WELCOME TO RIVER DAVES PLACE

Stern Insurance on The Road Seattle SeaFair / Water Ski Races

Boatracer36

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It was 4 weeks ago when we were all in Parker cruising up to Foxs on Marty Leonard?s #22 Schiada. Everything was great? until it wasn't! The freshly built twin turbo decided it didn't want to be a part of ski racing anymore just 1 month before we were scheduled to road trip to Seattle for the Bolt on the Blue Water ski Races. And then the boat Gods (aka Hammer) came and sent us ?The Hamlet? to use as our replacement boat for the trip! IMG_5535[1].jpg
After 4 weeks of preparation, we were ready to go! Our road trip started at 3:30am, leaving from San Diego and heading for Napa. IMG_5538[1].jpg
Meeting Up w/ Hammer in Santa Clarita for a last minute look at the boat and Good Luck send off! hammer.jpg
After 5 hours of driving, a quick Pit Stop through the grapevine at the Iron Skillet for breakfast. IMG_5543[1].jpg
4 more hours of driving through cow country and we've arrived!
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Getting our camp for the night set up at SkyLine Wilderness Park
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First Wine Tasting Room: Eleven Eleven Winery
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2nd Stop: Wine Tasting at the Wine Thief in Downtown Napa, while waiting for Team Angry Bird to arrive.
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Party Marty down for the count after 8 hours of driving and a few tastings!!
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Team Angry Bird Arrives and after BBQing, cocktails and talking water ski racing for a couple hours, it?s time to hit the hay.
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As quickly as we came in, we?re heading out at 7am to continue the trek.
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To Continue......
 

That Guy

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A good friend of ours is one of the owners of Eleven Eleven wines...good stuff! Have fun....
 

YoPengo

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Love a good road trip thread. :thumbsup
 

rivergames

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Go kick some butt in the Hammlett! :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup
 

Boat211

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If you had more time, I would recommend dumping that boat in Lake Shasta. It's a beautiful lake.
 

Cray Paper

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Dam, I live in Seattle and dint know they had water ski races during Sea Fair.

Watching Sea Fair (unlimted hydro's and air show) from a boat is a crazy experience. If you haven't done this before, you should while your in town. The areas around the log booms as well as near the 520 floating bridge attract the younger crowd, drunk and or stoned every where, naked chicks, water cannons, water balloons all tied up in one giant raft up. If care about your boat or you have the wife and kids with you raft up just off the east side of Seward Park. People drink and smoke less and most of the women keep their bikinis on.

The launch at Coulon Park is great, except it fills up quickly,the drive isles are too narrow and parking stalls are not long enough for 23' and longer boats with CC tow rigs. Last time I went to Sea Fair I couldn't get the truck and trailer out of the parking stall, a group of drunk guys helped me bounce the trailer around the front of the ass hat that parked deep next to, in front and behind me. When I pulled through the lot it was carnage, several trailer had been driven over or mangled, a couple rigs had been clipped on the front fender area and several peoples mirrors were torn off.

If your parking at Coulon, bring a floor jack. Magnuson Parks ramp sucks in comparison and there is no break water to knock the wind down, but the stalls are longer and drive isles are much wider. Never had a problem being penned in at Magnuson.
 

Hammer

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Dam, I live in Seattle and dint know they had water ski races during Sea Fair.

Watching Sea Fair (unlimted hydro's and air show) from a boat is a crazy experience. If you haven't done this before, you should while your in town. The areas around the log booms as well as near the 520 floating bridge attract the younger crowd, drunk and or stoned every where, naked chicks, water cannons, water balloons all tied up in one giant raft up. If care about your boat or you have the wife and kids with you raft up just off the east side of Seward Park. People drink and smoke less and most of the women keep their bikinis on.

The launch at Coulon Park is great, except it fills up quickly,the drive isles are too narrow and parking stalls are not long enough for 23' and longer boats with CC tow rigs. Last time I went to Sea Fair I couldn't get the truck and trailer out of the parking stall, a group of drunk guys helped me bounce the trailer around the front of the ass hat that parked deep next to, in front and behind me. When I pulled through the lot it was carnage, several trailer had been driven over or mangled, a couple rigs had been clipped on the front fender area and several peoples mirrors were torn off.

If your parking at Coulon, bring a floor jack. Magnuson Parks ramp sucks in comparison and there is no break water to knock the wind down, but the stalls are longer and drive isles are much wider. Never had a problem being penned in at Magnuson.


Damn.... I knew I should have flown up!!! Sounds like a good time:champagne::drink:party2::D
 

Cray Paper

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Damn.... I knew I should have flown up!!! Sounds like a good time:champagne::drink:party2::D

My wife, kids, sister and her daughter were onboard back in 2012 when I took these pics and I knew had to copy the cameras SD card for them. I didn't take photo's of the bikini barista deck boats (strippers wearing G strings and pasties selling 25 dollar mochas / espresso) that were making the rounds or the roll bar boats in front and to the sides of us with topless 20 something chicks. We were in the "family friendly" area.

