About Us

Our Mission

Enabling meaningful interaction with our community's waterfront through the preservation of public access and the development of inclusive programs

Our Board of Directors

  • Silvia Alvarez

Dream it.

The Anacortes Waterfront Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in the heart of Anacortes. Our programs surround community boating and focus on small boat sailing. We host the High School Sailing Team, summer Learn to Sail programs, community sailing and rentals and offer affordable small boat storage.

The Anacortes Waterfront Alliance was built on the legacy of a group of people who formed the Anacortes Small Boat Center: a coalition of community waterfront interest groups advocating for small boat interests.

In the spring of 2018, the Anacortes Small Boat Center donned a new image and a new focus and The Anacortes Waterfront Alliance was born.

Build it.

Since then, the AWA has been able to successfully implement several programs. A few highlights:

  • Youth Sailing: AWA partnered with the Anacortes Parks & Recreation Dept. to offer youth and adult sailing classes, as well as taking over the direction of the High School racing team efforts. The AWA hosted 3 youth regattas in 2019 including spring districts which brought more than 200 sailors and families to Fidalgo Bay.

  • Boat Storage: The AWA has managed to offer affordable storage and access solutions to more than 40 small boats.  AWA manages 2 dinghy docks also with discounts for members.

  • Open Sail and Stand Up Paddle rentals: In the spring of 2019, the AWA launched Open Sail and Stand Up Paddle programs offering small sailboat and paddle board rentals on an hourly basis from Seafarers Memorial Park in Anacortes.  We are introducing sliding seat sculling the summer season of 2021.

  • Fundraising: The AWA’s fundraising efforts led to the successful replacement of the entirety of the youth learn to sail fleet with RS Tera Sailboats.

  • AWA now has a fleet that includes Optimists, Lidos, Teras, Zests, and FJ sail boats for lessons and rental.

  • Our staff is US Sailing certified.

Grow it.

The AWA is a non-profit organization that is in the business of building boaters. We understand that the future of our maritime legacy and industry depends on people having profound personal experiences while afloat. We have a vision for creating the most recreationally vibrant waterfront serving our larger community in perpetuity. We are confident that, with your help, we can reach our goals and better our community along the way. 

Here’s a feature from the Seattle Times that highlights some of our programs.