"I saw this little boat, and I've got to say, it's an odd-looking boat," Tiburon resident Mark Freiberg told The Ark. "I just got very curious about it."
The boat was a small towboat working in Paradise Cay. In 2024 it spent a long stretch near the Corinthian Yacht Club, so Freiberg got to talk with the crew, meet the owner and film it from the air with his drone. This spring that footage became "P Cay," a three-minute short. It screens Friday night on the lawn at Belvedere Community Park.
That Friday, October 9, is also the first day of the main Fleet Week weekend. San Francisco's official calendar runs Fleet Week from October 4 to 12, with the main waterfront events October 9 through 11. The air show runs noon to 4 p.m. each of those three days, between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, centered on Marina Green. The Blue Angels are on the 2026 performer schedule at 3 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the organizers say the times may change.
The region's biggest waterfront spectacle is across the water. From October 9 to 18, the peninsula's own calendar is made almost entirely of things its neighbors made: films shot by residents, regattas run by the two yacht clubs on its shoreline, and talks and concerts at its own library and chapel.
Ten days on the peninsula, in order
| Date | Event | Where | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 9, 5 to 6 p.m. | Be Ready Belvedere shelter-in-place event | Belvedere Community Park | Belvedere residents |
| Fri., Oct. 9, 6 p.m. | Belvedere Home Made Film Festival | Belvedere Community Park | Free, open to all |
| Oct. 9 to 11 | Lipton Cup regatta | Corinthian Yacht Club | Up to 11 PICYA member clubs |
| Sun., Oct. 11, 1 to 4 p.m. | Celebration of Native American Arts and Culture | Zelinsky Park, Tiburon | Free, open to all |
| Tue., Oct. 13, 6 to 7:30 p.m. | Andrew Sean Greer author event | Belvedere-Tiburon Library, Founders Room | Seniors and adults; registration listed |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Auxiliary Cup | Central Bay, west of Angel Island | SFYC women members and all-women crews |
| Sun., Oct. 18, 1 p.m. start | Round the Island Race | Central Bay, finishing near Corinthian | SFYC members |
Two kinds of event sit side by side in that table. Some are open to anyone with a blanket. Others are member races that the rest of the peninsula sees mostly as sails out on the Bay. Taken together, they show Belvedere spending one of the Bay Area's busiest weekends on its own ground and its own water.
Friday: thirty short films, made by neighbors
This is the Belvedere Home Made Film Festival's third year. Its organizer names Adam Gavzer as the creator and executive director. The rules are simple. A film can run no more than three minutes, the entrant has to make it, and the festival is open to all filmmakers.
The Ark reports about 30 films this year. Admission is free, and families are invited to bring blankets and sit on the lawn. The Windsor Street Blues Band starts at 6 p.m., the films begin around 7, and there will be popcorn, hot cocoa and homemade soup. For older adults and people with mobility concerns, there's a drop-off point and limited seating on Community Road. In its October 3 announcement, the festival describes this year's lineup as including "a whole bunch made by kids."
The two films The Ark previewed both come from the immediate area. Freiberg's "P Cay" shows the towboat crossing the bay in drone footage. "Bad Day" is a short by Tiburon resident Nancy Freed, and her grandson appears in it. "P Cay" also connects the festival to the rest of the weekend. The boat Freiberg filmed was working near the same yacht club that hosts the regatta running those three days.
Before the screening, from 5 to 6 p.m., Be Ready Belvedere, the city's emergency-preparedness working group, will be at the park. Volunteers will hand out stay-box supplies to Belvedere residents registered with AlertMarin and help others sign up.
The same weekend, on the water
The Lipton Cup runs October 9 through 11 at the Corinthian Yacht Club, sailed in J/22 one-design boats. Corinthian's regatta page calls it Fleet Week outright. "This is Fleet Week so we can expect some spectacular background flyovers in the mid afternoon, though no Cityfront racing, of course."
