My kids are trade show swag aficionados. They’re practically swag dowsers, I tell you, divining the presence of swag from two aisles away. I don’t really understand how they do it.

But I do appreciate their mystical ability at the Seattle Boat Show, especially when it yields treasures such as these:

Kenmore Air (booth East 813 at Qwest Field, and Tent 303 on Lake Union) has cool balsa gliders while supplies last. Even my wife wanted one of those.

And of course there are tide tables galore from a huge variety of sources. However, may I suggest that you stop by the public service agency grotto at the far south end of the East Hall (East 1515, to be precise)? There you’ll find the USCG 13th District, Washington State Parks and Recreation, the Power Squadron, and the Recreational Boating Association of Washington.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I can’t remember which of these booths had the Puget Sound Pilots 2010 Current & Tide Tables booklet, but I think it was the RBAW. All I know for sure is that the PSP booklet is a VERY comprehensive tide table booklet, with a lot of extra information many recreational boaters will appreciate.

For instance, do you need the local number for Maersk, K-Line, or Holland America? That’s in there, on the page listing “Vessel Agents & Operators.” How about an after-hours port security phone number for, say, the Port of Everett, or a phone number for the Ballard Locks? That’s in there, too, along with lots of reference information for pilots and commercial vessel operators. Handy! 

The only thing missing, from a pleasure-craft perspective, is a set of current tables for Deception Pass. Apparently big ships requiring pilots don’t generally use Deception Pass. Go figure! So you’ll have to track down another free tide table from one of the other booths at the show.

Saw several familiar faces at the show today, and made a few new friends as well.

The Feathercraft folks were visiting from Vancouver, BC, set up in the “Canadian Corridor.” They were showing their excellent skin-on-frame collapsible kayaks, as well as the super-compact BayLee inflatable dinghy.

I tested the BayLee last year, and was extremely impressed with it. Glad to see them back again this year.

I was also pleased to see the SeaSucker folks back again. They’ve got a few new items in their line up. Perhaps the most impressive item, though, is a suction-cup bicycle mount for automotive (or, one supposes, marine) use. I’ve been using the SeaSucker cup holder I picked up last year, and it’s earned a permanent spot aboard Two Lucky Fish.

Also back were the Get Storganized bunch, with many familiar items, and a few new ones as well. Many of their products live aboard my boat nowadays, too.

All three of the clever folding crab traps we’ve discussed in the past are still present and accounted for, as well:
Stow-B-Low Crab Pod
Flex Fold Crab Trap
Jolly Good Folding Crab & Shrimp Traps

I didn’t notice any new folding traps to report on, but if there are any, we’ll report on them here. Navagear is your one-stop information source for folding crap traps, after all!

I’ve also made some new friends…but I’ll save them for next time.

Besides climbing around making the Hinckley Picnic Boat people nervous, there are lots of other, more appropriate activities for children at the 2010 Seattle Boat Show.

In particular, kids of all ages will enjoy a tour of the Worlds Largest Toy Boat Collection.

In fact, this is only about 20% of the collection, which includes over 5000 boats in all. There are “only” about 1000 boats on display at the show. I overheard lots of people—of all ages—say things like “I used to have one of those!”

And the Center For Wooden Boats is once again hosting an activity that kept my younger daughter busy for at least an hour last year, sailing model boats across a tiny “pond”, using plain old household box fans to create artificial wind. It’s amazing how smoothly the models sail across, back and forth. I found myself yelling “Starboard boat!” lots of times, but those burdened-vessel port-tackers never seemed to steer clear.

While at the Lake Union “Boats Afloat” portion of the Seattle Boat Show just now, I spotted a delightful little stove aboard a delightful, just-launched boat.

The little Sardine stove is fabricated on Orcas Island by Andrew Moore as part of his Navigator Stove Works line. So not only is it a delightful product, it’s also a local product, as well. Regular readers know how much I like to boosterize [is that a word?] this region’s rich maritime businesses, large and small.

At under 1 cubic foot, the Sardine weighs about 35 pounds, and requires a 4-inch chimney pipe. Believe it or not, this little wood (or hardwood charcoal) stove is rated as an 86%-efficient, non-catalytic “clean burning” stove, and carries U.S. EPA & State of Washington Emission Certifications.

The boat itself is worthy of some comment as well. I’ve been a “fan from afar” of Sam Devlin’s boats for some time. You can see all the designs at the Devlin Designing Boat Builders website.

This particular boat, homeported in Olympia, WA, has been christened Storm Petrel by new owner Cyndie Phelps. She was positively glowing this afternoon, showing off her pride and joy. Mr. Devlin was on hand as well, and confirmed that Ms. Phelps’ name for the boat would become the official name for the design, the Storm Petrel 33. Some additional information on the design is available here.

I hate…HATE…parking down around the south Lake Union mess. It really is a mess right now, what with all the construction and whatnot. So I figured I might as well see if it’s possible to get to the “Boats Afloat” portion of the Seattle Boat Show BY BOAT.

Nice day for it, anyway…

You can follow my progress on Twitter as I make my way along the shore, looking for a spot to tie up. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: Well I’m tied up to…um…well, maybe a set of floats they didn’t need for the show? Hard to tell what these floats are doing out here.

