SF Bay Area Boat Show September 12-20, '09

[sarafina]

Anyone else heading to Jack London this weekend to drool over the eye candy and hunt for ideas and just generally scope things out?

NCMA: Northern California Fall Boat Show

[David M]

My wife and I are thinking of heading over there.

[sarafina]

We made it to the boat show today and boy am I tired. We climbed on and off a lot of boats today, all the way from a really adorable little tug all fitted out like a doll house to an amazing 55' Stephens Bros cruiser... just elegant and in impeccable condition... going for a mere 250k. This one is a life long project to keep in such splendid condition... it was fun to look at her.

In between these two we saw some amazingt sailing boats. The catalinas were all this decade, some last year or this year and frankly we were not so thrilled with them. Had that tract house feel to them with stateroom and heads so huge as to make NO sense at all, at least to us. Very little storage. We just can't see ourselves cruising in one. We would have to go up to a 40 to really gain much more real usable space from out 28.

The beneateaus and jeaneaus were fun to look at. nice details. The Hunters surprised us... well thought out and nice traditional styling with a fair amount of interior wood, rather than all the white plastic of many others.

But we have to say that the Islander Packets, particularly the Estero were pretty amazing. The SP Cruiser was very cool as well. and they were both inb a warm creamy tan gelcoat that made them particularly inviting... pricy of course, but fun to look at.

THEN I took Himself over to the cat... and let him see for himself just how... civilized a cat can be. He was totally sold. It was pretty funny. He went from "I will never have a catamaran" to "well, it sure has possibilities, and you say it sails smoother than a monohull, honey?"

He even went so far as to say "the interior pretty much makes up for the lack of sex appeal on the outside. I pointed out that it's like kids. You always fall in love with your own child and see the beauty in them even when no one else can.

It pretty much a fun day. Runs thru next weekend I think. Over at Jack London Square.

[David M]

We did not go this weekend but might go if it looks like there are some good lectures to go see. Can you believe this rain?

[sarafina]

All we saw was boats. No lectures or exhibitors or after market stuff. Just boats and brokers.

Well, wait there was a battery guy and an insurance guy and a sailing school guy, but that was pretty much it except for the boats.

And this rain is one of those never happens deals... when was the last time we had a storm move in from the south like this??

[scotte]

What cats did they have there? Curious if it's anything different than the Strictly Sail show in the Spring. All the mono's you mention sound like the same as the Spring show. Usual cats are Lagoon, Gemini, Seawind, and FP. And a Dolphin, I think, one year... Just curious if it's significantly different than the other show...

As an aside - funny moment from this year's Strictly Sail show which for the first time included power boats (go figure, maybe their definition of "strictly" is different than mine). ANYWAY... My son and I take a trip around the power boat docks just because. When we are near the biggest gigantic 'thing' you can imagine, I jokingingly tell my son "how do you put the sails up on this thing?". And the broker or whoever is aboard the boat (unknown to me) says - quite seriously - "well, you don't need them on this boat!"... Ummm... Yeah...

[sarafina]

oh my god... I can just see the giant Clorox bottle floating there and hear the broker... man there were some UGLY boats there! Well except for that Stephens.. She was gorgeous...

There were only 2 or 3 cats... and only one was a cruiser. the others were racers. The guys were nice though and very informative.

[dmx]

Sarafina,

I went by the show in Saturday and didn't see one cat in the show -- there was a PDQ dropping by but it didn't look open to the public. Did you go Sunday or did I just miss the right area? I'm interested to hear what catamarans made it to the show.

[sarafina]

we went today, Sunday. I don't know the names of the boats that were there. they were on the third, outer dock. There was a guy there who is with a family brokerage firm that specializes in cats. Helms Yachts

[imagine2frolic]

MY LUCK,

I would've squeezed in another day if I had known there was a show. I'll be home this weekend, but not enough days to do the show too......grrr....i2f

[sarafina]

it's running during the week as well... ; -)