Northwest Maritime CEO and 20-year Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival fanboy, Jake Beattie, shares his top five picks for this year’s festival. 

1. Native Representation “For the 13,000 years that there have been wooden boats in the Pacific Northwest, 99.9% of them have been Native canoes. It means a lot to have more Native participation than ever—from the tribes from right here to visiting First Nations from Haida Gwaii.”
2. Harbormaster Boat Rodeo “It’s not technically part of the festival because it’s on Thursday, but if you have time, park yourself on the new jetty and just watch the boats come in. The Harbormaster Crew turns a fleet of rubber dinghies into tugboats, then packs Point Hudson to 150% capacity with some of the most beautiful boats on the planet. It’s like boat rodeo! Or ballet!  Whatever, it’s cool to watch.”
3. Thursday’s Lifetime Achievement Awards “There are a lot of incredible presentations from some of the maritime world’s most accomplished people, and the highest concentration of them in one room is at the Lifetime Achievement Awards where they gather to honor and acknowledge folks who have gone above and beyond. It’s like the Oscars for the sawdust set.”
4. R2AK Blazer Party “It’s the damnedest awards show/party I’ve ever seen—but it’s super fun. They cut sleeves off of racers’ blazers if they didn’t make it all the way, serve people Spam for dinner, and generally make fun of as many people as possible. If you love Race to Alaska, you’ll like the Blazer Party—totally worth the ticket price.”
5. Late Night Festivities “One of my favorite parts about our festival is the ‘festival’ part. Once it gets too dark to look at boats, head to Bar Harbor to catch up with the wooden boat community and dance until the cops tell the band to stop playing.”
6. The Boats “I know you said five, but come on—the boats! It’s the whole point of the thing. Can I have six?”