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I went down last week to get some video for the upcoming confab and
to get some "answers". A.C. is different from all other boat shows.
First and foremost it is a manufacturers show. No brokers trying to
push old boats. Just new boats who may have been staffed by brokers and
mfg reps.
ALL the equipment vendors are there. What a great place to ask hard
questions. I went down with two sets of questions. 1 was concerning
the rigging of a backstay for my boat, the other, a Speedo for my
sailboat.
With the backstay, I spent 15 minutes with an engineer from Johnson
rigging showing me exactly how to set up the gear. The tricks he showed
me I never would have figured out with all my books and catalogs. Sure
saved me from developing a hack job.
With the speedo, I spent 15 minutes with both Standard and SR Marine
reps. Really good to bounce questions off. The fact they were 10 feet
apart made it easy to do. In the end, they both had a model that did
exactly what I wanted for the price I was willing to pay, but wait....
The Standard rep said as an aside, "did you get a certificate yet?" .
When I asked what he was talking about, he said there were special
prices for the whole show. All you had to do was have one of the stores
(West, Boat US, Defender etc) write the certificate up and they would
honor the price. After thanking him, I walked over the West Marine
booth and asked for the show price on the item I wanted. The guy pulls
out a black book, looks up the price and says " 90 dollars including
transducer". Well, this brand new puppy with a $200 list and $118
discount price was just cut almost $30 extra because of this little
tidbit of info. So I had him write me up a purchase order for it. I
just need to bring this to the local store now. Pays for my gas.
Other things that were neat that Dave didn't mention:
The sailing pool had 2 of those new Pearson designed sailboats for beginners
that were in Sail magazine in Nov or Dec. Looked easy to drive.
The Radio Controled sailboats featured in Sailing World in January were
being sold right off the shelf.
All the Charter companies were showing off.
The Kirie sail boats (ie Feeling series) draw 2.5-3.5 feet on 35-41
foot lengths. The boats are overbuilt for racing. The neatest thing was
the retractable centerboard was run from a sheet in the cockpit, to
make singlehanding even easier.
There was a virtual reality setup from Cutty Sark where you drive a
schooner and use a .38 to shoot up pirates in zodiacs and airplanes
from attacking. Drinking whiskey, sailing a boat and shooting power
boaters. Sure sounds like reality to me.. ;>)
Speaking of software, there were several mapping systems on display.
Harken also had a online database with numbers for hundreds of boats,
along with suggestions on how to upgrade the hardware. In most cases
there would be 2-3 different configurations for any boat and problem.
Once selected, a laser printer would crank out the specifics and price.
There was a 3-D America's cup game that had really great graphics and
if you have a sound card, the water spashing against the hull changes
with the speed. It is a new company out of Clinton Ct. the programmer
is an ex Air Force guy who wrote the flight simulator for the F-117
Steath fighter before striking out on his own. I got a copy, but haven't
had chance to install it yet.
D&R Marine was selling Garhauler upwind traveler carts on delrin
bearings for $130 with track included. This is about 1/2 to 1/3 the
price of a Harken setup. Air blocks were around $30.
Some Company was selling dock lines made from braid that floated. I forget
whether it was the covering or core that floated.
US Sailing had a huge booth set up.
As for Boats
Benneteau had the new 28, 310, 35, and a 40 there
Sabre had a 365 and a 425
Catalina had a bunch from their 22MkII to a 36 or 40 footer
Hunter had a bunch or their boats there.
J-Boats had a bunch from j-22/j24 up to the J-130s
The Maine Cat featured in Sail magazine last fall was there. Butt ugly!
Megles had 3 Megles 24s there.
Corsair had a 24 and a aft cabin 31.
There was a Mumm 36
Tartan had a 3500, 3700 and one other one.
Every type of dingy/scow/one-design was there.
There was little windsurfing equipment, but there was a windsurfer with
an outrigger for learning. Not to be confused with the double
windsurfer trainer.
All in all, well worth the $12 to get in. This year seemed to fill the
hall, so there was more of everything there. Even being a Friday, there
were no lines anywhere. The most people I saw in a boat at a time was
3. This is not like the local shows where it is hot, stuffy, and the
half the folks came because they thought that weekend was suppose to be
the hunting and camping show.
Video highlights at the confab
john
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| While at West Marine (Peabody Ma)today, I noticed they have the harken
PC in there (see note above).
If any of you get a chance, please get a copy of your numbers. You look up
your boat and can either print a configuration of a rigging system
you would like to design, or you can get a printout of your boat.
The boat will have length, beam, I, J, P, P2 etc etc. It will have
sq ft of each sail for the standard sizes.
It will then have listings for lbs of presure for a 100, 135 and 150
headsails.
All will have low, med and high wind ranges for what the sails are used
in. Same goes for the main.
Then there is a section on loads of halyards, mainsheet, genoa cars,
vangs etc. This tells you exactly what size blocks you should be using.
Not sure of spinakkers, since mine doesn't have one, but I would image
that may show up too. There was a custom feature where you could
put in your own parameters (ie a taller rig, a 141 % headsail etc). I
would imagine it would calcuate these for you.
This is a great piece of paper to keep with you blueprints and racing
certificates. Come upgrade time, you have everything you need to size
loads (ie halyards, stoppers, backing plates, blocks etc).
It should be for free. Nice database...
Regards
john
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