There was a guy anchored to our right with an old tug boat. They had a bonfire going on the back, huge stereo system, keg and a BBQ and about 20 people onboard.



We tied up with this group from the old NWOffshore site, great group of people in this photo.


Some of the boats around us, it looked like this for half a mile around us.



There was a much larger crowd north of us next to the I90 floating bridge. The coastguard patrolled the area north us to the bridge and wouldn't let anyone through during the airshow or unlimited hydro races. If your going north, do it early. We launched at 6:30am and got to our spot at 7:00am. North south boat traffic is cut off around 9:00am until like 2:30pm.
 

Hammer

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My wife, kids, sister and her daughter were onboard back in 2012 when I took these pics and I knew had to copy the cameras SD card for them. I didn't take photo's of the bikini barista deck boats (strippers wearing G strings and pasties selling 25 dollar mochas / espresso) that were making the rounds or the roll bar boats in front and to the sides of us with topless 20 something chicks. We were in the "family friendly" area.

There was a guy anchored to our right with an old tug boat. They had a bonfire going on the back, huge stereo system, keg and a BBQ and about 20 people onboard.



We tied up with this group from the old NWOffshore site, great group of people in this photo.


Some of the boats around us, it looked like this for half a mile around us.



There was a much larger crowd north of us next to the I90 floating bridge. The coastguard patrolled the area north us to the bridge and wouldn't let anyone through during the airshow or unlimited hydro races. If your going north, do it early. We launched at 6:30am and got to our spot at 7:00am. North south boat traffic is cut off around 9:00am until like 2:30pm.

This will give you an idea of what Sea Fair looks like in Seattle.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sea...oSCQu3UGiNavAdEVWnfhGxLeRl&q=seafair pictures




Looks like a good time. Had no Idea it was that big of an event.. :thumbsup
 

Boatracer36

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The adventure continues Wednesday up through the mountains and past Lake Shasta... IMG_5573[1].jpg IMG_5571[1].jpg IMG_5582[1].jpg IMG_5589[1].jpg lakeshasta.jpg IMG_5591[1].jpg
A picture of Mt. Lassen mtlassen.jpeg IMG_5615[1].jpg
Everything is more colorful in Oregon. Even the dump trucks!
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GOT WEED?
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Boatracer36

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Welcome to Oregon.... We missed the sign lol. Back to cows and barns
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River Rats Galore! Rivers everywhere we looked.
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After 13 hours, 700 miles and 3 states later....We made it into Washington!
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Party Marty scored us a killer camp for our last night on the road to Seattle. Battleground Lake State Park had us surrounded by 100 ft trees, situated on a pond about 15 miles just over the Washington State Line. Too bad there was no water skiing allowed!
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Hammer

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Welcome to Oregon.... We missed the sign lol. Back to cows and barns
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River Rats Galore! Rivers everywhere we looked.
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After 13 hours, 700 miles and 3 states later....We made it into Washington!
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Party Marty scored us a killer camp for our last night on the road to Seattle. Battleground Lake State Park had us surrounded by 100 ft trees, situated on a pond about 15 miles just over the Washington State Line. Too bad there was no water skiing allowed!
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That's awesome! Miss the pacific northwest from time to time! :thumbsup
 

Cray Paper

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Were these pics from yesterday or earlier today?

If they are from today, make sure you put a cover on the boat. Tree sap, conifer needles and those damn chipmunks will make a mess in it. If the trees have cones on them the chipmunks will hover over a spot tossing them down then come down and pull the seeds out where they lay, even if it's in the boat. Spent many a night camping in the PNW listening to pine cones thumping off the roof of my truck and or trailer. One of the little bastards got in the engine bay of my truck and made off with a handful of insulation from the transmission tunnel on one camping trip.

If your trekking up I5 Friday make sure you get through Tacoma before noon. Traffic is BITCH on I5 in the afternoon, worse than southern CA.

The Blue Angels will be practicing Friday around 1:00PM, it will last a couple of hours, keep in mind the I90 bridge (runs east and west from Seattle, main arterial HWY) will be closed during practice. Traffic on I5 and I405 will be jacked up big time during this closure. The 520 floating bridge is a toll bridge and costs about 9 bucks each way if you don't have a good to go pass. Even with that it's still 5 bucks at peak traffic time. If you take I405, the carpool lanes are tolled even if you have 3 people unless you have a WA state "good to go" pass.
 

