Annapolis Boat Show

MDboater

I'll be there on Sunday.  The weather looks perfect!  Anyone else going?

06Rinker270

I will be attending Saturday, looks like fantastic weather!  

seadogs

I will be there Saturday

Handymans342

Take the shuttle

Dream_Inn

Yep, I went yesterday.  Was beautiful weather.  It was a tough decision to go do that, or stay on my own boat and maybe go enjoy the airshow in Baltimore.  Boat show was nice and weather was great!

I'm thinking the 55 Fleming is going to be our next boat in 8-10 years.

MDboater

Dream_Inn said:

I'm thinking the 55 Fleming is going to be our next boat in 8-10 years.

WOW!  You must be a lot older than you look! 

Handymans342

Cant put a Fleming on a lift DI

Dream_Inn

@mdboater, not sure how old I look?   but I'm 46.  I figure get the kids thru or at least the youngest in college and then get onto the next boat and enjoy it while we still can!

MDboater

@Dream_Inn, Surprised to see you going for a trawler style that's all.  But I do now see the opportunity to burn some serious fuel in that Fleming if you want to take it up on plane.  Neat concept.  Also, looks like you could make it to Florida and back going 7 knots on one tank of fuel!  

randy56

@Dream_Inn, Had to look up to see what Fleming was, the only thing I see wrong with it is you will not want to go home. 

MDboater

@Dream_Inn, PS: You are older than you look.  

Handymans342

A Fleming is on a windlasss

06Rinker270

Im thinking my next boat will be a trawler or a Downeast.  That is if I don't get a 342, just wish they made them past 2006.  Maybe a 360.  I just really loving the layout of downeast.  We aren't the speed type.  And I'm barely 30!

Dream_Inn

@mdboater, thanks!

@randy56, yes, it will be our home for a couple years.  The admiral is game to move onto something like this when we move out of our current home and before sizing down into a smaller home.  My father had retired at age 54 and it was the best thing he'd ever done.  My wife and I are big savers (may not show on here with having a boat), so hoping to get out in mid 50's as well.  Still a ways to go, but need to have a dream! (for now, aboard Dream 'Inn III)

MDboater

I took the family to the boat show on Sunday and the weather was perfect indeed!  Again we parked in the schoolyard on Compromise/6th Street on the south side of Spa Creek.  The fee increased from $20 to $30 this year.  At least it's tax deductible.  We started in Brokerage Cove.  My main objective for the day was to gain some clarity on the style of our next boat.  I have been torn between cruisers and sedan bridges.  The family took a liking to the aft cabins after touring several.  So I didn't accomplish my main objective but at least had fun in the process.  

Sadly, there were no Rinkers in brokerage cove.  Instead I toured several Regals, Sea Rays, and Cruisers Yachts in the cruiser class of boats.   I liked the Regals best.  Next we took the water taxi over the main show.  Everyone was hungry and ready for a break.  We had a nice late lunch at the Iron Rooster.  

We didn't have a lot of time left since the Sunday show hours ended at 5.  I decided to tours the Regals and Sea Rays.  The admiral fell in love with the new 460 Sundancer.  Unfortunately, it's well out of our price range.  Some observations:

Hot trend 1:  Grills - Bad news for Magma as grills are becoming standard (if not optional) equipment.  I especially like Sea Ray's approach to mounting the grill facing aft with access from the swim platform.  

Hot trend 2: Sliding features - To increase usable space the aft lounge/sunpad is on an electric actuator: want more swim platfrom, slide it forward, want more cockpit area, slide it aft.  Also some captain seats are designed to rotate away from the helm and toward the conversation area. 

Hot trend 3:  Vinyl weave (seagrass) carpet.  I know that this has been around a while but I don't recall seeing on as many boats last year.  I really like the stuff and would likely never own regular carpet on a boat again.

Overkill:  While touring the Regal 35 Sport Coupe the salesman informed us that it could be equipped with an optional gyrostabilizer.  

I just received a call from home and the admiral and my youngest child were looking at boats online.  Cool!  If nothing else the boat show got everyone thinking about what the next boat will be so I consider that to be a success after all.

Dream_Inn

MD, sounds like you had a great time as well.  I had thought about getting over to the used boats, but we got off to a later start, leaving from our boat that morning (and stinking traffic near our house because of Renaissance festival).  We did manage to get thru most of the show anyhow.

Our goal was to look at most of the larger boats and anything 35 and up in the normal cruisers.  You are right on with the trends on the cruisers.  I noticed with the larger boats that most now have the galley up top and have a bar type area at the stern opening up to the aft area.

Here is one of the pretty neat things I saw (only issue is it'd be tough to raft up with anyone and flip the sides out).

randy56

DI that's Neat, a fold out, makes the boat 4 ft wider. 
MD did you make up a new word gyrostabilzer? 

Dream_Inn

Randy, it made it a good 6 feet or more wider.  I'd love to see how it stands up 10 years down the road, but will probably do ok.

raybo3

randy56 said:

DI that's Neat, a fold out, makes the boat 4 ft wider. 
MD did you make up a new word gyrostabilzer? 

I have seen videos of those stabilzers. Pretty cool but take up a lot of space.

MDboater

raybo3 said:

randy56 said:

DI that's Neat, a fold out, makes the boat 4 ft wider. 
MD did you make up a new word gyrostabilzer? 

I have seen videos of those stabilzers. Pretty cool but take up a lot of space.

And it would add about 550 lbs to a 35 foot boat.

Michael T

@MDboater. I really like to see innovation. This one looks good to me!

06Rinker270

Why does Rinker not show up at these events?

Handymans342

I dont think there are any Rinker dealers in Maryland.

Michael T

@06Rinker270. it is VERY expensive to attend a show. Floor costs, transportation costs, employee salary and lodging/meals. There is a balance between "getting the product out there" and the costs of doing it. We know Rinker is in a re-building mode. Maybe, at the moment the $ are being spent on product development?

MDboater

@Dream_Inn - That Galeon is really slick.  It appears from the web site that the entire aft lounge and table rotates to face the swim platform.  Thank goodness the Europeans are providing some boat innovations.  IMO, the newer Sea Ray, Regal, and Cruisers sport coupes have a European style minus the huge sunpad (thankfully).  

06Rinker270

@Michael T Thats a shame because I would think they would get some serious attention. Rinker's new cruisers are absolutely gorgeous and in my (biased) opinion they can compete with a lot of the big names.