2017 WATERFRONT FESTIVAL

Waterfront Festival 2017

A supplement to the Anacortes American

Thank you to all of our generous community sponsors for making the 28th annual Waterfront Festival possible!

Presenting Sponsor Shell Puget Sound Refiner y

Venue Sponsor Por t of Anacor tes

Fleet Sponsor Dakota Creek Industries Island Hospital Trident Seafoods Corporation

Capt ain Sponsor

Vice-Admiralty Sponsor Anthony’s • Bank of the Pacific Quantum Construction • Samish Indian Nation Commodore Sponsor Anacor tes Yacht Club • Judd & Black CPI Plumbing • Swinomish Casino & Lodge

Boats Boatswain Sponsor

Fidalgo Bay Resor t • Lakeside Indus tries My s tic Sea Char t er s • Tri-County Recycling

Pir at e Sponsor

Anacor t es Small Boat Cent er Anacor t es Yac ht Char t er s Scott Ric har ds Insur ance Salt & Vine • Washingt on Feder al

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Admiralty Sponsor RE/MAX Gateway • Skagit Valley Herald Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company

Anacor tes American • Bir c h Equipment Edwar d Jones, Jef frey Plee t • Gere-a-Deli Irishman Enter prises • Pacif ic Par ty Canopies Peoples Bank • Skagit Bank Williams & Nulle CPA , PLLC

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 • Anacortes American

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Welcome to the 2017 Waterfront Festival Each year, hundreds and hundreds of people flood into Cap Sante Marina to celebrate Anacortes marine history at the annual Waterfront Festival.

The festival, sponsored by the Anacortes Chamber of Commerce, is free to attend and features plenty of activities for kids of all ages, including boat building, rides out on the water, kid activities and more.

Anacortes has celebrated its waterfront heritage for decades, but the first time it did so with the name the Waterfront Festival was in 1991.

On April 5 of that year, the Lady Washington sailed into the Cap Sante Marina to kick off the Waterfront Festival, which ran through Sunday.

People rode on the Tommy Thompson train, learned how to tie nautical knots and checked out vintage vehicles and steamboats.

The police department gave tours of its new police boat and maritime art was on display.

A Waterfront Jam gave musicians a chance to showcase their tunes and festival-goers a chance to kick up their heels.

An estimated 5,000 people walked the docks at Cap Sante Marina, taking in the sights.

The festival, which has moved to June, is still packed now with the same types of fun.

One of the biggest attractions is the Fidalgo Island Rotary Club

File photo

Free boat rides to get out on the water and see Anacortes from a new angle are just one of the things visitors can enjoy at the annual Waterfront Festival.

boat-building booth. Kiddoes can pick out a wooden hull, decorate it and add a mast and sail before floating it in a nearby pool of water.

Last year, the club ran out of boats and had to increase the number of hulls it created this year.

Another big draw at the festival is the boat rides provided by the Anacortes Yacht Club. The rides are free and feature both sail

and motor-powered boats. They are provided on a first-come, firstserved basis. Sign up for a ride at the gazebo by the Port of Anacortes offices.

Teams of people will build a boat in just six hours for the Quick and Dirty Boat Building competition. Competitors will then parade their boats down to the marina and attempt to paddle them out and back without sinking.

For kids, there is the Channel of Discover, featuring hands-on activities, and carnival rides.

Vendors will be selling all marine-themed items, food, art and collectibles.

Cars and boats will be on display throughout the weekend and musicians of all types will take to the stage all day both days.

Information: anacortes.org. – Briana Alzola

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Anacortes American • Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Six hours, limited supplies, boat that floats?

If you want to know how to bribe a judge, ask Jeffrey Pleet.

A bellydancer is a winning bribe. A glass of water is not. At the Quick and Dirty Boatbuilding Competition, it’s all about creativity and having fun, said Pleet, who was a judge at the 2015 festival. Bribing the judges is highly encouraged.

Throw in some creature comforts like massages or food (adult beverages are not allowed). Don’t be too business-like. “(The bribes) add a layer of amusement and take it from being serious to playful, which is what (Quick and Dirty) is really about,” Pleet said.

Every year, teams representing Skagit County organizations and nonprofits build a boat from a limited pile of materials to impress and entertain judges and guests. Each team is supplied with donated materials including four sheets of plywood, six two-by-fours, 100 screws, two tubes of drying caulk, 50 tie wraps and one mystery material, which they must incorporate in their boats. They can use up to $20.17 (one cent more than last year) of their own money for additional

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Participants will have six hours to create a boat they hope will float long enough to win the competition.

materials.

Teams have six hours on Saturday to build their boats before parading them to the water for a race or “rowing demonstration.”

