I was reminded on Saturday how truly wonderful our Northwest Boating Community is. While I have been a part of many 
“Opening Days” it was the first time I was on the grounds of the Seattle Yacht Club to experience the Opening Ceremonies of the event. I’ll admit there was a time that I looked at the navy blue blazers and white pants as stuffy and old fashioned. That was of course during the “genius years” of my 20’s, we all know how much we thought we knew then.
I was taken back to my youth, to the days of riding on my grandfather’s boat as a member of the Queen City Yacht Club and participating in the annual boat parade. The tradition of Opening Day is a wonderful thing. I wasn’t aware that it is the world’s largest boating parade, with over 200 boats participating, I simply knew it as a local and family tradition. The fact that the commodore from just about every yacht club in the area was in attendance in their dress uniform was really quite impressive.
The crew races are a fun tradition and the parade the follows is truly amazing. The fact that we televise other parades here in our area and not this one is confusing to me.
For this observer, I have the opinion that it needs to be celebrated even more. We have a large community in the Northwest that is connected to this wonderful day. All the business’ and all the employees that build, repair, maintain, restore and protect the boats, marinas and anything else that is connected to this community all need to have a day to celebrate.I was on the Seattle Yacht Club’s “Press Boat” on Saturday and I had a wonderful time. I was surprised that some of the local mainstream media wasn’t there to cover the event from start to finish. I came to the conclusion that maybe what needs to happen is that the pot needs to be stirred. That maybe the grounds need to be cultivated, new seeds planted and some fertilizer spread around on not only the first Saturday in May, but on the maritime community and industry in general.
