People are constantly asking about the prices for houseboats.
By Aidin Vaziri, Staff Writer Oct 26, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
Stewart Brand, the counterculture visionary whose Whole Earth Catalog inspired a generation of thinkers and technologists, is ready to pass the helm of his storied houseboat, Mirene.
The 64-foot wooden tugboat, moored in Sausalito’s famed South 40 Dock community, has been listed for $1.8 million.
Brand, 87, has lived aboard Mirene for more than four decades with his wife, entrepreneur Ryan Phelan. The vessel, built in 1912 and reimagined as a floating home and functional yacht, embodies much of Brand’s lifelong ethos — craftsmanship, self-sufficiency and an eye toward the long view.
Whole Earth Catalog creator Stewart Brand lists historic Sausalito houseboat for $1.8M
Greg
Quick and Dirty
Stewart Brand, the counterculture visionary whose Whole Earth Catalog inspired a generation of thinkers and technologists, is ready to pass the helm of his storied houseboat, Mirene.
The 64-foot wooden tugboat, moored in Sausalito’s famed South 40 Dock community, has been listed for $1.8 million.
Brand, 87, has lived aboard Mirene for more than four decades with his wife, entrepreneur Ryan Phelan. The vessel, built in 1912 and reimagined as a floating home and functional yacht, embodies much of Brand’s lifelong ethos — craftsmanship, self-sufficiency and an eye toward the long view.
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The Mirene, a 64-foot wooden tugboat moored in Sausalito’s famed South 40 Dock community, has been listed for $1.8 million by counterculture icon Stewart Brand, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog.
Ben Barghabany/Compass
“Living in Mirene is like occupying an exquisitely crafted musical instrument,” Brand said in a statement. “It’s wonderful to live in a cozy home that at any moment can set out for adventure, and through the familiar kitchen windows you see wooded islands flowing by.”
A fixture of the Bay Area’s counterculture, Brand helped define a movement that linked environmentalism, communal living and emerging technology.
His Whole Earth Catalog, first published in 1968, offered tools, ideas and inspiration that Steve Jobs later called “a sort of Google in paperback form, before Google came along.”
Stewart Brand, writer and founder of Whole Earth Catalog, walks on a ramp from the Mirene, a converted 1912 tugboat that he and his wife, Ryan Phelan, call home in Sausalito Tuesday, April 6, 2021.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
The Mirene is part of that continuum — both artifact and functioning vessel.
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“This home is a highly unusual mix of modesty and majesty,” said listing agent Steve Sekhon of Compass. “It’s a one-of-a-kind opportunity searching for the right person to become the new captain and steward of its next incarnation.”
Originally built as a cannery tender in Alaska, it served as a tugboat on the Columbia River before falling into disrepair.
Stewart Brand, writer and founder of Whole Earth Catalog, smiles as his wife, Ryan Phelan, rubs his head to say goodbye inside the Mirene, a converted 1912 tugboat they call home in Sausalito, on April 6, 2021.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
Brand and Phelan bought the vessel in 1982 and spent years restoring it with Sausalito’s renowned waterfront craftspeople. The result is a warm, wood-paneled living space with a gourmet galley, library and panoramic decks overlooking San Francisco Bay.
“Mirene is as fit as she ever was,” Brand said. “At 87, I am not. It’s time for younger owners.”