Summer in Seattle

Our summer on Lake Washington has been fantastic! Many of our family and friends have been boating with us aboard Happy Hours and rave about the experience. Comments from out-of-towners include, “Our most memorable day in the Seattle area.” Comments from locals include, “The best day of our summer.”

We had 38 outings with over 300 passengers. Many others have stepped aboard at a dock. Others have swum or boated over and climbed aboard. Everyone loves the water slide! We’ve relaxed viewing the Map of the Stars, just enjoying the lake, going to waterfront restaurants and sunset rides. We viewed houses for sale and sold with Realtors and their clients. We’ve hosted premium charity auction item outings.

We’ve had slow rides pulling the big tube and higher-speed extreme tubing and water skiing. Because the boat has flat decks and a fabulous stereo system, we’ve had wonderful dance parties on the boat. We've had fantastic party times on the boat with the flotillas at Boating Opening Day, the 4th of July on Lake Union, Seafair, University of Washington "sailgate" parties, and in the party coves of Andrews Bay, Meydenbauer Bay, Fairweather Bay, and Cozy Cove. Pictures are up on a new Happy Hours Picasa web album.

Because of all the above, I am way behind in posting to this blog. I will be catching up!

Obama Shirley Fundraiser

A major Seattle fund raising brunch for President Obama was held at the Medina mansion of former Microsoft President, Jon Shirley on September 25, 2011. More information is in a Seattle Times article that reported about 65 guests paid $35,800 per couple and listened to Obama blast the GOP.

Jon was President and COO of Microsoft from 1983 to 1990 when he retired.  He remains as a director of the company and is also a director of Seattle-based Manzanita Capital, a financial services company. Jon and his wife, Mary, are major donors to and supporters of local charities and the arts. Jon is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Seattle Art Museum and on the Chairman’s Council of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The couple collects art and vintage racing Ferraris.

The home is two houses north of Bill Gates’ property which has multiple buildings with more than 60,000 sq ft. The Shirley’s mansion has 27,255 sq ft with only two bedrooms. Much of the mansion’s space is for the art and automobile collections. The value of these collections is estimated to be worth more than the $40 million estimated value of the property. The property is on 4.35 acres with 244 feet of waterfront. It is on page 120 of Lake Washington 130 Homes.

Mercer Island Mansion Auction

Mercer Island Boulevard Place Mansion

The Mercer Island Patch reported 8/30/11 the Boulevard Place mansion auction on this date failed to attract the minimum bid of $15.5 million. There were four qualified bidders attending the auction. This property was featured in a prior 10/21/10 post.

Last fall it was listed for sale at $28.8 million and was the most expensive King County MLS listing.  It is one-half mile north of Paul Allen’s compound and on page 59 in Lake Washington 130 Homes. The Puget Sound Business Journal published a 10/18/10 article about the property.

The living area is 13,636 sq ft with 7 bedrooms, 11.25 baths, theaters, multiple kitchens, wine cellars, and 8 washer-dryer rooms. There is additional covered non living areas and resort-style features including a 120” plasma TV rising from the edge of the pool.  Construction started in 2004 when David and Becky Sandwith purchased the lot for $5.4 million. The Patch reported they have a total of about $30 million invested in the property. David, his parents and siblings sold Kent based Mikron Industries, a manufacturer of high tech window components, for $205 million to Quanex Corporation in 2004.

Seattle’s Summer Mardi Gras

Lake Washington is famous for Seattle’s Seafair summer celebration.  This is a month long festival of many activities throughout Seattle and ends the first Sunday in August.  The final four days feature hydroplane races, the Navy’s Blue Angels’ air shows (previous post) and the Seattle area’s biggest party. Over a million people watch the Blue Angels and party on the water and shoreline.

During the Seafair air shows all the boats, except those tied to the log boom, between the I-90 Bridge and Seward Park must move out of this area. After the Friday through Sunday air shows, which is usually around 2:30 pm, the boats return in mass. The party-on-the-water begins!

This is Seattle’s summer on-the-water version of Mardi Gras. Thousands of boats packed with partiers crowd the area. Most are in swimming suits and the babes are in bikinis. Some only wear the bottom part. Many with the tops on (sometimes) collect strings of beads Mardi Gras style.

Boats raft to other boats. The hydroplane races are the excuse but very few watch. Water fights with high powered water guns, hoses and water balloons are everywhere. Of course there is a lot of drinking. Over the last few years the police have cracked down on drinking while piloting a boat. Boats need to have a designated captain.

