If it seems that Opening Day yachts grow bigger and more extreme every year, this is not our imagination. The Northwest Marine Trade Association reports the number of yachts measuring 50 feet or more has tripled in the past decade, to 1,585 in King County alone. The piers at Elliott Bay Marina are jammed with huge white vessels that mimic rocket ships - floating testimonies to conspicuous consumption. Visit Elliott Bay today and most of those yachts will be tied up in their berths, burning no fuel, raising no bridges. A boat is a hole in the water, into which middle-aged men pour money.
Costs grow exponentially with hull length.
The bigger the boat, the more time it spends at the dock. But superyachts do not represent Seattle's boating culture. To prove it, take a look across Lake Union on a normal weekend. Stop by at the Center for Wooden Boats, a Lake Union landmark that maintains and rents elegant small craft that raise neither bridges nor pollution levels. Seattle's love for the sea is neither new nor accidental.