Officially, the boat show doesn’t open for another half hour. But Navagear and Puget Sound Maritime are there! We do it all for you, our loyal readers.
I’ve got to say, things DO look different this year. There are far fewer huge boats. Some familiar vendors are not present this year. And while the show occupies both the Quest Field Events Center and South Lake Union, it does not extend onto Quest Field itself. My rough estimate, after spending about 30 minutes looking around, is that the vendor/boat presence is about 80-90% what it was last year.
Which is not to say “Don’t bother!” Even in my brief walk-through, it was obvious there were a lot of new boats, and a lot of new products. Also, there are a lot of established product lines that may deserve renewed attention in these tough economic times. Here are just a few examples.
Nordic Tugs has reintroduced their trailerable 26-footer. This was a great pocket cruiser, and I’m glad to see it’s back.
Gig Harbor Boat Works continues to produce wonderful modern interpretations of traditional small sailing and rowing boats.
And yeah, for those with lots of liquid capital, along with the rest of us looky-loos, there are still a lot of big boats. A garbage can has been provided for scale, I’m pretty certain.
Plus, from time to time amid the gloss and glitter of the new new NEW, you run across something that’s just charming. This is NOT a new production Ranger tug, but I wasn’t able to determine how old it is. Awww, it’s so cuuute!
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The amount of traffic on Friday’s “half day” was surprisingly good. Word is the “private VIP” opening the previous night for the dealers went well.
Here’s hoping.