1st time for trawlerfest Seattle

Hi guys, I am planning on attending Trawler fest in Anacortes next week.

I am travelling by car and wondering the best place(s) to stay.

Like to see as many boats as I can ( I am shopping/ learning ) and also maybe see some of Seattle's sights, but mainly interested in seeing trawlers and meeting people who are living the life!

Any suggestions on best location, motels, places to eat and drink etc. ??

Thanks for your help, Rich

Lots to do up here!

Something to factor in- Seattle is about 2 hours south of Anacortes, so I'd plan for time in Seattle AND time at the show. Trawlerfest can be fully absorbed in 2 days, so you should have plenty of time to sightsee...

Seattle is a world class city, so the eateries are too numerous to list....Anacortes, I'll leave to a local

Thanks Peter, yes maybe that was too broad including the Seattle part.

So please suggestions for Trawlerfest and Anacortes. I can do Seattle later!

Adrift restaurant is outstanding.

The Rockfish Grill is a good restaurant in Anacortes. It's on the main drag through town going toward the commercial waterfront.

Also Anthony's overlooking the Cap Sante where I assume TrawlerFest will be held. Very good, consistent quality restaurant.

And you can use this site to see what's there for yourself. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g30266-Anacortes_Washington.html

enterprisecc said:

I am travelling by car and wondering the best place(s) to stay.
Any suggestions on best location, motels, places to eat and drink etc. ??

Click to expand...

Hi Rich,

We stayed at the Marina Inn during last year's Trawler Fest and were quite happy with it. Friends also stayed at the Anaco and reported that they were pleased as well.

I'll 2nd Marin's recommendation for Anthony's, they did a great job, even when swamped with Trawler folks and you can't beat the location, which is right next to all of the action.

We may be there next Saturday, but it depends on how much work is completed on the boat. Good Luck,

At the Trawler Fest site they list the restaurants, hotels local services. Anacortes Schedule of Events

I was planning on going Sunday as we are out of town, but my wife is going to see her sister, so she is not coming back with me. So if you want we could hook up at the Fest, then you could come back to Everett as we have a lot of trawler in the water and on the hard right now. My fob opens all the gates in the marina so you can walk the docks and usually there are a lot of people working on their boats that you can talk to. Juat say you are with Phil on the Eagle as all the Everett Marins knows me and so do many of the boaters.

Also if you like I could take you to one of our family owned restaurants and give you a quick drive through of Seattle.

Try the Anaco Bay Inn in Anacortes. There are some great eating spots on the Main Street in Anacortes, walk around and pick one you like such as - Adrift, Calico cupboard especially for breakfast and Cinnamon buns and A Town Bistro. Anthony's allure is it is on the water, but IMHO it is a generic restaurant experience you can get anywhere, even Boise, or Davenport.

Don't miss walking past Delfin, a great example of a traditional trawler. Nothing nicer or more economical for its size in the PNW.

Don't rule out Laconner for places to stay. Only 20 mi. or so from Anacortes.

Thanks all for the replies,

thanks Phil ( is it Phil? ) for your offer. I may just take you up on it.

I've been boating all my life, or at least since I can remember, but the Trawler lifestyle that I have decided I want to do in my later years is all new to me. This website I have been reading for ?? hours has been an invaluable resource.


Nice to see how helpful and friendly people are on here

Despite my living here for the past 33 years I am not a fan of the city of Seattle. It's a pretty messed up place in my opinion, in a lot of ways. So unless you really have a burning desire to see the city I'd recommend staying north of it and only use Seattle as a place to catch a plane.

Staying in Anacortes itself would certainly be convenient, or La Conner as Max suggested. La Conner's actually a really neat little waterfront town but I don't know anything about the accomodations there.

But if neither of those places work out check out Bellingham up north. You could stay in Bellingham and then drive to and from Anacortes via Chuckanut Drive rather than the I-5 freeway corridor. It would be a about a 45 minute drive. Chuckanut is a great road, both the part through the Skagit River Valley farm district and along the cliffs over Padilla Bay looking out to the San Juans. It's the route we take when we go to and from the boat almost every weekend, leaving or joining I-5 at Burlington.

