Opening Day of Boating Season

The first Saturday of May is Opening Day of Boating Season in Seattle. Folks boat here year-round, but Opening Day is another excuse for a party. The University of Washington (UW) crew team hosted a series of races with everyone from local boating clubs to world-class teams. This year’s Windemere Cup featured the UW, Columbia, and the world champion New Zealand men’s teams. New Zealand won, but the UW placed a respectable second. Crowds lined both shores of the Montlake Cut (a passage between Lake Washington and Lake Union that serves as the southern boundary of the UW campus) to cheer, see, and be seen.

After the Windemere Cup race, the crews rowed back to the Boat House; thereafter, the boat parade began. Local law enforcement craft led the way, including a fireboat dispensing water to cool off the spectators–whether they need it or not. (Opening Day has a reputation for foul weather, but today was sunny and in the low 60’s at noon.) The UW Marching Band followed on three boats, playing the school’s unofficial fight song–“Tequila.” Then we had various yachts from local clubs. The members of these clubs stood at attention on the bows, dressed in their Thurston Howell III finery, as they passed the reviewing stand. This meant that their backs were to the crowds on the north bank of the Cut. After the Yacht Clubs go past, it was a mix of old steamboats, Chris Crafts, sailboats, and decorated yachts. These were two of our favorites, “Godzilla vs. the Statue of Liberty” and “Attack of the Giant Squid”. In previous years we’ve seen amphibious cars in the parade, but none this year. Several Canadian boats made the trip down, including the Navy training ship Oriole. This picture is from 2013, but this was the first sailboat through the cut today.

The best part of the festivities is chatting up other spectators. We were invited to the UW Yacht Club wienie roast our first year here. It was a good thing the event was held indoors because the weather was miserable that day. Today I met a woman from Chicago who was in town for a wedding and was told about the crew races, but not the boat parade. She stayed for the parade and had a great time. Two years ago Julian and I were talking to a fellow photographer who told us about a book regarding the 1936 UW crew team’s trip to the Berlin Olympics. This story is “The Boys in the Boat,” which has become a best-seller and will be made into a film within the next year. The book will explain why rowing has such a hold on Seattle and how that heritage has led to the celebration of Opening Day.