Maritime Heritage Festival Kicks Off This Weekend in Port

Editor's note: The following information was provided to Patch via a news release.

Fishing trawlers, rescue boats, Coast Guard boat and harbor cruisers, among the hardest working vessels in the U.S. today, will dock in Port Washington for Maritime Heritage Festival this weekend, giving visitors an opportunity to tour some of the them and even go for a guided harbor cruise.

Festival hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Visitors will be able to admire the ships at the festival, and enjoy entertainment, including Modern Country, Irish, Pop/R&B, Bluegrass and Folk and Rock musicians. Vendors will sell arts and crafts, and maritime-related merchandise. Full food and beverage areas as well as fireworks at 9:15 p.m. Saturday will be featured.  New this year will be an interactive Treasure Hunt for historic tug boat and anchor replicas.

Another exciting new opportunity to book your own Guided Harbor Tour is also available--telling tales of shipwrecks right under your feet, fires that almost took down the downtown, famous characters who stayed here and even the tornado that threatened the City! Tickets for all of the activities will be limited so be sure to reserve your seats now!

Deck tours on all of our five ships are available for  purchase as well. We have new and exciting vessels to tour -- you don't have to pick just one!

The festival is being presented by the Port Washington Tourism Council along with  the Port Washington Main Street program, the City of Port Washington and the Port Washington Marina. 

For more information, call 262-268-1132 or visit www.portmaritimefestival.com.

The 5 Ships 

The Susie Q Fishing Trawler is a family-owned, working Lake Michigan Fishing Trawler from Two Rivers, WI. The Susie Q is part of a long-running family history in the commercial fishing industry dating back to more than 130 years ago when the LeClair family first began fishing Lake Michigan. Today Susie Q Fish Company holds the state record of 250,000 pounds of alewives caught in one day! The crew will discuss the details of the fishing process so make sure you take notes!

 The Ozaukee County Rescue Boat  is a 42-foot boat owned by Ozaukee County and part of the Emergency Management Division. The boat is docked at the Port Washington Marina and is in service during the boating season. It is supervised by a Captain and two Lieutenants, each completing requirements specific to their position. The unit's patrol area covers approximately 900 square statute miles during normal operations.

The Lakeside Spirit is a bi-level vessel with an open air top level that can accommodate up to 50 passengers. A boat in the family of the Milwaukee River Boat Cruise Line of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we invite you to cruise while participating in an exciting and informative tour. Shipwrecks, fires, historical yarns all woven into an interactive tour. You'll learn all about Port Washington... from her other front door!

The new U.S. Coast Guard Response Boat-Medium (RB-M) boasts an improved design, new ergonomics, and enhanced safety features, making boat crews more effective in performing their multiple missions. The RB-M is part of the Coast Guard's plan to standardize and revitalize its shore-based boat fleet. The RB-M replaces the aging 41-foot and other non-standard utility boats (UTB). The 41-foot UTBs are at the end of their 25-year economic service life and are experiencing escalating maintenance costs and reduced operational availability. The new platforms bring improvements in performance, efficiency and reliability. Having worked closely with operational commanders to develop a more capable response boat, the RB-M project has delivered a new boat with significantly increased speed and performance, improving response time and agility for missions. The boats' also are designed with human factors systems engineering concepts in mind, decreasing crew fatigue on extended patrols.

The M/V Halten is a Norwegian Rescue Service Trawler. The 78-foot, privately owned and restored vessel is one of the remaining 13 of its kind in the world.  Built in Norway in 1966 and used by the NSSR (Norway's Rescue Service) she served until 1997 when sold into private service.