Wooden boat festival to require vaccination proof for participants

Posted 8/20/21

This year’s Wooden Boat Festival will require all visitors, volunteers, staff, and participants aged 12 and up to show …

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Wooden boat festival to require vaccination proof for participants

Point Hudson is home to the Wooden Boat Festival, where boats of all sizes and shapes cram into the marina for visitors and locals to admire.

Leader file photo

Posted Friday, August 20, 2021 4:00 pm

This was a decision about what’s the right way to proceed and keep our community safe.”

Northwest Maritime Center’s executive director Jake Beattie

This year’s Wooden Boat Festival will require all visitors, volunteers, staff, and participants aged 12 and up to show proof of vaccination in order to attend the event, organizers of Port Townsend’s iconic maritime gathering announced Friday.

Other precautions to safeguard against COVID will also be taken.

All festival attendees aged 2 to 11 will be required to wear a mask at all times.

Visitors with health conditions preventing them from getting the vaccine will have to show proof of a negative COVID test administered within 72 hours of the festival.

“This was a decision about what’s the right way to proceed and keep our community safe,” said Northwest Maritime Center’s executive director Jake Beattie.

Visitors will have to bring their vaccination card, or a picture of it in order to get into the festival.

The added restrictions on attendance were made due to the large spike in COVID-19 cases across the county, region, and country, prompted by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Jefferson County public health officials reported the total number of COVID-19 cases in the county had risen to 623 Thursday, with the two-week coronavirus case rate being the highest the area has seen since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago. Four people have died in Jefferson County from COVID and 42 residents have been hospitalized.

The 45th Wooden Boat Festival is planned for Sept. 10 through Sept. 12.

Last year’s festival was canceled due to the pandemic, and organizers announced in late March that this year’s event would go on as planned, with added health and safety precautions put in place, if needed.

When asked about whether this decision will affect attendance levels for the Wooden Boat Festival, Beattie replied, “Totally, I just don’t know how.”

The annual event brings hundreds of wooden boats, more than a hundred presenters, and 50 or so exhibitors over three days of festivities in Port Townsend and Point Hudson.

The festival attracts wooden-boat and sailing enthusiasts from across the country and around the world.