If you’ve ever been to Victoria or Vancouver, you’ve likely seen the putt-putt foot ferries carrying tourists and locals from one cool spot to another. The little fleets are the cute way to get to places like Barbie’s Fish & Chips, The Empress Hotel, Granville Island, False Creek.

Tacoma’s been working on the cool places, along the Thea Foss Waterway. We’ve got every kind of museum you could wish for, a Sea Scout base, parks and restaurants. Places to go, things to do, sights to see.

Now we have cute boats, too, for the Tall Ships festival, at least.

Michael Jameson of Admiralty Yacht Sales has added Duffy Boats to its line, and will be giving free rides in them during Tall Ships.

The electric boats charge up for about a dollar a day, Jameson said, and are as easy as a golf cart to drive. Though one would probably not wish to drive a golf cart alongside Amazing Grace or Adventuress.

I talked with Tall Ships Tacoma spokesman Matthew Erlich about the festival’s planned attendance of 700,000. Exactly how, I asked, did they arrive at that number?

The answer: They looked at 2005’s attendance.

Organizers planned for 400,000 people during the inaugural festival, Erlich said, but no one kept an official attendance. Based on police estimates at the Parade of Sail, the length of lines and the number of personal watercraft in the area, organizers estimated between 700,000-800,000 people attended the event.

“We hope the number of 700,000 visits will be met,” Erlich said, “and I’m pretty confident there will be that number of visitors coming to the festival.”