Cray Paper

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I don't know if this was the first year for Ski Racing at Sea Fair, but I bet they will be back. The local news anchors are big on SeaFair and dig deep to explain all aspects of each contest. They have Chip Hanuer on the broadcasts for unlimited Hydro racing, had the event organizer for the Blue Angels displays narrate on live TV as well as a tunnel boat racer commentator on the paid staff. Sea Fair is a big deal and is professionally covered by the 3 local news networks as well as the Sea Fair NHRA nationals. Sea Fair is the largest event in the PNW and has been for 60 years.

The event was covered dusk to dawn by channel 7. The main announcer is the Seahawks announcer who is well versed in this event.

On a side note, unlimited Hydro events died when turbines became the norm. It was cool to see an Illmore piston powered boat compete this year. Took 3rd place in each heat I watched.
 

Cray Paper

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I cant wait to hear about Boatracers experiences in my home city.

The only downer would be todays weather, haven't had rain at this event for 12+ years.
 

boat527

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Not thread jacking, these guys are on the road home.. quick update

All in all a great weekend! Congrats to everyone that could make it... Logistics were pretty much figured out by Sunday.. Security was interesting to say the least.. OverLoad did an awesome job coordinating and communicating to us..

Jared and Terry Cooper , Tim, Dusty , Kelli Ireland, I cant thank you guys enough for the hard work.. Everyone on this site should go to the "Bolt on the Blue" FB page and see how these guys are "On It".. Multiple updates via social media everyday,

BTW.. Battleground lake is about 15min from my house! small world.

Thread starter from the live feed:
QlCs5CKCrERnyYDV0aD27AVXCfNwmgMja_M-eor3EAvzrLlRAt1W9ketTADCYcxGF7gjcDHDdzIobJAZ4hjyUFBQW1rGIdk_e68FNW6y1FD27peMvkOr2Xf_iR9NzMPaSqCdmNdApACFZ3t2hDPW9RW02ERcsBDKy1RWLuJ3T-17OWLQ5nS3OxS6sIKZesAJdhjiPAC1G7jwiJ0XPsDtjqiH7bPmxiyga4W05QLmF3Q3392SYqctSKRhFcNn7QSQnGomCzLLQKykSygb7vQDIQgwlh_eyTEiTC5fkLJMJvIJrg1OTkds0x22Bc3wczBKncPCFTbCPT9fB7nbYTtWpRI0qjGgJkWEuiRkAZvhyywslLNC2E98dxFniz0TtRVS106pexFFzewEOJjFGGPfZCorWY3OuiUQonNkW-11zsdR_iGwq_60uQ8mhlRNOieWKb9oD-QDtFpckKXbqASZJyb58I2JEZTZf1SP7Ws1Ng6qc_5V4Qb1UBgt3MMRJfOnku1meSm0q7GaTAe0KiFwd2uz2Tig2ENRvoEiAWCuqtANQ7nd_Oimnheya5KYhfhoEcL1AgP84KR7_nrbjSe1HjxAub1t48IO=w1769-h995-no
 

Jimmy

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Water looks choppie, lower back muscles would be on fire.
You guys are crazy 😃 haha going 4 wide around a circuit, but it's probably no different weaving between snags and stumps.
Good luck and keep posting.
 

138

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Not thread jacking, these guys are on the road home.. quick update

All in all a great weekend! Congrats to everyone that could make it... Logistics were pretty much figured out by Sunday.. Security was interesting to say the least.. OverLoad did an awesome job coordinating and communicating to us..

Jared and Terry Cooper , Tim, Dusty , Kelli Ireland, I cant thank you guys enough for the hard work.. Everyone on this site should go to the "Bolt on the Blue" FB page and see how these guys are "On It".. Multiple updates via social media everyday,

BTW.. Battleground lake is about 15min from my house! small world.

Thread starter from the live feed:
QlCs5CKCrERnyYDV0aD27AVXCfNwmgMja_M-eor3EAvzrLlRAt1W9ketTADCYcxGF7gjcDHDdzIobJAZ4hjyUFBQW1rGIdk_e68FNW6y1FD27peMvkOr2Xf_iR9NzMPaSqCdmNdApACFZ3t2hDPW9RW02ERcsBDKy1RWLuJ3T-17OWLQ5nS3OxS6sIKZesAJdhjiPAC1G7jwiJ0XPsDtjqiH7bPmxiyga4W05QLmF3Q3392SYqctSKRhFcNn7QSQnGomCzLLQKykSygb7vQDIQgwlh_eyTEiTC5fkLJMJvIJrg1OTkds0x22Bc3wczBKncPCFTbCPT9fB7nbYTtWpRI0qjGgJkWEuiRkAZvhyywslLNC2E98dxFniz0TtRVS106pexFFzewEOJjFGGPfZCorWY3OuiUQonNkW-11zsdR_iGwq_60uQ8mhlRNOieWKb9oD-QDtFpckKXbqASZJyb58I2JEZTZf1SP7Ws1Ng6qc_5V4Qb1UBgt3MMRJfOnku1meSm0q7GaTAe0KiFwd2uz2Tig2ENRvoEiAWCuqtANQ7nd_Oimnheya5KYhfhoEcL1AgP84KR7_nrbjSe1HjxAub1t48IO=w1769-h995-no

x 2 on the hard work behind the race . This is a great place to race and some great water. I am glad I made the trip it was an experience for the books. If we make the team I do hope we get 2 days of this water. Thanks for all the great posts
 

Boatracer36

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Sorry for not updating through out the weekend but it was nuts and we were non stop the entire time...

