The 2011 Seattle Maritime Festival is here, with a week-long slate of events designed to remind you that Seattle is a working port city, and celebrate the many elements of our maritime heritage. The Seattle Propeller Club has all the information. This year it’s also honoring the Port of Seattle’s first 100 years.

The best way to celebrate, of course, is to watch the U.S. Oil & Refining Seattle Tugboat Race Championships down at the waterfront. With more than 30 tugboats racing, it’s the largest tugboat race in the world, though in a nod to tugboat speed, they race just from Pier 86 to Pier 66. That’s Saturday, May 14–the whole program runs from noon to about 3:30 p.m.

Saturday is also the day for the Fourteenth Annual Seattle Waterfront Neighborhood Waterfront Chowder Cook-Off. You buy a chowder passport for $5, then stop in between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. at such chowerhead purveyors as Anthony’s Pier 66, Bell Harbor Conference Center, Elliott’s Oyster House, The Crab Pot, The Fisherman’s Restaurant & Bar, Ivar’s, Steamer’s Seafood Cafe at Pier 56, Seattle Marriott Waterfront and Six Seven at the Edgewater (that’s last year’s list).

While you’re down there on Saturday, I heartily recommend the free harbor tours (11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.) from the Port of Seattle. Festival Information Booth at Pier 66 has the tickets (max. 4/adult, must be 18 or over). You board at Bell Harbor Marina/Pier 66 about 30 minutes prior to departure. I’ve gone on a number of Port tours and they’re a fun mix of mini-cruise and floating classroom.

Things kick off Tuesday, May 10, with a mix of celebrity chowder judging (9:30 – 11:30 a.m., World Trade Center Holland American Dining Room) and working waterfront workshopping (“The Economic and Industrial Future of the Duwamish,” 1-5 p.m., Maritime Events Center, Pier 66). The workshop is serious stuff–for one, it’s $80 and you have to register, though I can’t find where on the Seattle Propeller Club site you can do so.