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Chicago Boat Show
TonyG13
Member Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭✭
First, always fun to be inside warm and cozy and thinking about summer while it's snowy and freezing outside.
Some thoughts...
This year's boat show is a shadow of it's former self, at a fraction of the floor space of ten years ago.
Vast majority of the 400+ boats were personal watercraft, pontoons, and bow riders - almost all under 30 feet.
I only saw one boat with an I/O drive and ZERO cabin or express cruisers. Everything was either coupes or walk-arounds with open bows. Seems like they're giving up interior space for more outside entertaining.
Only one true yacht, a 47-foot MJM4 - and even that had outdrives.
Seems like quality of construction has decreased and prices have increased.
Maybe I'm old, but $275,000 for an 800HP pontoon boat or $30,000 for a dinghy seems a little weird to me.
Lots of brands previously known for quality seemed like they skimped on more things and the layouts aren't as nice as I remember past models.
Overall, Regal seemed to have the best quality build and layouts for the price.
And of course the usual hawkers like sunglasses, garage heaters, and vacation clubs.
One thing we really were impressed with was a new invention by a local business that came up with a safety device called FlagGuard. The mom/owner/inventor almost had one of her kids run over after they fell off a tube and the following boat didn't see the child in the water. She came up with a pop-up orange flag that attaches to the back of a life jacket. So not just someone with a flag on the boat. It's actually attached to the swimmer. She just started the business last year and already won an innovation award. I think it's a great idea. You can see how it works here: flagguard.net
Other than that, we just came away wishing summer gets here sooner than later!
Some thoughts...
This year's boat show is a shadow of it's former self, at a fraction of the floor space of ten years ago.
Vast majority of the 400+ boats were personal watercraft, pontoons, and bow riders - almost all under 30 feet.
I only saw one boat with an I/O drive and ZERO cabin or express cruisers. Everything was either coupes or walk-arounds with open bows. Seems like they're giving up interior space for more outside entertaining.
Only one true yacht, a 47-foot MJM4 - and even that had outdrives.
Seems like quality of construction has decreased and prices have increased.
Maybe I'm old, but $275,000 for an 800HP pontoon boat or $30,000 for a dinghy seems a little weird to me.
Lots of brands previously known for quality seemed like they skimped on more things and the layouts aren't as nice as I remember past models.
Overall, Regal seemed to have the best quality build and layouts for the price.
And of course the usual hawkers like sunglasses, garage heaters, and vacation clubs.
One thing we really were impressed with was a new invention by a local business that came up with a safety device called FlagGuard. The mom/owner/inventor almost had one of her kids run over after they fell off a tube and the following boat didn't see the child in the water. She came up with a pop-up orange flag that attaches to the back of a life jacket. So not just someone with a flag on the boat. It's actually attached to the swimmer. She just started the business last year and already won an innovation award. I think it's a great idea. You can see how it works here: flagguard.net
Other than that, we just came away wishing summer gets here sooner than later!
Post edited by TonyG13 on
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