Created by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters club and now part of Northwest Maritime Center’s family of events, the Salish 100 has joined the Race to Alaska and the SEVENTY48 as three of the most unique and vibrant water activities in the Pacific Northwest. Salish 100 is 135+ boats cruising 100 nautical miles—the full length of Puget Sound—from Olympia to Port Townsend, WA.
The fleet of small boats range from SCAMPs to Whitehalls, wherries, sharpies, melonseeds and flatiron skiffs; this includes a variety of smaller production sailboats and dozens of home-built sailing and rowing boats.
Along the route, small-boat skippers from across the states and other countries will experience everything the Salish Sea has to offer: currents racing through narrow channels, tide rips, sandbars, rocky shores, wonderfully protected anchorages, wind conditions ranging from flat calm to small-craft warnings, encounters with wildlife (last time a pod of orcas glided through the fleet near Bainbridge Island), and some new friendships that’ll last a lifetime. Many of the participants come from inland states to experience saltwater boating—tidal ranges of up to 14 feet—for the first time. Others drive thousands of miles to attend.