SAN RAFAEL, California. (KGO) — North Bay is the final destination of this rare San Francisco Bay attraction: a two-story houseboat on the high seas!

SKY7 captured video of the houseboat moving to its new home in San Rafael.

North Bay is the final destination of this rare San Francisco Bay attraction: a two-story houseboat on the high seas!

The boat had to leave the Docktown Marina in Redwood City.

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The reason for this was a lengthy legal battle that ruled that vessels carrying people cannot block access to a state waterway in San Mateo County.

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Between 60 and 80 houseboats had to be relocated.

This specimen's journey from Redwood City to San Rafael reportedly took two days.

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A July 2023 news report noted that only nine residents remained at the port.

“Like a little island – a little oasis in the middle of Silicon Valley where you don't feel the pressure or the costs,” resident Nina Peschcke-Koedt told ABC7 about the community.

Redwood City gained control of the marina and adjacent state land in 1945 and then, under a 2016 clearance plan, leased it to companies that managed the marina from 1965 to 2013. The city, which did not respond to a request for comment, then took over the marina and began paying residents settlements to leave after the state ruled that live-aboard vessels could not block public access to a state waterway.

But just last year, the group that sued took the city back to court, claiming it had reneged on promises to clean up the marina and relocate its residents.

The attorney spearheading the lawsuit, Ted Hannig, who was one of the reasons the giant houseboat crossed the bay Monday, lives across the creek from Docktown and loves boating and sailing, his law firm's website says . Hannig did not respond to a request for comment.

The boaters who live nearby may not have loved it. According to his lawsuit cited by the Palo Alto Daily News, Hannig claimed someone in Docktown shot a golf ball at him in retaliation for raising concerns about the marina.

As for the lost houseboat, its owner did not return further calls to check whether it had reached a safe harbor.

According to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman on Tuesday, the houseboat received a security escort to its final anchorage on Monday. That destination, however, was not San Rafael, as the owner, who did not request comment Tuesday, initially told The Standard. Instead, it was taken to a port for anchorage – Richardson Bay off Sausalito.

Still, the vessel could remain in limbo as the county recently passed a new ordinance requiring a permit to relocate a boat to its waters. It is unclear whether the boat has such a permit.

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