Village: Thousands Come to Port Jeff For Boater’s Festival

Village officials estimated that around 4,000 people came to Port Jefferson each day over the weekend for the to shuck clams, look at speedboats and .

Although village spokesperson Jill Russell said that she thinks a few thousand people came to the village each day it was hard to judge.

“It’s tough to guess with activity spread over the village and end to end,” she said in a phone interview.

The beautiful weather didn’t hurt attendence. The temperature in the area reached the upper 70s over the weekend.

Red Dog, the East Coast distributor of Focus Stand Up Paddle boards was giving out free demonstrations in the Harbor. Holly Maggio, 18, and her mother Sarah came down from Bohemia to get a personal lesson from Red Dog’s owner, Nitzan Benhaim.

Over at , Rachel Sorrentino, 17, and Rachel Gutman, 16, both from Stony Brook were showing folks how to tie nautical knots and explaining all about sailing for the .

“We’re just showing them basic stuff,” said Sorrentino.

Gutman added that they were there to “teach all the parts of a boat, knots, and water safety.”

Both are members of the Junior Sailing program at the club.

Some businesses reported to the village that between the beautiful weather and Mother’s Day, traffic was probably going to be good anyway but the festival did give them a boost.

“We got great, great feedback from the boat vendors too,” Russell said.

Although she said the village is definitely doing the festival again next year, there will be changes. The first one is that it will probably not be scheduled on Mother’s Day again. They’re also planning to ramp it up with more music, more local food and merchants selling items. Russell says she’d like to consolidate the vendors to one area, probably closer to Harborfront Park or optimally the Danford’s parking lot right on the water.

A meeting is scheduled with all of the partners who put on the festival to see what can be done better next time.

“It’s going to be huge next year,” Russell said.