Port Townsend Boat Haven — Attraction in Port Townsend

Port Townsend is the stopping off point for everyone wanting to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it also boasts one of the few boatyards that allow boat owners to work on their own boats. Boat Haven is the marina tied to the boat yard. Most slips are nice and entrance through the cut is deep in the channel, but angles up sharply, we've had trouble with ignorant 2' draft boats hogging the channel while forcing sailboats to ground. Boat Haven is run by some really great people , the office crew is friendly, the ground crew is helpful, the boat yard businesses are excellent, and everyone is on a first name basis at the Marine Cafe where Jen cooks up delicious muffins in the morning and offers cost effective meals throughout the day. Now, for the issues. Yes, the staff is great but this is a city run shop where policies are dictated by bureaucrats, possibly boat loathing bureaucrats who would much rather see the boat yard replaced with condominiums. There are no reservations taken, even if you are traveling hundreds of miles to the yard to have work done. They say they will give you preference, but no guarantees, this is extremely stressful as the anchoring really isn't great, especially with southern winds. Next the bathrooms are just a tad above public, luckily there are some honeypots nearby that on occasion are cleaner. There are three showers in each, which cost money, and which usually one is broken - something you don't find out until buck naked and ready to get wet, a real annoyance. Bathrooms are locked by key card, but many a time I have walked in on homeless washing themselves in the sink. Lastly, Boat Haven is expensive! About $80 a night for a 40-footer, and if you dare to get hauled out, expect a $1100 a month bill for that same 40-footer sitting in a packing lot with ZERO access to water. Currently, we are in San Francisco Bay sitting in a beautiful marina $40 a night which includes spa-like restrooms and showers with no additional cost. Boat Haven could do so much better, but maybe the people that make the policies don't care. But, at the very least, clean those bathrooms at least twice a day, they...

Stayed here 3 nights total as a stopover to the San Juans on a trip. Amenities are decent with clean bathrooms, hot showers which are fairly cheap since you can pay 1 quarter at a time. Nice vibe with lots of nice people. During the week the Marina cafe is open and absolutely worth a visit.

Bit of a walk to downtown, about 35 minutes one way, but there is still stuff to see at the boat haven. Safeway is close along with a few restaurants.

Our one huge complaint is that if you check in during off-hours (weekends and after like 5pm) then there is no way to get the bathroom code. The fuel dock staff does not have that info, and the marina office is of course closed. Only way you can get the code is by nicely asking other guests. The marina should include the bathroom code on the kiosk receipt when you pay for moorage.

It is also very confusing on how to find an open slip. Dock at the fuel dock (hopefully there's space!) Then you walk up to the kiosk by the boat launch and look at the list of open slips, if that list is even there. We chose the linear dock due to ease of docking despite the walk. The list doesn't really list anything on the linear dock, so the second time we came we just went straight there. Checking in at the kiosk for the linear dock is confusing as although there are numbers on that dock, they do not correspond to anything in the kiosk. We entered in a random 2 digit number until it got us a slip that matched our LOA. After speaking to a staff member, they said that this...

Quiet and nice area, however they should change a few things...for example, the area where the boats are should be locked, someone stole a paddle from our boat in the past. It's ridiculous they locked the garbage, restrooms and laundry room but what has the most value in this marina are the boats, this area should be more protected than the garbage room lol. Showers should be free, since people is already paying a lot of money to keep their boats there. They charge around $500 per month for a 33 foot boat (this amount has risen so much in the past months). The bathrooms should have a garbage bin, this is pretty basic, you can't throw away girl products in the toilet. Other boaters are pretty rude, once a guy told me if I wasn't early enough to change my laundry into the dryer, he would put my clothes away so we could use the washer. I can't believe someone would threaten someone about laundry. Not the most wonderful community... They offer you services for cleaning clothes ($3), dry ($2) the clothes take showers (0,25$ per 1 minutes and 30 seconds). It's not cheap. The nice things are all the grocery stores and restaurants around, you can also walk to town...