Judges award points to teams for best looking, originality, design, construction, best use of materials, best use of mystery material, wettest feet, seaworthiness, people’s choice and best bribe.

Teams can also receive one point for boats that sink but aren’t eligible to win the grand prize.

At the Waterfront Festival Dinner Friday night, community members bid on “judgeships” to raise funds and buy influence.

Bids have been known to run over $1,000.

“It’s a highly soughtafter position. I considered it a true honor,” Pleet said of his 2015 appointment.

Team entrance fees and proceeds from the auction go toward the Anacortes Small Boat Center, a nonprofit committed to promoting small boat use and culture in Anacortes.

Festival guests can pur-

chase $1 tokens to vote for their favorite team for the people’s choice award.

The team with the most tokens wins the award and donates their entire vote to a charity of their choice. Losing teams donate 50 percent of their proceeds to a charity.

Last year was the first time people’s choice proceeds went to different charities, said competition organizer Pat Barrett.

“We’ve encouraged nonprofits to come and play (in the competition) so that their people’s choice

money goes to them,” Barrett said.

On Saturday, teams set up between 8 and 9 a.m., build boats between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and present them to judges at 3 p.m. Led by a marching band, teams parade boats through the festival grounds to the water at 5 p.m. for the race. Teams are encouraged to include as many people as possible, and to be loud and make a spectacle.

The first-place race team receives three points. Boats must cross the finish line and cannot sink.

Competition organizer Mary Staley has been involved since she was a judge seven years ago, and thinks Quick and Dirty has become more popular each year. During the first competition more than 10 years ago, she remembers that the dock sank because so many people were on it watching the race.

“Quick and Dirty has breathed new life into (the festival), and it’s gotten bigger and bigger every year,” Staley said.

The winning team takes home a grand prize trophy they keep until the following year’s festival.

– Jacqueline Allison

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 • Anacortes American

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Channel of Discovery offers hands-on fun for all In the Channel of Discovery, local organizations offer educational displays on science, maritime heritage, arts, public safety and more. Highlights include: -Anacortes High School Robotics Team: demonstrations of working robots used in competitions.

-Hidden in Plain Sight: a display of teenager’s bedroom set up to educate parents about awareness of risky behavior and hidden signs of drug use.

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The Anacortes Arts Festival, as well as several other community organizations, will offer activities for kids.

-Pacific Mammal Research: marine mammals around the Salish Sea and Fidalgo Island with hands-on artifacts.

-Pacific Biodiversity Institute: education on conservation science work.

-West Skagit Community Emergency Response Team: emergency preparedness trailer.

-Shearwater University: info on sailing and kayaking education.

-Grays Harbor Historical Seaport: youth crafting activities around

maritime heritage.

-Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehab Center: display and activity related to local wildlife.

-Skagit RC Modelers: model boats with remote control.

-West Skagit Community Emergency Response Team – preparedness trailer.

-Anacortes Arts Festival -OARS (Old Anacortes Rowing Society) – Jacqueline Allison

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Serving fresh Northwest seafood from our own seafood company. Enjoy impressive views of the marina and relax indoors or on one of our two outdoor decks.

Visit our open air Cabana for casual and to-go dining complete with two Bocce ball courts!

1207 Q Avenue • Anacortes • (360) 588-0333 • www.anthonys.com

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Waterfront Festival 2017

Anacortes American • Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 • Anacortes American

Waterfront Festival 2017

Making memories with a hull and a sail In 1992, volunteers cut out 500 model wooden hulls for kids to build, decorate and float. This year, volunteers cut 2,600 hulls.

This is a number that delighted Vic Childs, who was involved with the Waterfront Festival’s first boatbuilding booth in 1992, one year after the first festival.

File photos From the start, boatThe Fidalgo Island Rotary Club sponsors the boatbuilding booth. After running building was always out of boats last year, the club upped the number of wooden hulls from 1,500 to 2,600. Kids are welcome to come grab a hull and add onto it a sail and a popular activity, accessories of their choosing, all for free.

Childs said. Twentyfive years later, the activity has become the festival draw.

“Moms and dads could bring their kids and observe them interacting with tools,” he said. “The kid was totally in charge of (their boat).”

At the booth, kids select a hull from many shapes and sizes, grab a sail in the color of their choice, pick accessories and use real tools to build

the boat before testing it in a pool.

Last year, kids wiped out hulls by mid-day Sunday, forcing the Fidalgo Island Rotary Club to ramp up production this year.

The club increased its hull count from 1,500 to 2,600, said Tricia Sharp, the club’s marketing and public relations coordinator.

