The First-Ever Salish 100

One hundred small boats cruise the length of Puget Sound—100 nautical miles

Inspired by the success of more abbreviated small-boat cruises, Marty Loken of the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters organized this year’s first Salish 100, with what turned out to be 100 boats making their way 100 nautical miles from Olympia to Port Townsend, Washington, over a week-long period in June.

Sponsored by Duckworks Boat Builders Supply and supported by other organizations including the Northwest Maritime Center, Small CraftAdvisor magazine, the Artful Sailor, the Puget Sound chapter of TSCA, Kingston Mercantile & Marine and the Gig Harbor BoatShop, the inaugural Salish 100 drew boaters from all over the U.S. West…with the longest-distance award going to young Rachel Doss, who trailered her 13-foot Guppy more than 2,000 miles from Texas to Olympia.

The event was a floating potpourri of small-boat designs, from home-built proas to flat-bottom skiffs, rowboats, traditional wooden classics, older fiberglass production sailboats, and one SUP. (There were more Montgomery 15s and 17s than any other model, with SCAMPs in second place, followed by an impressive collection of other new and older boats—including some built expressly for the Salish 100.)