TrawlerFest Boat Show and Seminars Move to Bremerton, Wash.
Mar 7, 2017
After a decade of being in Anacortes, the TrawlerFest boat show and seminar series is moving 100 miles south to another salty Washington state locale, the City of Bremerton on the Kitsap Peninsula. Dates are May 16-20 at Bremerton Marina.
TrawlerFest is a celebration of the cruising lifestyle with a focus on trawler yachts. These vessels trace their origins and often their look to the fishing craft of the mid-20th Century. Among the boat brands are Grand Banks, Nordhavn, Kadey-Krogen and anything with “tug” in its name. TrawlerFest is part of the same organization that publishes PassageMaker, a magazine devoted to this boating niche.
The audience for TrawlerFest is predominantly over 55. These are couples, often retired, who either want to live aboard their boats or cruise for extended periods of time. Some are content to remain in home waters while others will strike out for Alaska, Mexico, South Pacific islands or go around the world. Many, if not most have owned sailboats.
Which raises another point: Nearly all TrawlerFest seminars apply equally to sail or power cruising, though the dozens of boats on display will be new and used powerboats.
Of the more than 25 seminars, TrawlerFest’s flagship is “Everything You Need To Know About Diesel Engines,” taught by author and PassageMaker Technical Editor Nigel Calder and Michael Beemer, director of Skagit Valley College Marine Maintenance Technology Program of Anacortes. Other signature seminars include “Boat Handling on the Water” and “The Boat Buyer’s Survival Guide.”
Destination seminar topics include Mexico’s Sea of Cortez and the path to Southeast Alaska led by author-mariners Pat Raines and Mark Bunzel respectively. New this year, veteran delivery skipper Devin Zwick will share his experiences and tips for taking a small boat from Seattle to San Diego, a place to stage for passages to Mexico or the South Pacific.
Like Anacortes, picturesque Bremerton is located on one of the fine, protected harbors of Puget Sound and is the gateway to one of the greatest playgrounds in the United States, the Olympic Peninsula, a place of mountains, glaciers, forests, lakes, mountain streams and the Pacific Ocean. Within its corporate limits, Bremerton has the best equipped Navy Yard in the United States, constantly overhauling and repairing warships.
Brokers, vendors and builders lately had urged TrawlerFest organizers to bring the event closer to Seattle as a convenience to them and to draw more attendees from the city. The ferry from Seattle takes an hour and docks a short walk away from the marina.
The city of 38,000 has a lively restaurant scene and other amenities. Bremerton’s U.S. Navy Museum features more than 18,000 objects, and the Vietnam War-era destroyer USS Turner Joy is preserved and open for tours a short walk from the event.
SEMINARS:
Tuesday- Saturday, May 16-20
IN-WATER BOAT SHOW:
Thursday- Saturday , May 18-20, 2017
LOCATION:
Bremerton Marina, 120 Washington Beach Ave, Bremerton, WA 98337
QUESTIONS? trawlerfest@passagemaker.com or (410) 990-9086 x22
FOR MORE INFO VISIT http://www.passagemaker.com/events/trawlerfest-bremerton-wa-2017/