Since the Rotary officially took over the event 17 years ago, the materials and production have become more streamlined, Childs said. The wood is donated from Sierra Pacific Industries, and Anacortes High School lends its wood shop facility and equipment for hull construction.

Since January, Rotary volunteers or “Rotarians” have worked every Tuesday morning to cut hulls and sails.

For the first 10 years of the event, Childs remembers how he and friends would visit construction sites and leave out buckets for workers to put scrap wood in.

“We would scrounge around and look for scrap wood wherever we could find it,” he said.

He credits Erica and Bob Pickett of Flounder Bay Boat Lumber, which closed in 2007, with approaching him with the concept. The Picketts had seen kids building little boats at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle and thought it would be a fun idea to bring it to Anacortes, Childs said.

In 2000, Childs’ wife Sandy suggested they ask Fidalgo Island Rotary to take it on.

So Childs became a Rotarian and con-

File photos

Rotarians have been working since January to make sure enough boat hulls are ready for the youngsters.

tinued to be involved with the booth until recently.

“It almost became an obsession for 20 years,” Childs said.

A big draw of the booth is that it’s a free

activity for kids of all ages and their families, he said.

This year, a new generation of Rotarians are running the booth and making changes. The

hulls are smoother with fewer splinters, thanks to wood shop equipment volunteers were able to use for the first time, Sharp said.

“They look amazing,” she said. “The quality is so much higher.”

Volunteers are cranking out sailboats, tug boats, cruisers, tankers, aircraft carriers and battle ships, and offering more accessory options, she said.

Since last year’s festival, community members have contributed wine corks to serve as cannons on pirate ships, and kids can pick up international flags at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery booth, which will be connected to the Rotary booth by a chalk river.

For the first time, there will be a branding machine to brand the Rotary Club’s logo

onto finished boats.

An estimated 2,500 kids stopped by the booth on Saturday alone last year, Sharp said. Rotary ordered five wooden pallets this year instead of three to keep up with demand on both Saturday and Sunday.

Volunteers have already filled seven huge crabbing bins full of hulls.

Wood scraps from hull construction are donated to local families to help them heat their homes.

Many families have entire fleets from kids building and bringing home a boat each year.

“It’s a true experience of parents and grandparents connecting with their kids and helping them build something they will always remember,” Sharp said.

– Jacqueline Allison

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Take a look back

File photo

Boat building has been a part of the Waterfront Festival since 1992. That first year, the booth had about 500 boats. This year, volunteers cut 2,600 hulls. Above is a photo from a 1996 edition of the Anacortes American. Below is a photo from a 2000 edition of the newspaper.

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Anacortes American • Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Dance offers nod to town’s maritime history The days will be filled with sun and fun at the Anacortes Waterfront Festival, but as evening draws near on Saturday night, visitors will have a chance to take a step back in time.

The annual plaza dance, a tribute to Anacortes’ marine heritage, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at the Depot Arts & Community Center. It is free to attend.

The dance is inspired by those held in the 1930s. The dances were originally created as a way for Anacortes businesses to thank fishermen visiting the town and shopping at Anacortes stores.

The dances would often attract more than 1,000 people, according to the Anacortes Museum.

An article in the July 27, 1939, edition of the Anacortes

File photo

A’Town Big Band will provide the music at the dance again this year.

American reported that the Goff Brothers opened a series of the fishermen’s dances at the Eagles’ ballroom. The music

brought in about 200 couples. At that time, the brothers had been playing to dance crowds in the area for more than five years.

All three graduated from Anacortes High School.

The Waterfront Festival plaza dances have been bringing

in about 200 people each year.

Music this year will be provided by A’Town Big Band, which formed in 2013 and plays classic swing and big band hits.

A’Town Big Band performs the music of Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson, Bob Curnow, Buddy Rich and more.

– Briana Alzola

Ensemble celebrates Croatian heritage with performance The Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble will perform traditional Croatian song and dance from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the festival’s main stage.

The ensemble, formed in Anacortes in 1975, celebrates the Croatian people through traditional song and dance. Performers represent four generations of Croatians from Anacortes, made up of 30 adult, teenage and child dancers. The high-energy social dances are accompanied by an orchestra of nine musicians.

The group is usually on

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The Vela Luka dancers will perform at 12:30 p.m. June 3.

tour for much of the year, so performing at home at

the Waterfront Festival is fun, said Vela Luka Ex-

ecutive Director Maria Petrish.

“It was really wonderful to [return to the festival] because we’re a seagoing people in a seagoing community,” she said.

Three years ago, when the Chamber of Commerce asked Vela Luka to perform at the festival for the first time, many group members had already made plans, as the ensemble usually books its engagements at least a year in advance.