Anyway, tons of options but if it was me, I wouldn't bother with Seattle itself. It's just another screwed up concrete-and-terrible-traffic American city and they're all pretty much the same in my experience. Go north if you really want the "PNW-Puget Sound" experience.

Did anybody go to the Trawler Fest. This is the first one we have most in years. I was planning on going Sunday but we got back from California late Saturday and my wife had other ideas as I did not have the laundry and grocery shopping done and the weather was not that great.

What boat where there and what boat took show? Was the Dofin there?

We were at the Trawlerfest on Thursday and Friday. It was a pretty good show, albeit a little smaller than last year. I'm not sure who won best in show since we left early. All and all a really good time. All of the exhibitors are very accommodating to news like us. We ended up heading into Seattle to see a couple of other boats that were of interest to us.

Doug

ddfishon said:

We were at the Trawlerfest on Thursday and Friday. It was a pretty good show, albeit a little smaller than last year. I'm not sure who won best in show since we left early. All and all a really good time. All of the exhibitors are very accommodating to news like us. We ended up heading into Seattle to see a couple of other boats that were of interest to us.

Doug

Click to expand...

Gee, you should have let me know and come by. Then I would have a good excuse to not do my chores.

Most years there are only a couple of boats that we go on. My wife does not like the Nordhavn, likes the 58 Krogan, and has not made up her mind about the Selenes. We both like the unusually over 60 ft one of a kind. My favorites are Northern Marine mfg in Anacortes, Delta mfg in Seattle and Northwest mfg in Anacortes. Then new 55 ft Seahorse pilot house trawler is interesting, and 60 ft Queenship finish in Vancouver BC, I think they are called Sea Somthing now.

So what boats are you interest in and went to see in Seattle?

If in the Everett area let us know as my wife is retired, I work in Everett and we are close by most of the time. If you leave a personal message on TF, it will be forwarded to my cell phone.

I was pretty underwhelmed with it as a whole. Only consolation is we drove up in the car rather than the boat. Very small show. Overpriced at $15 admission unless you're planning on hanging around for the seminars. It wasn't what I hoped it would be.

The Seattle Boat Show is much more entertaining between the indoor and afloat portions.

SomeSailor said:

I was pretty underwhelmed with it as a whole. Only consolation is we drove up in the car rather than the boat. Very small show. Overpriced at $15 admission unless you're planning on hanging around for the seminars. It wasn't what I hoped it would be.

Click to expand...

Wait a minute! Are you describing the San Diego Trawlerfest?

My sneaking suspicion is yes.

I don't know who won best of show, but my vote would have been for Tony Fleming's "Venture"

Phil Fill said:

Gee, you should have let me know and come by. Then I would have a good excuse to not do my chores.

Most years there are only a couple of boats that we go on. My wife does not like the Nordhavn, likes the 58 Krogan, and has not made up her mind about the Selenes. We both like the unusually over 60 ft one of a kind. My favorites are Northern Marine mfg in Anacortes, Delta mfg in Seattle and Northwest mfg in Anacortes. Then new 55 ft Seahorse pilot house trawler is interesting, and 60 ft Queenship finish in Vancouver BC, I think they are called Sea Somthing now.

So what boats are you interest in and went to see in Seattle?

If in the Everett area let us know as my wife is retired, I work in Everett and we are close by most of the time. If you leave a personal message on TF, it will be forwarded to my cell phone.

Click to expand...

We were looking at a Selene '43 and a '47. We wanted to see how the '43 felt - a bit small

ddfishon said:

We were looking at a Selene '43 and a '47. We wanted to see how the '43 felt - a bit small

Click to expand...

It sounds like you got a case of largerities. That what we caught as we first looked at 30 to 40 ft, then 40 to 50 ft, then 50 to 60 and some even larger. However, slips over 60 ft were few and expensive, and over 50 ton the yards became few and expensive. So 60 ft and 50 ton became the maxium. Actaully if you measure the Eagle its 59 ft 8 inches, and fully loaded about 45 ton.