Yesterday I spent most of my afternoon at the Annapolis Sailboat show, which can be described in gaming terms as a combination of Historicon and Salute on four miles of floating docks.
Weather wise it was a pretty bad day - intermit an rain, high 50's low 60's. The one positive is the weather kept the crowds down and made navigating the docks a bit easier.
First up is my boat, the Bucentaure, an Alerion 28, which was on loan to the manufacture to use as a display. In talking with the sales reps, I think she may have helped sell a few more hulls for them so hopefully I'll get some goodies from this little favor....
A view from the stern. In front of her is an Alerion 41, which is the largest boat in the line and is
extremely nice. While I was there, the sales people kept trying to upsell me but I think I'll keep what I have. I guess sales people have to, well, be sales people.
Ahhh - the most beautiful boat at the show - a 65' custom built sloop with all-wood hull construction and a carbon fiber mast. The wood hull is a sight to see but will be a maintenance "challenge". But the really great news is she's for sale for the bargain price of $5.5Million. Alas, far out of reach for me but I'm happy to throw the name of any of my readers into the bid......
This cruiser had a really neat way to store /launch it's tender. The boat has an extremely wide beam and is most definitely a cruiser rather than a racer.
On the other hand this boat is a pure racer - not a lot of creature comforts other than a cushion cockpit deck but she is lighting fast.
The vendor areas reminded me of a war-games convention - 10' by 10' booths hawking all sorts of things that the fashionable sailboater needs
There were a few "big tent" areas with even more stuff from top of the line electronics to no-flush marine heads (the less said about those the better)
One of two catamarans from GunBoat. These are all carbon fiber monsters that are very striking to see. Unfortunately, the sales staff at Gunboat were less than welcoming to anyone with kids, which I find very annoying. If a manufacture builds a boat where kids can break something they need to get new engineers.
The last picture, below, is of a giant catamaran - I think it was the largest of the show. I chuckled when I say it because it reminded me of one of those giant
Orc ships from Spartan games Uncharted Seas product line....
Lastly, not all the display boats had room on the docks - there were a few you could only get to by water taxi. They look kind of lonely.
All in all a great day. I'm heading back to the show on Sunday.
Glad you had a great day Miles!
ReplyDeleteI spent a few hours at the boat show here in Newport a few weeks ago. All a bit above my price tag I'm afraid, but it was nice to show my wife that there are indeed hobbies that are more expensive and time consuming than wargaming!