PORT TOWNSEND — This year could end up being the biggest ever for the annual Wooden Boat Festival, which continues today.
“So far, the largest one was in 1976 during the nation’s Bicentennial, drawing about 35,000 people,” said Kacy Cronkhite, festival director, on Saturday.
“We are on our way to beat that. Our Saturday was huge.”
Friday was pretty good, too, for the 34th annual Wooden Boat Festival, Cronkhite said, with one boat clocking nearly 500 visits and the concessions doing very well.
Cronkhite said that actual attendance numbers won’t be tallied until the festival is over.
The highlight of today’s events, which are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be a sail-by of all the festival boats at 3 p.m.
In the meantime, stories abound on the boats gathered at the festival — with tales ranging from a wedding at the Northwest Maritime Center to a Port Angeles artist’s reunion with the boat he built decades ago.
By Saturday afternoon, Port Townsend Bay was littered with boats to the horizon, from paddle crafts to 100-foot yachts.
Cronkhite estimated that about 400 boats were participating, 217 of these occupying prime space in Port Hudson Marina.
In the marina, boats were lined up next to each other, three or four deep. Those headed for vessels in the inner harbor simply walked across the boats closest to shore until they reached their goals.
Throughout, the mood was easygoing and exploratory, as many people opened their floating homes to passing strangers.
Through conversation, people found, as Cronkhite said, that “every boat has an interesting story.”
Consider the 50-foot Windolee, headquartered in Everett.
Duncan McKiernan, 85, a noted Port Angeles artist — he cast the cormorants on City Pier — and founding director of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, built the boat while living lived in Aberdeen, and launched it in 1969.
He built it from plans that he found in a 1948 issue of Mechanics Illustrated magazine. The project took 13 years.
“When I started, I was an amateur,” he said. “When I finished, I was a professional.”
He sailed it all over the world, traveling some 6,000 miles before he sold it in 1975.
Since then he has kept track of the boat, corresponding with the current owners.
Roxanne Breunig and Rob Kunkel of Seattle bought the boat in 1989.
When the couple separated, Breunig became sole owner of the boat, which she now sails with her partner, Tim Massey.
She has received a card from McKiernan every May 5 to commemorate the date when the boat was first placed into the water.
Until Saturday, McKiernan had not sailed on the Windolee since he sold it.
That changed when he accepted Breunig’s invitation to come aboard for a three-hour yacht race.
McKiernan said that little had changed on the boat since he built it. Many of the components are still in operation.
“There is about 100,000 miles on this keel,” he said.
Breunig has not added many modern amenities, saying she wanted to keep it simple, “although I did put in a really nice oven and stove.”
Breunig said that she’ll stay on the boat “until I am too old to sail.”
Another story originates from the Katherine Jane, a 58-foot vintage trawler headquartered in Lake Union.
Jamie Lang and Brock Gilman, who live aboard the trawler, decided it was time to tie the knot, and decided to do so in a nautical way.
On Saturday afternoon, the couple got married on the beach outside of the Northwest Maritime Center, in a ceremony where it was impossible to differentiate most of the wedding party from hundreds of festival attendees.
Nevertheless, all present cheered Lang when she descended the maritime center stairs, dressed in full bridal regalia.
Preparing for a wedding always has its pitfalls. In this case, one had to do with the boat.
The Katherine Jane needed a new engine just a few weeks ago.
“We had to plan the wedding and get a new engine at the same time.” Lang said. “There was a lot of stress.”
These are only two examples of relationships between people and boats that make this festival a one-of-a-kind experience that attracts people on an annual basis.
“Sailing isn’t a hobby,” McKiernan said.
“It’s an obsession.”
The Haines Place Park-and-Ride near Safeway is available for parking, with two shuttles operating continuously from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Memorial Field also will be open for parking from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., The fee is $20 per day.
The admission price collected at the gate for one-day tickets is $15, or $10 for seniors over 65 and teens.
For more information, check at the maritime center or online at the Wooden Boat Festival website at www.woodenboat.org/festival/, or phone 360-385-3628.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