So we finally made it to Seattle at around 2:00pm right when the Blue Angels were doing some practice runs.
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At this time we find out our practice time was getting pushed back to 4:30 so we decided to go check into our hotel first before making it down to the Seafair.
Cheering with some beers for making the 1300 mile 2 day journey with out killing each other.
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After getting checked in we made our way to the Seafair to check in and get ready to practice.
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https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=bolt on the blue water ski racing
After practice headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.
 

Boatracer36

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Friday was race day one!! Which started out with a 6am boat launch. Good news the weather was perfect this day.
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Ski race boat dock area.
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Not many photos of use actually racing. We did have GoPros going so once I edit them I will post them up.

The Blue Angels IMG_5680[1].jpg IMG_5683[1].jpg
Had the best seat in the house while we waited to pull our boats out the hydroplanes were running.
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[video=youtube_https;SiNs-_gpbvY]https://youtu.be/SiNs-_gpbvY[/video]

After a day of racing all the ski racers had tickets to the Angels VS Mariners baseball game at the Safeco Field.
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After watching the Angels get there ass kicked we decided to drink our shame away at the Cowgirl.
[video=youtube_https;Xd_401E2AIY]https://youtu.be/Xd_401E2AIY[/video]
 

Cray Paper

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Great pictures, looks like you guys had a good time. What are your thoughts overall about the entire seafair event? I know the weather wasn't good on Sunday but would you go again?
 

138

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Great pictures, looks like you guys had a good time. What are your thoughts overall about the entire seafair event? I know the weather wasn't good on Sunday but would you go again?

I will be back..k
 

Boatracer36

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Great pictures, looks like you guys had a good time. What are your thoughts overall about the entire seafair event? I know the weather wasn't good on Sunday but would you go again?

We had a great time!! This is the most exposure we have had for ski racing in a long time!! If we weren't so busy with racing I would of loved to tie up on one of those log booms and partied lol. Looks like everyone has a good time. We are 100% coming back next year for the world championships. We will be staying there for 10 days. So might be looking into a house to rent.
 

Boatracer36

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Saturday morning was another early morning! weather had cooled off a lot and there was some cloud cover. This day we had a little extra time to walk around and check out the pits.
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Ski Racers hangout
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We even had our own massage therapist!!
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Picture looking back at the spectators was told about 150k people attend the seafair
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They had all the skiers doing some autographs for fans. Erica Leonard getting it done.
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After the races we had a little down time so went to check out some of the yacht parties.
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Boatracer36

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Sunday was even colder and they expected it to rain:grumble:
Of course on the start of our second race it starts coming down.
IMG_5722[1].jpg IMG_5730[1].jpg IMG_5736[1].JPG
The coolest part of Sunday is it was televised live.
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http://www.kiro7.com/video?videoId=418873578&videoVersion=1.0
All the drivers, observers, and skiers.
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This was such a fun week from the road trip to racing in front of 100's of thousand of people. Huge Huge thank you to Micheal Grimes AKA Hammer. None of this would of been possible if it wasn't for your generosity!!
hammer boat.jpg
Made it home just in time for Happy Hour!!
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Hammer

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Sunday was even colder and they expected it to rain:grumble:
Of course on the start of our second race it starts coming down.
View attachment 504102 View attachment 504103 View attachment 504104
The coolest part of Sunday is it was televised live.
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http://www.kiro7.com/video?videoId=418873578&videoVersion=1.0
All the drivers, observers, and skiers.
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This was such a fun week from the road trip to racing in front of 100's of thousand of people. Huge Huge thank you to Micheal Grimes AKA Hammer. None of this would of been possible if it wasn't for your generosity!!
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Made it home just in time for Happy Hour!!
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Anytime Brad! Glad everything worked out. Looked like a killer time. Still pissed I didn't fly up... :grumble:
 

sprintcvx

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Great write up:thumbsup Glad you guys had fun up here. Seafair is a big deal in the PNW and everyone I've talked to thought ski racing was a perfect addition. I watched all day and I think I even saw the hamlet flash by on the screen a couple times. Only down side was the 'Miss Rock' had a bad day ..
 
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