2006 Marina of the Year
PORT OF EDMONDS in Edmonds, Wash. named top marina

For its impressive efforts to work with and serve its community while providing outstanding service to its customers, Marina Dock Age magazine is proud to recognize the Port of Edmonds as its 2006 “Marina of the Year.”

Given the space constraints here, we cannot do justice to explaining our reasons for this selection. So for a more comprehensive explanation, be sure to read our profile of the winner in the next issue. In the meantime, here’s a very brief overview.

Overview
Port of Edmonds is a 730-slip marina that is located on Puget Sound and faces the Olympic Mountains, providing a scenic background for boaters. Because the marina is the only public boating access on the populated 30-mile stretch of shoreline between Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina and the Port of Everett to the north, the marina prides itself on its both form and function.

The rock breakwater-protected marina serves boats that range from 20 feet to 60 feet and also has a dry storage facility for up to 300 vessels with a maximum length of 32 feet. Although the trend towards bigger and bigger boats is one of the special challenges facing all marinas, including Port of Edmonds, this marina sports a “long” waiting list for slips. Although it has had some difficulty filling the smaller slips, which handle the 20- to 32-foot boats, it currently operates at maximum capacity.

As with all marinas, Port of Edmonds faces ever-rising expectations from its boating customers. They want top-notch restaurants, laundry and shower facilities, workyards and haul out facilities, to name a few.

To meet these expectations, Port of Edmonds has two highly acclaimed restaurants on the property. It also operates a state-of-the-art workyard facility where tenants may work on their own boats or contract it out to vendors. The Port operates a 50-ton travel lift for lifting boats from the water and taking them to the workyard for blocking.

A special feature at Port of Edmonds that most visitors would be hard-pressed to find at their local marinas is a state-of-the art Weather Center.

Made from wood with a trellis overhead, the Weather Center is a high-tech bank of three computer monitors filled with all the latest weather information boaters have come to rely on before planning a trip on the water. One monitor displays weather statistics, another displays regional Doppler radar and Puget Sound forecasts. A third displays a multimedia video that explains tides and the forces that create them. This last display is designed for non-boaters, such as local school students, who can benefit from learning about weather patterns and tides.

The Weather Center was constructed with startup funds and donations from the Edmonds Rotary Club and hard work from a group of home-schooled students. It stands as a symbol of the close ties between the port and the community.

History
The marina at Port of Edmonds was developed in three phases spanning three decades, beginning in the late 1960s. Because of its unique geographic location, the marina doesn’t have to worry about dredging problems. It also thought that it didn’t have to worry about snow problems until a freakish snow storm struck the marina in 1996, and the weight of the snow collapsed all of the existing moorage roofs.

Described in the newspaper as a “major marina catastrophe,” some people thought that the marina wouldn’t even start up again and even if it did, the rebuild would take several years. Fortunately, close coordination and cooperation between local, state, and federal agencies proved these doubters wrong. All of the government agencies worked together to rebuild the marina so that within 18 months after the collapse, all the vessels were back in their slips. It was shortly after the rebuilding of the marina that the dry storage facility was built and then expanded to its current capacity of 300 berths.

Today, Port of Edmonds takes great pride in being a marina for boaters, guests, and the community. Within the last five years, the marina has built a 2,000 feet boardwalk that’s heavily used by the public. Along the boardwalk are view cutouts, benches, picnic tables, and attractive landscaped planters, all of which were installed for the enjoyment of the public.

In discussing the marina’s history, Executive Director Chris Keuss praised the community developers for their vision. “These people created far more than what some call a ‘country club for rich boaters.’ They saved lives by building a sturdy stone breakwater, a safe haven from storms, a particular lifesaver for fishermen in open kicker boats; they took the first important steps in the priceless renovation of what had become a ramshackle former industrial area,” he said.

In recent years, Keuss noted that the “Destination Port of Edmonds” program has brought hundreds of people to Edmonds by boat. The program has been successful in transforming Port of Edmonds into a destination stopover for boaters on the West Coast.

Asked what the Port means to people who are not boaters, Keuss replied, “It clearly means a lot. It is the crown jewel in the Edmonds waterfront; it is a major economic force in the community; and it preserves the most prime waterfront land for public use, now and far into the future.”