Here’s a twist: Get a prize for your handmade boat sinking. Maritime Fest is upon us

Capsize a handmade cardboard boat in the Thea Foss Waterway and win a prize this weekend at the seaport’s annual Maritime Fest.

The 26-year-old festival will include two days of waterway activities, from introductory paddle boarding classes to tours of the Port of Tacoma.

“The Maritime Fest is a celebration of our working waterfront, what drew people to Tacoma originally,” said Wesley Wenhardt, executive director of the Foss Waterway Seaport.

For the first time this year, children and adults alike can try their hand at building personal boats from cardboard and then compete in a timed race to paddle them down the waterway.

Called the “Float that Boat” challenge, only non-coated cardboard may be used for boat building, and the judges can disqualify participants for using duct tape, plastic, or any other type of water-resistant coating which could make the boat more likely to float.

Children, adult boats with one passenger, and adult boats with two or more passengers will compete in separate races.

Wenhardt said judges will award cash prizes to those who paddle their boats the fastest in each category but also give out a special prize for the “most spectacular sinking.”

“We think that this is going to be a real tribute to boat building, past and future,” Wenhardt said.

For festival goers interested in other activities, the waterway has organized a slew of events for children and adults.

Kids can build model toy boats, meet with roving pirates, listen to a mermaid tell tales of seafaring adventures and practice their pirate expressions as they jump in a pirate ship bouncy house.

Older festival goers can try their hand at balancing atop a paddleboard in downward dog as part of a paddleboard yoga class or learn how to build a ship in a bottle.

Twenty-one boats will be docked at the waterway for the weekend, and 10 or so will be open for visitors to climb aboard and learn about from the crew. For this first time this year, a Coast Guard vessel, the WAHOO, will be present and available to the public.

They can also tour the dockside and take daytime sails around the waterway.

Food trucks, local artists and live music will add to the weekend festivities.

“What we’re trying to do is build a community, get people down off the hilltop, out of their cars on the 5, and get them down to the water’s edge,” Wenhardt said.

Maritime Fest

When: July 27 and 28, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Foss Waterway Seaport, 705 Dock St, Tacoma, WA 98402

Admission: Free

Transportation: Limited parking is available at the waterfront. Visitors can take a shuttle from the Tacoma Dome, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. A boat shuttle from the 16th Street pier is available Saturday, and a boat shuttle from the Museum of Glass is available Sunday.

This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 6:05 AM.