SEATTLE — This is a great town for mariners games. No, not baseball. Baseball is not weird. I'm talking about mariners, as in sailors and seamen, and the 27th annual Tugboat Race Championships.
Yeah, tugboats. Now, visually speaking, I'm not sure that alone would have drawn me north from Portland. But add in survival suit races and homemade boat racing and suddenly it's worth a tank or two of gas even if I did miss the fisher poetry slam.
The festival, at Pier 66 and Bell Harbor Marina, showcases an industry that's long been part of Seattle life and lore. "It gives people a chance to look through the window into the maritime industry and its local impact on the community," said Mike Morris, who sits on the Propeller Club board that organizes the event. That explains why you'll find, among the fun races and feats of daring (No, I'm not talking about the chowder cook-off.), a job fair featuring about 30 maritime companies. Seattle's seafaring trades are "an old industry," Morris said, one in need of a new (ahem) wave of recruits.
The centerpiece of the festival is The World's Largest Tugboat Race. "Largest" is relative, as the race drew exactly 14 boats that followed a course about a mile long. It's cool, as these things go, but not terribly dramatic. How could it be, when the fastest tug chugs along at 15 knots? That's about 17 mph for you landlubbers.
"Tugboats are not like NASCAR," Morris said. "They're kind of like watching two turtles go."
People can get bored by things like that, which is why the organizers started adding shoreshide events about a dozen years ago to keep people engaged. Voila, survival suit racing. It's pretty much what it sounds like — guys in immersion survival suits, racing. Teams of four people apiece must don their suits, jump in and swim to a raft 75 feet away. Fastest time wins. It's a a bit surreal scene watching big red Gumbys spashing to safety. And just like the NHL, there were a few teams that had no business suiting up.
The survival suit shenanigans begin the day, which ends on an equally odd note with the Quick & Dirty Boatbuilding Competition. The rules are simple. Teams (10 in all) have a budget of $100, and yes, judges demand receipts. Construction begins 9 a.m. and teams must wrap it up within six hours. Boats hit the water at 4 p.m. before a bunch of bemused fans. I discovered that four naval architectural firms were lining up for the race, so street — er, sea — cred was on the line. Can you imagine building a ship that sinks, when it's your job? A couple boats did sink, and at least one was deemed utterly unseaworthy. But it worked out well for the pros, two of whom finished one-two in this wonderfully weird sport.
Video from last year, via SeattlePropClub/YouTube
