GIG HARBOR, Wash. — This salty place to stay exists because of an addiction: “We have a problem, it's called 'there's no boat we've ever met that we didn't love,'” said Michelle Bailey, who owns Harborside at the Dock in Gig Harbor with her husband.
At this one-of-a-kind getaway, you can lay your head in a cozy berth in one of five boats: Shamrockin’, The Blue Goose, Gollywobbler, Linmar and Lila. The boats are listed on Airbnb and VRBO.
Michelle's future-son-in-law Griffin Doane took the helm of the redesign of the Lila, along with Michelle's daughter.
They navigated her from dowdy to dreamboat, replacing old boat parts with little luxuries.
"There was a big radar thing right here that you had to put your face in to look at it, but we thought a coffee bar seemed a little more practical,” Doane said.
The biggest boat in this getaway fleet is the Linmar - a 1932 78-foot classic wooden yacht. Made in New York for the Marlin Firearms family, this boat traveled the East Coast, the Caribbean and Canada, where it dodged the draft during World War II, when the US Navy was requisitioning boats like this for wartime use.
"The lore goes Mr. Marlin said if you want my ammunition for the War you will not also have my yacht,” Bailey said.
The Linmar eventually settled in San Francisco, where rock stars slept in her bunks:
“Elton John has stayed on this boat, The Rolling Stones stayed on this boat,” Bailey said.
In 2006 a fire nearly destroyed the Linmar. But it rose from those ashes, and now it sleeps twelve in berths that range from luxury suites with their own bathrooms (or heads if you’re being boaty) to a crew’s quarters with bunks, and hooks for hammocks.
The Linmar is also the only one of this fleet of five boats that's available for charter.
"We get so many people from Seattle who just want to have a staycation since we're just an hour away," said Bailey. "We also have people who have come from all over the world.”
Whatever you do, do not call this a 'Boatel.'
“Our daughter hates the term,” Bailey said.
But do chart a course for this one-of-a-kind getaway. Because there aren't many hotel rooms where you can peer through the porthole of a piece of maritime history as the waters of Gig Harbor rock you to sleep.
"They just get here and they feel like they're in a different place. Because there is no place like this that we know of,” Bailey said.
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