Boat Show and Tom’s Boats in Seattle

Seattle Boat Show 2012

Friday 1/27 – Sunday 2/5/12

800 Occidental Ave So, Seattle - CenturyLink Field

Hours:    Mon-Thur 11am – 8pm

              Fridays     11am – 9pm
              Saturdays 10am – 8pm
              Sundays    10am – 6pm

Tom’s – Avalon Luxury Pontoon Boats
Booth – North 155

I bought my boat, Happy Hours, from Tom’s Boat Shop at the Seattle Boat Show in February 2011. Tom has been selling and servicing boats in Wilbur WA for many years. Tom opened his Seattle area dealership and showroom in Ballard May 1st, 2011. After I met Tom at the Boat Show we became good friends and he gave me a super deal for having the first of his Avalon luxury pontoon boats on Lake Washington. I have his advertising on the sides of my boat.

From Tom’s web page: “Tom's Boat Shop is a Family-owned, Family run, full service boat dealer. We believe in providing the absolute best customer service possible and we mean it. Before, during and long after the sale, we treat people with the greatest respect and are available to do whatever is needed to take care of our customer. We believe premium service along with premium products is a winning package, add to that exceptional people and you end up with a one of a kind dealer who really does care!"

I will occasionally be at his booth. I recommend you stop by and see some of the perfect boats for the PNW. www.TomsBoatShop.com.

Go to Dykstra Boat Show pdf for more information.

Call my cell – 206-931-6065 for show passes.

Summer on Lake Washington

Our summer on Lake Washington has been fantastic! Many of our family and friends have been boating with us aboard Happy Hours and rave about the experience. Comments from out-of-towners include, “Our most memorable day in the Seattle area.” Comments from locals include, “The best day of our summer.”

We had 38 outings with over 300 passengers. Many others have stepped aboard at a dock. Others have swum or boated over and climbed aboard. Everyone loves the water slide! We’ve relaxed viewing the Map of the Stars, just enjoying the lake, going to waterfront restaurants and sunset rides. We viewed houses for sale and sold with Realtors and their clients. We’ve hosted premium charity auction item outings.

We’ve had slow rides pulling the big tube and higher-speed extreme tubing and water skiing. Because the boat has flat decks and a fabulous stereo system, we’ve had wonderful dance parties on the boat. We've had fantastic party times on the boat with the flotillas at Boating Opening Day, the 4th of July on Lake Union, Seafair, University of Washington "sailgate" parties, and in the party coves of Andrews Bay, Meydenbauer Bay, Fairweather Bay, and Cozy Cove. Pictures are up on a new Happy Hours Picasa web album and a video is up on the Internet.

Because of all the above, I am way behind in posting to this blog. I will be catching up!

Seattle’s Biggest Party

Lake Washington is famous for Seattle’s Seafair summer celebration.  This is a month long festival of many activities throughout Seattle and ends the first Sunday in August.  The final four days feature hydroplane races, the Navy’s Blue Angels’ air shows (previous post) and the Seattle area’s biggest party. Over a million people watch the Blue Angels and party on the water and shoreline.

During the Seafair air shows all the boats, except those tied to the log boom, between the I-90 Bridge and Seward Park must move out of this area. After the Friday through Sunday air shows, which is usually around 2:30 pm, the boats return in mass. The party-on-the-water begins!

This is Seattle’s summer on-the-water version of Mardi Gras. Thousands of boats packed with partiers crowd the area. Most are in swimming suits and the babes are in bikinis. Some only wear the bottom part. Many with the tops on (sometimes) collect strings of beads Mardi Gras style.

Boats raft to other boats. The hydroplane races are the excuse but very few watch. Water fights with high powered water guns, hoses and water balloons are everywhere. Of course there is a lot of drinking. Over the last few years the police have cracked down on drinking while piloting a boat. Boats need to have a designated captain.

After the air-shows we make trips with our new boat, Happy Hours, to join the spectator fleet. Because of our location we have a head start versus the main flotilla. We provide water guns. Prepare to get wet if you wish to join us on these excursions.

Professional photographer, Bernard Zee, has a neat website with a lot of great photographs of 2009’s party-on-the-water.

Seafair in Seattle

Lake Washington is famous for Seattle’s Seafair summer celebration.  This is a month long festival of many activities throughout Seattle and ends the first Sunday in August.  The final four days feature hydroplane races and the Navy’s Blue Angels’ air shows.  The hydroplane races are on the west side of the lake south of the I-90 floating bridge. The Stan S. Sayres Memorial Park, known as the “Sayres Pits” was established here in 1957. The pits are the launching, service and staging area for Seafair’s hydroplane racing boats.

The air show’s center is this area over the lake. The planes and their stunts can be seen from much of the lake and its shores.  During these four days the lake is crowded with spectator boats and the lake is renowned for the associated “floating party” or “Mardi Gras on the water.”

On Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7, The Navy F-18 air show begins at 1 pm and the Blue Angels performance starts at 1:30 pm. (More information about the Blue Angels.)

Stan Sayres (1897-1956) was known as “The Legend of Lake Washington” and “The Fastest Man Afloat.”  He was selling and racing cars in northeastern Oregon in 1926 when he had his first experience with a power-boat.  He purchased a wrecked 40 mph outboard engine racing boat and began racing, designing and building race-boats.  He moved to Seattle in 1931 and in 1937 he bought a 91 mph racing boat that his wife named Slow Motion.  Stan changed the name to Slo-Mo-Shun, often called Slo-Mo.  Stan designed, developed and built new and faster Slo-Mos.  He moved to Hunts Point in the 1940s and built a 6,860 sq ft house on the tip of Hunts Point. (The house was demolished in 2008 and the vacant lot was sold March 31, 2011 for $14.8 million [see Seattle Mansions blog]). The neighbors in this sleepy community “enjoyed” (?) the roar and 30 ft rooster tails of his trials and practices.

