Went to the NE Boat Show

[sailorboy1]

So for something to do yesterday my daughter and I went to the New England Boat Show. Now she is on the hook for next year to remind me to not waste my time and money.

But one good thing came out of it. After going into the various show boats my daughter said "Dad none off these boats are as nice as the one you have now!". I had to agree and it was a good feeling to like my old 12 year old boat more than the brand new ones!

PS - unless you are interested in a pontoon boat or a boat to take fishing skip this show and go to a real one. The only thing the NE Boat Show has going for it is that it is in Feb and boaters are stir crazy!

[DennisM]

A 12-yr-old Hunter 410 is a dream vessel. Pontoon boats, not so much...

[phantomracer]

It has been getting better over the last 2-3 years. not a sailboat show by any means. Got to wait til Newport for a decent sailboat show.

If you came this weekend, I could have kept you entertained! I am doing a sailing seminar at the show.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

So for something to do yesterday my daughter and I went to the New England Boat Show. Now she is on the hook for next year to remind me to not waste my time and money.

But one good thing came out of it. After going into the various show boats my daughter said "Dad none off these boats are as nice as the one you have now!". I had to agree and it was a good feeling to like my old 12 year old boat more than the brand new ones!

Don:
I certainly understand. I've gone to the Annapolis show for the past few years and never get on any of the boats. I like my Nonsuch 30 and never felt a reason to go look at another boat. Though I heard some good news for boat buyers though on a business report today. Seems new boat prices are coming down as sales have not been that robust recently.

[Whaubner]

I always tell the hunter rep the 410 was the best boat they ever made

[Kettlewell]

Unfortunately, most of the shows are only shadows of their former selves, but if you want to have a wallet inferiority attack take a stroll around the brokerage show in Newport. My personal favorite remains Annapolis, though even it has shrunk significantly.

[bobconnie]

LOL the last boat show Connie and I went to, was at the Cow Palace In San Fran. This was over 20 yrs ago !! We decided that most of the stuff for sale was either something we did not want or need or to expensive for our buget!! So we just quit spending the time and money going to them !! We find out all we need to know about the new stuff out there by reading the threads on sites like this !! better for us ! as we are not looking for a NEW Boat anyway !!

[terminalcitygrl]

We went to the Vancouver boat show a few weeks ago, had a good time. A highlight was a 38 Hans Christian that was outfitted for offshore, it was beautiful - not for sale just to show folks what offshore prep looks like. A few new sail boats and a ton of power boats. A Ranger Tug guy we talked to said they had a great show in Seattle and Van was pretty strong (we were there on the last day) and a broker we spoke to after the show said the new market is where most of the action is these days - in fact they won't even rep many older boats anymore... Seemed attendance was down though from last year.

And Don, I thought of you (as the CF resident Hunter fan) when I said to my husband after we looked at the Hunter 33 - "I kinda like this Hunter and I really didn't expect to!"

[DeepFrz]

Who is the Hunter dealer in Vancouver. The blog Sequiter has nothing good to say about their Vancouver dealer that did some very poor systems installations.

[terminalcitygrl]

Specialty Yacht Sales? Looks like Hunter awarded them dealer of the year for 2012. I guess the didn't read sequiturs blog.

http://www.yachtworld.com/specialtyy...htsales_0.html

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

It has been getting better over the last 2-3 years.

Well I have been going for 4 years (didn't go last year) and I don't think it has been getting any better. Far as I'm concerned this year's was the most useless 1 I'm been to. Unless you wanted to see a lot on pontoon boats!

I don't think I'm ever going to it again as it isn't really even worth a Feb boat "fix".

[Tim R.]

We were there on Saturday. It really was amazing how many pontoon boats there were. They are the hot sellers right now. We primarily went to speak to vendors about re-upholstering, re-rigging and few other topics. We did go aboard all the sailboats.

We also got to race the RC sailboats which was a blast.

Took my wife to Lucky's in Fort Point for dinner and she loved it.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

LOL the last boat show Connie and I went to, was at the Cow Palace In San Fran. This was over 20 yrs ago !! We decided that most of the stuff for sale was either something we did not want or need or to expensive for our buget!! So we just quit spending the time and money going to them !! We find out all we need to know about the new stuff out there by reading the threads on sites like this !! better for us ! as we are not looking for a NEW Boat anyway !!

bobconnie.... How are you keeping your stock in the ever so mandatory Sham-Wow's???? I haven't seen a boat show without them !

[phantomracer]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Well I have been going for 4 years (didn't go last year) and I don't think it has been getting any better. Far as I'm concerned this year's was the most useless 1 I'm been to. Unless you wanted to see a lot on pontoon boats!

I don't think I'm ever going to it again as it isn't really even worth a Feb boat "fix".

last year was a big larger. they opened another partition in the hall.

Just too bad there are not a lot of sailboats.

Was at the providence show..they had a double decker pontoon boat with a slide... very redneck!

still decent entertainment for $12. Also most people forget about the seminars (not just mine!), can add a lot of value to the show if you like the topics. I try and do a sailing seminar each year to offset all the power oriented ones. And you get a free magazine subscription with the admission. so not a total loss.

But yes the shows are a shadow of their former glory, but slowly improving.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

still decent entertainment for $12. Also most people forget about the seminars (not just mine!), can add a lot of value to the show if you like the topics. I try and do a sailing seminar each year to offset all the power oriented ones. And you get a free magazine subscription with the admission. so not a total loss.

You just be associated with the show in some form.

It was $42 for 2 tickets and parking and it took less than 1.5 hours to see everything. I looked at the seminars when I got there and as I was leaving to see if any were worth going to and at least for me none were (my past experience in ones I've gone to is that the seminars sound better in writing than they in person).

I had a couple of items I wanted to find out about when there but there wasn't vendor to match (seemed less vendors than 2 years ago).

So my free magazine was pretty expensive!