“We jumped a couple hurdles and persuaded some people to stay home,” Petrish said.

Now in its third year performing at the festival, Vela Luka is delighted to be back.

Vela Luka is an internationally renowned ensemble that has performed in the United States, Mexico, Canada and across Europe, and has been the subject of two national TV documentaries. The group has performed at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center and represented the state of Washington at the re-dedication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty in 1986.

– Jacqueline Allison

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 • Anacortes American

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Boat rides offer different view of Anacortes If you haven’t seen Anacortes from the water, make sure to come early to secure a spot for a free boat ride.

The Anacortes Yacht Club offers free rides from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Yacht Club members take festival guests on their sailboats, motorboats and yachts onto Fidalgo Bay for 20- to 45-minute rides.

Sailboats will hoist one to two sails, and speedier boats will travel into Guemes Channel.

Participants must register for a spot on a boat, and seats are limited. Register at the gazebo next to the main Cap Sante

File photo

The free boat rides offer fun for all ages.

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Boats powered by both wind or motor power are available for rides and offer a new perspective of the Anacortes waterfront.

Marina Office. People may register as early as 9:45 a.m., and are encouraged to register as early as possible.

Close to 70 mem-

bers of the Yacht Club have volunteered this year to register guests, coordinate rides, load and unload passengers, and captain

boats.

Members love sharing their boats and expertise with the public because of people’s smiles when they come off

the boats, said Yacht Club member Bob Neumann.

“They are just ecstatic about being out on the water,” Neumann said.

“Some people have never seen Anacortes from the water.”

The club provided rides to more than

600 participants at last year’s festival.

Passengers are encouraged to dress for the weather, and the Yacht Club will supply life jackets to all participants. Children under 12 must wear a life jacket at all times on the dock.

– Jacqueline Allison

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Waterfront Festival 2017

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Anacortes American • Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Music Saturday

10:20 a.m. ~ Mount Erie Elementary School Mustang Singers 11 a.m. ~ An-O-Chords a capella group 11:40 a.m. ~ The Shifty Sailors 12:30 p.m. ~ Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble 1:50 p.m. ~ Karen Lovely 3:20 p.m. ~ Baby Cakes 6 p.m. ~ Plaza dance (at the Depot Arts & Community Center) File photos

The Shifty Sailors (above), a crowd favorite, will perform at 11:40 a.m. Saturday. A’Town Big Band (below) will perform at the plaza dance starting at 6 p.m. Saturday and at the festival at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.

Sunday

10:15 a.m. ~ Anacortes High School drumline and jazz band 11:15 a.m. ~ A’Town Big Band 12:40 p.m. ~ Hamilton and Cox 2:25 p.m. ~ Mark Riley Trio 3:55 p.m. ~ Old Town Tonic

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 • Anacortes American

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Fun Saturday

10 a.m. ~ Town Crier Proclamation and National Anthem 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ~ Anacortes Yacht Club free boat rides Noon ~ BlackJack Squadron flyover 2:50 p.m. ~ Anacortes High School robotics team demonstration 5 p.m. ~ Quick and Dirty parade and demonstrations

File photos

The Anacortes High School robotics team competed at the world competition again this year.

It will demonstrate its award-winning robot (pictured above is a previous year’s robot) both days.

The BlackJack Squadron (below) will do a flyover at noon Saturday

Sunday

10 a.m. ~ Welcome 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ~ Anacortes Yacht Club free boat rides 12:15 p.m. ~ Anacortes High School robotics team demonstration

Enjoy the carnival

File photos

Kids of all ages can enjoy a “pay-to-play” carnival all day Saturday and Sunday at the festival.

Pay-to-play activities: A Euro Bungee trampoline, Zorbing or human hamster balls for land and water, a large slide and cotton candy, ice cream and refreshments at Kiwanis Sunrisers’ food truck

and

Join us in Celebrating 28 years of Waterfront Fun & Community WHEN:

Saturday & Sunday June 3rd 10am - 6pm June 4th 10am - 5pm

WHERE:

The Cap Sante Marina on Anacortes’ beautiful waterfront At the Shell Puget Sound Refinery, we know how fortunate we are to live, recreate and operate in such a special community, and we encourage you to join us in celebrating our community at the annual Anacortes Waterfront Festival.

Enjoy the live music, great local food, boat rides, games and activities for all ages at this year’s festival.

Let’s come together and celebrate the proud maritime heritage that makes this community such an incredible place to live and do business. www.shell.us/pugetsoundrefinery twitter.com/Shell_Anacortes facebook.com/shellpugetsoundrefinery Proudly Fueling Life in the Pacific Northwest

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