designed. First was the 23-foot Bear; the boat was immediately popular and remains active in class competition today. The company brought out a larger version, the Big Bear; only a few were built, and it would be redesigned into the popular 30-foot Hurricane. In 1938 Ernie designed the Mercury, which would become a great success a decade later. Only a few were built at that time, for the war made production of pleasure craft impossible. Production continued, but it took a new direction; Coast Guard vessels, government contracts, and two 88-foot tugs were constructed for the U.S. Army.

After the war, the yard expanded to include a “do it yourself” area, and it was then that the building of Bears and Hurricanes began. Sailors could buy a boat in any of a number of stages of completion and finish it in the yard. The yard laid the keel, and then the builder followed the design from a mold. Two sailors who built Bears there recall: “You’d buy the hull and the mold — for $10 a month you’d get the use of your space and the use of tools. They were the most generous people with help and equipment. If there was ever anyone who helped people to go sailing it was them — they’d sure give you advice if you had the sense to ask for it.”

It must have been a busy scene in the mid ‘40s. The long narrow shop had expanded to include a shed to the south where Bears were built, and another shed on the beach for Hurricanes and repair work. There was an office in the front of the long building, and a machine shop with a big, powerful band saw. Manuel’s design loft was upstairs.

Launchings were an excuse for a party. “They’d blow the whistle and everybody’d drop what they were doing and come running,” one wag reported. Fishermen docked at nearby piers always came running for the parties, too. Parts of the movie “Lady from Shanghai” with Orson Welles were filmed there.

In 1946 Ernie set up his own shop across the street in a large tin shed at Second and Main and went into production of Mercuries — the boat he had designed in 1938. It was a kit boat, built of plywood. The purchaser bought the plans and precut plywood pieces and put it to together himself. It was a very popular design, and Mercury fleets sprang up all over California.

In the mid 1950s they built a harbor in the cove. They drove pilings and installed piers and slips, and for breakwaters towed in barges that had been used as navy targets. Unfortunately winter southerlies are common at the cove, and they played havoc with the harbor. One winter a barge got loose, and the Coast Guard had to tow it back. The harbor was fated to be short-lived, and by 1962 the boats were all gone. In 1959 the yard closed. A complex of apartments called Portofino rose on the site. Across the street at Second and Main Ernie continued a limited production of Mercuries. He closed that shop in 1962, and all that remains today are the rusting shed and a few signs.

Today at high water, waves lap at the front of the Portofino apartments, and at low tide you can see the old ways on the beach looking like railroad tracks going into the water. The pier at Valley Street used by the fishermen is gone. Two of the old target barges are still there, and at low water their twisted and rusted spikes are visible. The old Nunes pier sags and tilts, and it’s fenced and off limits. That’s all that’s left of the yard — but there are a lot of yachts sailing on the bay today to stand as testimonial to the quality of workmanship and the skill of the builders at the Nunes Brothers.