For more than a half-century, low-rent “pirates” have inhabited ramshackle floating homes in Richardson Bay, just north of Sausalito. The last remnants of this independent seaside tribe are the inhabitants of 38 houseboats at Gates Co-op, a community stranded at low tide in the mud at Waldo Point Harbor.

Free Beachfront

In the 1950s, beatniks squatted in the wreckage of Marin County’s abandoned World War II shipbuilding industry, living in vacant construction buildings and scrapped barges. Hippies joined them in the 1960s and ’70s. Back then, Sausalito was known as a haven for struggling artists.

Handmade Architecture

Gates Co-op houseboats are often redesigned World War II landing crafts or are built atop lifeboat hulls or cement barges. Richard Haskell bought a 22-foot boat hull for $100 in 1973; on top of it he constructed a house made of wood salvaged from a Petaluma chicken coop.

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Red Legs Revels

Some bohemian houseboat dwellers earned money in the 1970s by charging $2 admission to wild parties, with free beer and “pirate rock” music by their quintet, The Red Legs.

War on Houseboats

Conflicts began in the late 1970s as civic authorities, aligned with Sausalito’s disgruntled “Hill People,” strived to clamp down on the waterfront residents. Barbara Boxer, then a Marin County supervisor, was an opponent of the Gates Co-op. Legislation reduced the number of boats to 70 from 115, with the current population roughly half that.

Off the Grid

When state and county officials besieged the houseboat rebels with permit requirements, regulations and fees, many simply drifted out to anchor in open water. A recently estimated 45 “anchor-outs” or “live-aboards” still live offshore, untethered to the grid, where they say they are occasionally hassled by the Coast Guard.

Notable Neighbors

Otis Redding wrote the first verse of “(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay” in 1967, while staying at the adjacent Issaquah Dock. The philosopher Alan Watts, the actor Sterling Hayden, the author Shel Silverstein and the cartoonist Phil Frank all floated nearby. Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and The WELL Web site, lives with his wife on a 1912 tugboat.

Still Affordable

Gates Co-op houseboat dwellers pay $350 to $400 a month per berth. Nearby, far larger glamorous houseboats for rent charge near that amount for a single night’s lodging.

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.