Welcome to the New York City Downtown Boathouse

Welcome to the Downtown Boathouse. The Boathouse is an all-volunteer organization that is dedicated to providing access to the Hudson River for everyone. The Boathouse is located in the Hudson River Park, and has a permit from the Hudson River Park Trust to operate in the park.

All activities at the boathouse are completely free and are available to anyone from the general public. We provide all the equipment and the know-how. All we ask is that you know how to swim, wear a life jacket, abide by our rules, and sign our liability waiver.

Due to insurance regulations, children under the age of 16 must always be accompanied by an adult (in the same boat). This means that young children must go in a double kayak with one or two adults. Children between the ages of 16 and 18 may go out in a single kayak, as long as their guardian comes with them to the Boathouse and signs the waiver form for them. The guardian must also be present for the whole period that the child is on the water.

We currently have three locations on the Hudson River: Pier 40 at Houston Street ,Pier 96 at 56th Street, 72nd Street in Riverside Park

For the 2009 season all locations of the boathouse will be open from May 16th to October 12th. The weekday evening programs at Pier 96 will run from June 15th to August 28th. See our Calendar page for any changes and a complete schedule of our activities

Contact Us

You can contact us:
By Mail: Box 20214 West Village Station, New York, NY 10014

You can also just appoach a volunteer at one of our locations when we were open

If you can not find an answer to question on the website or need to get in touch with us, Email: info@downtownboathouse.org . We will try to get back to you as soon as we can but as an unpaid all volunteer organization we have limited resources.