A brief history of Westpoint Harbor, in Redwood City, CA, as told by founder and President Mark Sanders. For more information: http://westpointharbor.com

Closed Captions (CC):
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I'm a boarder and I'm an

environmentalist and I've been sailing

the bay for forty years it became

apparent to me that Bodie and the South

Bay was fading it was dying I felt

something needed to be done I was a

director for the Marine Science

Institute at the time this is in the

1980s so we took kids out on the bay and

taught of marine biology and they had no

permanent home and I determined then

that I was gonna build a world-class

marina in a new home for MSI I retired

in 1988 from a company in Redwood City

to chase that dream and it took five

years to convince Leslie salt to sell me

a part of a bittern pond used to store

chemicals in an ideal location here in

Redwood City which is a deep water port

for this purpose and ten more years to

get the 12 permits required to build a

new marina in San Francisco Bay there

was no opposition to the project I had

support of virtually every environmental

agency debate and finally after 15 years

in 2003 I was able to start on this

project converting a bitter pond to a

marina is no small chore that took

another five years to get rid of it

earned to dig the largest hole levered

up in San Mateo County 600,000 cubic

yards of mud used to create a 27 acre

Basin and 24 acres of upland for what

was to become a 50 acre marina site one

of the largest meters in the bait and

finally in 2008 I was able to open the

harbor with the first few docks and

today West Point Harbor is one of the

thriving recreational centers in

Northern California and at 50 acres one

of the largest Marines in the bay it's

all entirely water orient it's entirely

for public use we're home to almost 500

votes and we offer facilities for

thousands of kayakers

paddlers rowers and sailors to enjoy the

bay in the bays wildlife we have

fantastic vistas we've created 27 acres

of new bass

service it created another mile of a

trail and almost seven acres of new

public access that didn't exist before

this month marks the 30th year for this

journey of mine and they're still lots

to do we have a thousand foot of

boardwalk to build we have a thousand

feet of guests off for visiting boaters

from around the bait so West Point

Harbor is recognized today as one of the

most innovative marinas in the world and

a model for environmental stewardship

and I'm determined to leave Redwood City

and West Point Harbor with the portal to

one of the world's most beautiful

estuaries the Great South Bay that's my

story

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