After the air-shows we make trips with our new boat, Happy Hours, to join the spectator fleet. Because of our location we have a head start versus the main flotilla. We provide water guns. Prepare to get wet if you wish to join us on these excursions.

Professional photographer, Bernard Zee, has a neat website with a lot of great photographs of 2009’s party-on-the-water.

Seattle’s Seafair

Lake Washington is famous for Seattle’s Seafair summer celebration.  This is a month long festival of many activities throughout Seattle and ends the first Sunday in August.  The final four days feature hydroplane races and the Navy’s Blue Angels’ air shows.  The hydroplane races are on the west side of the lake south of the I-90 floating bridge. The Stan S. Sayres Memorial Park, known as the “Sayres Pits” was established here in 1957. The pits are the launching, service and staging area for Seafair’s hydroplane racing boats.

The air show’s center is this area over the lake. The planes and their stunts can be seen from much of the lake and its shores.  During these four days the lake is crowded with spectator boats and the lake is renowned for the associated “floating party” or “Mardi Gras on the water.”

On Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7, The Navy F-18 air show begins at 1 pm and the Blue Angels performance starts at 1:30 pm. (More information about the Blue Angels.)

Stan Sayres (1897-1956) was known as “The Legend of Lake Washington” and “The Fastest Man Afloat.”  He was selling and racing cars in northeastern Oregon in 1926 when he had his first experience with a power-boat.  He purchased a wrecked 40 mph outboard engine racing boat and began racing, designing and building race-boats.  He moved to Seattle in 1931 and in 1937 he bought a 91 mph racing boat that his wife named Slow Motion.  Stan changed the name to Slo-Mo-Shun, often called Slo-Mo.  Stan designed, developed and built new and faster Slo-Mos.  He moved to Hunts Point in the 1940s and built a 6,860 sq ft house on the tip of Hunts Point. (The house was demolished in 2008 and the vacant lot was sold March 31, 2011 for $14.8 million [see previous post]). The neighbors in this sleepy community “enjoyed” (?) the roar and 30 ft rooster tails of his trials and practices.

He set his first boat-on-water speed record of 160+ mph in 1950 on LW and continued to set new records, all on LW, with his last at 178.497 mph in 1952.  After his first record he took Slo-Mo IV to Detroit and won the 1950 Gold Cup, boat racing’s biggest prize.  This was a big upset to the hydroplane establishment.  Stan brought hydroplane racing to LW in 1951 as part of the Seafair.  The first Seafair was in 1950 to celebrate the centennial of the first U.S.-European Seattle settlement.  The 1951 race was the first U.S. hydroplane race west of Detroit and was a huge success.  Stan became a local hero.  The races are now a Seafair tradition.  He received a lot of local backing for his racing against the Detroit establishment.  Slo-Mo-Shun IV and V won the next four Gold Cups.

We live in the Proctor Landing area of Mercer Island directly across the lake from the pits and the center of the big show. We and nearly all of our neighbors have Seafair parties over the week-end. The planes fly low directly over our dock. After the air-shows we will be making trips with our new boat, Happy Hours, to join the spectator fleet for Seattle’s Mardi Gras. For Seafair facts and history, go to Seafair’s site.

Dykstra on Evening Magazine

KING 5’s Evening Magazine featured me and the book Lake Washington 130 Homes on the Monday, 6/20/11, show. You can see it on the Internet.

“Move over Hollywood! Seattle now has its very own book plotting the houses of our rich and famous. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, Bill Gates, you name it and it's likely here, showing you the where, when, and how of our most famous mansions. The book retails for $18, find more info at http://www.hundredhomes.net/ .”

Lake Washington Pontoons

“Lake Washington Pontoons” are much more than floating bridges. The new generation of luxury pontoon-trimarans are the perfect boats for Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. It is a luxury deck and party room on the water at the dock, floating or motoring.

On 5/7/11 Susan and I launched our new boat, “Happy Hours,” and, with our wonderful crew, we proceeded to Seattle’s Boating Opening Day celebration and boat parade and received the Alaska Airlines Trophy for 1st place in our class (Decorated Commercial).