Anyway, I figured I would take this opportunity to upload some photos I’ve just taken.

UPDATE: The CORRECT way to attend the Lake Union part of the show and avoid the parking hassle is to park at Qwest Field and take the shuttle, as John Thorburn of the Seattle Boat Show explains in the comments! They’ve even got a tent to keep the rain off while you wait.

This is what I like to call the “seamy underbelly” of trade shows. Maybe I’m nuts, but I’m kind of fascinated by this sort of thing. How DO they transform a big empty concrete box into a fabulously opulent TRADE SHOW?!

Anyway, here are some pictures I took today.

I’m pretty excited about the Seattle Boat Show this year. I’ll be there most days, including at this evening’s super-exclusive VIP Event. “It’s a soft opening. To test the place before the grand opening. Yeah it’s kinda like a out of town preview.“ (Quick quiz: What movie is that from?)

Readers who want to meet up ought to drop me an email.

Deborah Bach over at Three Sheets Northwest has some great pre-show coverage:

Renewed optimism as boat show opening approaches

As final preparations are carried out for Friday’s opening of the Seattle Boat Show, organizers are cautiously optimistic that this year’s event may finally herald a turnaround for the region’s beleaguered marine industry.

George Harris, president of the Northwest Marine Trade Association (NMTA), said there’s been strong interest from consumers leading up to the show, which runs Jan. 29 through Feb. 6. Online ticket sales are higher than they were last year, he said, and traffic to the show’s website is up 27 percent—suggesting this year’s show may exceed last year’s attendance of about 55,000.

“That definitely means more interest,” Harris said. “I don’t want to get overly confident, but our early indicators are good.” Read more

At boat show, learning can be priceless

As early as November, George Harris starts getting the phone calls. What seminars are being offered this year? callers ask. Who will be speaking?

“It’s really amazing,” said Harris, president of the Northwest Marine Trade Association. “We just can’t ever seem to get the seminar schedule up on the website soon enough.” Read More

My friends at Krill Systems will be on hand at the upcoming Seattle Boat Show to demonstrate their new software product. I’ll let the press release do the talking, but suffice to say I had a chance to test this software recently, and I think it’s going to be “just the ticket” for N2K-equipped boats.

Krill’s 2010 Seattle Boat Show booth will be at Concourse 2130.

Seattle, WA – Krill Systems, a leading manufacturer of digital marine instrument solutions, announced the release of the new SoftDisplay Gen 3, the third generation Vessel Monitoring Software written to take advantage of the latest graphical display technology. The SoftDisplay Gen3 displays critical vessel information in a concise and intuitive manner with all new powerful features designed for commercial fishing vessels, tugboats, barges, and recreational yachts.

Krill’s revolutionary SoftDisplay Gen3 provides user access to information including support for storing all collected sensor data of existing NMEA 2000, NMEA 0183 and Krill Sensor Pods. SoftDisplay Gen3 displays real-time streaming data, records and stores any electrical, tank and switching sensors throughout the vessel. Utilizing an industry standard SQL database server, up to 6 months of sensor data can be stored and displayed in an intuitive graphical user interface. The interface consists of an overview window that shows the overall trend of up to any 6 sensors at a time. By adjusting a sliding shaded selection window over the overview display, a detailed graph is shown above for in depth analysis of the sensor of interest. Up to the second, real time streaming sensor data can also be displayed.

(more…)

Thanks to Bob at BoatBits for the link.

Seattle’s on the map! No offense to all those wonderful east-coast boat shows, but SOME east-coast manufacturers seem to think the only boat show worth hyping is one in Florida.

I beg to differ. Seattle has a lot to offer a manufacturer trying to make an impression on influential recreational boaters. Seattle has long been home to many innovative manufacturers (in marine as well as aviation and info-tech industries), so naturally the region is home to quite a lot of forward-thinking boat owners interested in technology.

It’s refreshing to see a Florida-based manufacturer talk up its presence at the upcoming Seattle Boat Show. I’ve written a bit about Paradox Marine’s Nav-Tracker product line in the past. Paradox Marine has a reputation for creating high-end vessel tracking and monitoring systems.

If you want the best, but you don’t have the propeller-headed über-geekiness to build it all yourself like Steve Roberts (and even in Seattle, few of us have), then Paradox Marine’s booth (2317) at the 2010 Seattle Boat show ought to be on your list.

On with the press release!

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA (USA) – Boat security systems supplier Paradox Marine will feature its Magellan Insight GPS DVR and Nav-Tracker 2.0 GPS tracking systems at the 2010 Seattle Boat Show, January 29-February 6 at the Qwest Field Event Center, concourse booth 2317.

Insight includes all the components necessary to help protect a boat and keep an eye on exactly what is happening onboard at all times. The system sends emails and text messages when events occur and saves a snapshot or video clip to the user’s account which is accessible on any computer or mobile phone with internet access. The owner sees what the camera sees when motion is detected and it also allows the owner to login and view streaming video off the boat on their computer or cell phone.

(more…)