Oregon Public Broadcasting

Only four U.S. Navy ships will be in Portland for Rose Festival this weekend. Pete Springer reports on why the fleet is getting smaller.

The four U.S. Navy ships will arrive on Thursday, joining four Coast Guard ships and two Canadian Maritime vessels at the downtown Portland waterfront.

It’s one of the smaller Rose Festival fleets in recent years.

The fleet this year will carry around 1200 sailors who are expected to feed money into the local economy.

And it’s not just bars and restaurants that benefit, says Jim Lasher, a Rose Festival director and senior advisor.

Jim Lasher: "The ships all have river pilots, so they have to pay for the river pilots.  They all use tugs, so they pay for the tugs.  They all buy bread, water, etc.  So it’s about a $1.5, $1.6 million for, I’m gonna say a week's stay.”

Lasher says the reason fewer ships have been at the Rose Festival in recent years is that the Navy has reduced the size of its fleet almost by half.

Of those ships, only 35 are west coast-based and small enough to make it under the Steel Bridge.