Anacortes, WA is a great town to host PassageMaker magazine’s Trawler Fest. It is a perfect place for cruisers to provision before heading out locally to the San Juan and Gulf island groups or even further north to Canada and Alaska. A number of trawlers make Cap Sante marina their home base and for good reason, it is a great location in a town geared for cruisers.
This year the dates for the PNW extravaganza were May 19 – 21st. The weather was very nice, just a little drizzle, sun and clouds and the attendance by visitors and the number of trawlers on display was spectacular.
Jeff was invited back again to teach two courses, Friday he presented “Cruising Offshore – preparing yourself and your boat” and Saturday he delivered his very popular “Dialing in Your Trawler” talk. Both classes were completely full and the audiences had good questions and were very appreciative. Many of the students requested copies of the presentations which were mailed to them afterwards for more in-depth study.
Jeff was also asked to take part in the Saturday afternoon “Cruisers Perspectives”, a Town Hall type panel that included a who’s who of cruising authorities. Hosted by Peter Swanson and led by circumnavigator, Bruce Kessler, the group also included Dylan Bailey, Denny Emory, Mark Bunzel, Pat Raines and Steve Zimmerman.
In between classes, Jeff was busy spending time with clients and had the opportunity to tour just about every boat on display. Word from those brokers who had boats for sale was that the attendance numbers were not only up, but the quality of visitors was exceptional.
There were a lot of gatherings (cocktail parties) and there is no doubt Anacortes ’16 was one of the best TrawlerFests held in recent years. Over 70 boats were officially on display with a dozen others “coat tailing”. There were fast boats, slow boats, tugs and cats…among the brands on display were various models from; North Pacific, Helmsman, Diesel Duck, Fleming, Kadey-Krogen, Navetta, American Tug, Nordic Tug, Nordhavn, Hans Christian, Ranger Tugs, Seahorse, Grand Banks, Aspen Cat, Devlin, Fathom, Northwest, Arcturos, Marlow, Back Cove, Pacific Seacraft, Pajot, Beneteau, DeFever, Aleutian, Nimbus, Outer Reef, Real Ships, Eastbay, Selene and FPB plus many more –truly an impressive assembly. I’ve shared a photo collection of some of my favorites, how many can you identify?
The next and final Trawler Fest for 2016 will be the “Bay Bridge” event near Annapolis, MD this September 27th – October 1st. For information on future Trawler Fests go to https://www.passagemaker.com/tag/trawler-fest.
