The City of Port Townsend wants to show off the town, and we need your help to do it! Enter the City’s “Best of Summer in Port Townsend” photo contest, to win a $250 1st place prize or $100 2nd place prize.

We want to share the best of a Port Townsend summer with the world. So upload that great summer experience you had in Port Townsend. Did you snap some great beach photos? Some artistic shots of Fort Worden? Catch some stellar morning light Downtown? Pick your best, upload them here, and then get your friends and family to vote. Our only requirement is that your photo(s) feature Port Townsend in some fashion.

Learn more and enter on our photo contest page.

WBF opens with pirate ships, paddleboard test drives, a fleet of wooden boats, dancing, and music; a weekend of fun for all ages.

Organized and presented by the Northwest Martime Center, the festival features live music, kids’ activities, spectacular vessels, and captivating speakers throughout the entire weekend. The weekend concludes with the awe-inspiring “Sail-By” at 3 pm on Sunday where hundreds of wooden vessels of all sizes and shapes pour out of the harbor and sail along the waterfront in full sail celebration. “If you are into wooden boats or just looking for a great party, Port Townsend is the place to be the second weekend of September,” said Northwest Maritime Center Executive Director Jake Beattie.

More than 250 wooden vessels will be featured, dozens of indoor and outdoor presentations, and demonstrations ranging from kayak rollovers to outfitting your boat for a solo circumnavigation. Rockstars of the sailing and boating world come from all over to share their talents and knowledge with thousands of wooden boat enthusiasts and amateurs alike.

Highlights of the 2016 festival include tall ships Lady Washington and Adventuressavailable for touring and charter; the beautiful and historic Virginia V, the last steamship of the famed Mosquito Fleet; a screening of “Vanishing Sail,” a heartwarming movie about boatbuilding on the tiny island of Carriocou; Gregg Hatten speaking about his epic adventure drift boating through our National Parks; and legends Lin Pardey and Nigel Calder presenting all weekend.

For the weekend’s full schedule of events, presentations, and activities during the festival, visit www.woodenboat.org.

Back by popular demand again this year, the Military Vehicle Show returns to Fort Worden, September 2-5, 10 am to 4 pm and is sponsored by the Coast Artillery Museum.

Vehicles will be parked in the field behind the main gun line at the top of the hill. On Saturday and Sunday free rides to and from the top of the hill (in vintage vehicles) will be available from the gate and from the Coast Artillery Museum with no charge for the rides.

On Saturday and Sunday tours of the Harbor Entrance Control Post will be available from 11 am to 3 pm and the Mortar Battery Plotting Room will be open. There will be a guided walking tour of the gun line starting in the grassy field near Battery Randol at 1 pm on Saturday. For more information, call 360.385.0373 or go towww.coastartillery.org.

The Washington Civil War Association will be setting up camp on Fort Worden’s Parade Ground and will be open to the public from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They will also be sponsoring an 1800s Contra Dance in the USO building on Saturday September 3 from 8 pm to 11:30 pm. Donations are appreciated. For more information, http://www.civilwareventfortworden.org/