He set his first boat-on-water speed record of 160+ mph in 1950 on LW and continued to set new records, all on LW, with his last at 178.497 mph in 1952.  After his first record he took Slo-Mo IV to Detroit and won the 1950 Gold Cup, boat racing’s biggest prize.  This was a big upset to the hydroplane establishment.  Stan brought hydroplane racing to LW in 1951 as part of the Seafair.  The first Seafair was in 1950 to celebrate the centennial of the first U.S.-European Seattle settlement.  The 1951 race was the first U.S. hydroplane race west of Detroit and was a huge success.  Stan became a local hero.  The races are now a Seafair tradition.  He received a lot of local backing for his racing against the Detroit establishment.  Slo-Mo-Shun IV and V won the next four Gold Cups.

We live in the Proctor Landing area of Mercer Island directly across the lake from the pits and the center of the big show. We and nearly all of our neighbors have Seafair parties over the week-end. The planes fly low directly over our dock. After the air-shows we will be making trips with our new boat, Happy Hours, to join the spectator fleet for Seattle’s Mardi Gras. For Seafair facts and history, go to Seafair’s site.

Dykstra on TV

KING 5’s Evening Magazine featured me and the book Lake Washington 130 Homes on the Monday, 6/20/11, show. You can see it on the Internet.

“Move over Hollywood! Seattle now has its very own book plotting the houses of our rich and famous. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, Bill Gates, you name it and it's likely here, showing you the where, when, and how of our most famous mansions. The book retails for $18, find more info at http://www.hundredhomes.net/ .”

Pontoons in Lake Washington

“Pontoons in Lake Washington” are much more than floating bridges. The new generation of luxury pontoon-trimarans are the perfect boats for Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. It is a luxury deck and party room on the water at the dock, floating or motoring. It is the perfect boat for Lake Washington Cruising and viewing the Map of the Stars homes.

On 5/7/11 Susan and I launched our new boat, “Happy Hours,” and, with our wonderful crew, we proceeded to Seattle’s Boating Opening Day celebration and boat parade and received the Alaska Airlines Trophy for 1st place in our class (Decorated Commercial).

Happy Hours is the first boat of its kind in the Seattle/Lake-Washington area. This is an Avalon luxury pontoon boat. It is sometimes called a party barge - but it will go 35+ mph and can pull water skiers. We go happy hours sightseeing in luxury or just float and with kids of all ages relaxing or playing on the water slide. It is also great extension of our dock. We now have a luxury cocktail lounge, sundeck and wet bar with refrigerator and blender at our dock.

I bought the boat from Tom’s Boat Shop at the Seattle Boat Show in February 2011. Tom opened his Seattle area dealership and showroom in Ballard in May 2011.

I have a Happy Hours blog with more information, including FREE RIDES and DOCK PARTIES. I apologize for being behind on posting to this blog due to the new boat and blog.

Cruising Meydenbauer Bay and Groat Point – Southeast Medina and Western Bellevue

Page numbers on the map refer to Lake Washington 130 Homes.  This area covers pages 81 to 90.

Bellevue and its Meydenbauer Bay and Medina’s Groat Point are north of Mercer Island.  From MI and into the Bay you will enjoy wonderful views of Bellevue’s modern skyline.  The Eastside’s most prestigious yacht club, Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club, is at the eastern end of the bay.  The Medina-Bellevue border is at the north-west corner of Meydenbauer Bay.

Meydenbauer Bay and Groat Point are known for spectacular views and some of the prime properties on Lake Washington.  The Bay offers relatively protected waters and is a popular place for water skiers and boaters who like to idle or slowly cruise and enjoy the vistas.  In the afternoon the sun glistens off Mount Rainier to the south and the Bellevue glass high-rise buildings to the immediate east.

Some of this area’s most notable mansions include the spectacular former Groat Point home of Bruce McCaw and his neighbors, J. Lennox Scott and Richard DiCerchio. In Meydenbauer Bay NBA SuperSonics stars Detlef Schrempf and Jack Sikma used to live side-by-side.  (The previous 5/21/11 post has more information on these and other homes.)

Meydenbauer Bay is named after Bellevue’s first settler-developer, William Meydenbauer.  Meydenbauer was German born and came to Seattle in the mid 1800s.  In 1869 he rowed across Lake Washington, laid claim to 40 acres and built a cabin here.  One of the McGilvra family members of Madison Park (page 18) built the first house in this area on Groat Point (page 88) in the 1800s.

“Bellevue” is French for “beautiful view.”  The city was incorporated in 1953 when there were approximately 10,000 residents.  The 2009 population is approximately 120,000 and it is projected to grow to 150,000 by 2050.  It is The Eastside’s business center and has an estimated daytime population of 180,000.  In 2008 CNNMoney named Bellevue number 42 in the “Best Places to Live” in the U.S. and number one in the state of Washington.  Most of the high rise office and residential buildings in downtown Bellevue were constructed during the past 15 years.  Many more are planned.

(This is the eighth chapter [go to next chapter] of our “Lake Washington Cruising” article. The chapters are being posted in reverse order.  When all chapters are posted they will be in order in this blog with the first chapter at the top.  I will be posting approximately two chapters per month.  You can read and print an abbreviated pdf version of the entire article.)