The Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival is the largest wooden boat festival in North America, focused on providing access for families to get on the water, the beauty of wooden boats, and the richness of the local maritime culture. 2024 was the second year the Festival participated in the Clean Regattas program, and we were honored to be able to attend to support their efforts. Sustainability initiatives– alongside a lot of the other organizing! – is spearheaded by Barb Trailer, Wooden Boat Festival Director and one of our Skippers volunteers. We caught up with her after the event to understand the goals of the Festival, what went right, and where they hope to go in the future.
Wooden Boat Festival Director and Skipper volunteer Barb TrailerProgram Manager Emily Conklin with the SfS flag at the Wooden Boat Festival entrance
Last year, the Wooden Boat Festival earned a Participant Level Clean Regattas certification. How did you feel this year’s sustainability initiatives went?
This year’s initiatives were successful, despite some challenges. We have had to adjust our goals to meet the current capabilities in the region. For instance, we can no longer send our compostable paper cups out to be turned into garden soil, so they went to the landfill, which is a huge bummer. We still use compostable cups and silverware in the food court and bars, and no single-use plastic is allowed. This year, we had increased buy-in from vendors and the local community for not selling single-use plastic bottles. We also had a 70% reduction in signage created due to focusing on reducing production and sign reuse from previous years. In addition to signage, we also had an overall reduction in plastic use.
What did you learn from this year’s experience?
We live in a small community with limited resources, so we need everyone to collaborate on sustainability efforts. We can only do so much [as an event] without the support of the recycling and composting facilities, the local breweries and wineries, etc.
There are ongoing changes which will affect us greatly. Our recycling facility is reducing services and currently not accepting glass. In the past, we have trucked our food and compostable waste to another town to fulfill our composting goals but this year that facility was sold. The new owners were not open to taking our cups, so while it was still great to not use plastic cups, we feel we still created more trash than in the past.
The success of our local community helps us meet our goals. Their success is our success: we have to have buy-in at EVERY level to keep this going.
Sailors for the Sea tabled at this year’s Wooden Boat Festival, talking to attendees about our programs and sustainability.
Understanding these changes and challenges, what are your goals for future Festivals?
There are several areas to focus on to continue to grow the sustainability efforts of the Festival, all relying on communication and collaboration. We plan to advocate at the City Council and other levels of government to support sustainability initiatives, so we can continue to “green” not only our event, but also the town and other local events. Additionally, we’ll use our voice to advocate for the local transfer and recycling center to get the funding needed so they can continue to offer proper waste management services in our region.
On top of advocacy with these groups, we will continue to do our part to reduce, especially to further decrease single-use plastic. Part of this will be working directly with vendors to improve preparation and reduce what is brought to the event.
We made a short video highlighting some of the Best Practices achieved at this year’s Wooden Boat Festival. Reusable signage, encouraging biking and other alternative transportation, collaborating with community organizations – with these strategies and more, the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival earned a Gold Level Certification for 2024!
The Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival is a great example of a non-race event bringing Clean Regattas’ best practices to the forefront of their work. As a Skipper and the Director of the Festival, Barb is dedicated to having their annual event leave a positive impact and legacy on the local community and the many visitors who attend every year.