The format changes from day to day. Friday and Sunday mix short-course races with bay tour races. Saturday is a fast series of up to seven races, judged on the water. Entry is limited to 11 clubs that are current members of PICYA, and the club expects a full roster.
Put the two schedules together and the timing lines up. The Blue Angels fly at 3 p.m. near Marina Green, while Corinthian's teams race in the mid-afternoon the club expects to be loud. The jets are the backdrop for an inter-club contest. In Tiburon and Belvedere, the main event of the weekend is the racing on the water.
Sunday and Tuesday: the land-side calendar
Fleet Week's last air show is Sunday, October 11. That afternoon Tiburon holds its second annual Celebration of Native American Arts and Culture at Zelinsky Park, from 1 to 4 p.m. The Ark lists Sewam American Indian Dance and flutist Blue among the performers, along with food and arts vendors.
On Tuesday, October 13, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer is in the Founders Room at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The building itself is under review. The library board looked at its first long-term facilities plan on September 21 and has not adopted it yet. The proposals include automatic doors, a redesigned service desk, EV chargers and a $1.45 million solar system. The Founders Room may look different within a few years. For now, it's where the week's literary event takes place.
The following weekend belongs to the members
The second weekend is quieter on land and more closed off on the water. San Francisco Yacht Club's 2026 regatta calendar lists two club events back to back.
- Auxiliary Cup, Saturday, October 17. This is a two-race women's regatta. Skippers must be eligible SFYC women members, the boat must be owned or chartered by an SFYC woman member, and every crew member must be a woman, though crew don't have to be members. The competitors' meeting is at 10 a.m. and the first warning at noon. The racing area is near Knox, west of Angel Island and in the central Bay.
- Round the Island Race, Sunday, October 18. One race, first warning at 1 p.m. Boats must be at least 18 feet and either hold a current NCPHRF certificate or qualify under an established one-design rating. The skipper and helmsperson must be SFYC members or their spouses.
The name doesn't tell you which island. Under the 2026 notice of race, the course chosen on the day goes either around Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island or around Alcatraz. Boats then round the Southampton Shoal buoy and finish near the Corinthian Yacht Club. Sailing instructions for both races are due by 4 p.m. on October 14, and the course chosen for Round the Island is displayed on the race committee signal boat. Neither notice of race gives shoreline viewing guidance.
Both of these are member events. Neither is a spectator festival. A Round the Island fleet that finishes near Corinthian ends its day just off Belvedere's shore. Nobody has announced that as a viewing event.
After the regattas
Things slow down after the 18th, but the calendar doesn't empty out. The Town Hall Community Room Gallery at 1505 Tiburon Boulevard has "Nature, Reimagined" up through October 29. It shows four ICB/ART artists: Lorrie Meyercord, Kate Solari Baker, Bree Cutts and Marine Strage. Scott Froschauer's "Word on the Street" signs stay along the Old Rail Trail to Blackie's Pasture through December 5.
November's library calendar has a 1920s Murder Mystery Evening on Monday, November 2, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and Trivia Café hosted by Howard Rachelson on Thursday, November 5, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Both are in the Founders Room. The Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society lists guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto at Old St. Hilary's on Saturday, November 21, at 4 p.m. That page was first posted last December, so check the date with the Society before you plan around it.
The same pattern held this summer. Our July look at Belvedere's calendar followed four Sunday concerts at the Community Center, which set the season's rhythm more than downtown Tiburon did. This fall the film festival, the Corinthian and SFYC regattas, and the library keep that same calendar going into October, during the weekend when most of the Bay Area is looking toward Marina Green.
Every event that makes this peninsula distinctive in October happens within a few minutes of the front door, from the Community Park lawn to the finish line off Corinthian. If that local calendar is part of how you think about a home in Belvedere, Wynne + Morgensen would be glad to talk it through with you. Request a Private Consultation.