Happy Hours is the first boat of its kind in the Seattle/Lake-Washington area. This is an Avalon luxury pontoon boat. It is sometimes called a party barge - but it will go 35+ mph and can pull water skiers. We go happy hours sightseeing in luxury or just float and with kids of all ages relaxing or playing on the water slide. It is also great extension of our dock. We now have a luxury cocktail lounge, sundeck and wet bar with refrigerator and blender at our dock.

I bought the boat from Tom’s Boat Shop at the Seattle Boat Show in February 2011. Tom opened his Seattle area dealership and showroom in Ballard in May 2011.

I have a Happy Hours blog with more information, including FREE RIDES and DOCK PARTIES. I apologize for being behind on posting to this blog due to the new boat and blog.

Hunts Point Tip Sold - $14.8 Million

Tip of Hunts Point – Stan Sayres Former Homesite

This (LW 130 Homes page 147) is the site of the former home of Stan Sayres (1897-1956). He was known as “The Legend of Lake Washington” and “The Fastest Man Afloat.” The 2 acre vacant lot sold for $14.8 million on March 31, 2011. The purchaser was Hunts Point Trust. The lot was listed for sale for $19.7 million (see 2/27/11 post). With incredible views and with 750 feet of waterfront, it may be Lake Washington’s premiere waterfront lot.

Andre and Lisa Radandt purchased the property in 2005 for $17.5 million. They are from Bakersfield CA where they own Bolthouse Farms, one of the world’s largest carrot producers. They tried to preserve Sayres’ house but found it was not practical and it was demolished in 2008.

The Seattle Times reported (6/5/11) on the sale and that Rodney and Janice Olson are behind the trust. The Olson’s mansion, “The Bellisima,” near the center of Hunts Point’s western waterfront is listed for sale for $12.9 million (see 3/11/11 post).

Simonyi’s Windows 2000 House

Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-born former Microsoft executive. He was the man once behind constructing Microsoft Office's Word and Excel software. His Medina mansion is one of the most picturesque and must-see places on Lake Washington (LW 130 Homes pages 4 and 94). The mansion is 19,000 sq ft on 1.3 acres with 300 feet of waterfront. The home is known locally as the “Windows 2000 House” and “Villa Simonyi.” It got the Windows 2000 name when Microsoft introduced Windows 2000. The rumor is a few windows were added to the house to bring the total to 2,000.

His former girl-friend, from the 1980s until 2008, was Martha Stewart. He picked her up with his personal jet when she got out of jail in 2005. He had a sudden infatuation with a new girlfriend Lisa Persdotter a Swedish socialite. They got engaged in St. Tropez, France on 08/08/08, the same day as 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. He was 60 and she was 28 at the time. They were married in Gothenburg, Sweden, on November 22, 2008, following three days of celebrations whose attendees included neighbor Bill Gates.

Simonyi was one of the initial commercial astronauts. He paid $25 million for a 2007 two-week International Space Station roundtrip aboard the Russian Soyuz space shuttles. He paid $35 million for a similar trip in 2009.

Schrempf’s Mansion Sold – $7.0M to Bernier and McCaw

Detlef and Marianne Schrempf sold their Meydenbauer Bay mansion in April 2011 for $7.0 million to Yahn Bernier and Beth McCaw. The estate has 7,200 sq ft on 0.9 acres with 85 feet of waterfront. More information is in Lake Washington 130 Homes on page 85. This lot with an older home was purchased in 2000 and a new home was built in 2003. The home features covered moorage for a 60 foot yacht, a fabulous great room and kitchen with three fireplaces and a wing for children and guests.

Detlef starred for the SuperSonics from 1993 to 1999 and was an assistant coach for the team’s final 2006-08 seasons in Seattle.  He was selected to the NBA All-Star team 3 times and was the first NBA player born in Europe to score 15,000 career points.  He was born in West Germany and moved from there to Centralia, Washington in his senior year of high school.  He led his school team to the state championship in 1981.  He starred at UW and was on the All-PAC-10 Team.  He started his NBA career in 1985 being drafted by the Dallas Mavericks.  He played on the Sonics team that reached the NBA finals in 1996.  He founded the Detlef Schrempf Foundation in 1996 to support organizations that provide hope, care, and assistance to Northwest children and their families.  Every June the Foundation hosts the Detlef Schrempf Celebrity Golf Classic in Port Orchard and a Celebrity Gala and Auction in Bellevue.

Yahn Bernier is Software Development Engineer at Bellevue based Valve Software. Beth McCaw is a Seattle based attorney.