On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:00:32 -0500, Red said:
As RichH said, the Philly show sucked

And Dave replied:
Guess you haven't been to the NY show.


Actually I did go this year, and it was better than last time I went a
few years ago even though its all powerboats (and a friend who was
working at the show got us in for free, which is even better!). I admit,
I just had to see what it was that draws innocent people to the dark side...

The show was quite a bit larger than I had remembered, and there were
lots of vendors - something not seen at sailboat shows except at
Annapolis/Miami for some years now.
Had to look at a couple of large powerboats. One of them had the new
joystick-controlled power management system that controls the
transmissions (fwd/rev), throttles, bow thruster, and stern thruster all
together to steer the boat in any direction or attitude while docking.
This thing with spin the boat in a circle around its center or go
quatering sideways or any combinations of directions you push or twist
the stick. Total control in your fingertips.

At the show I picked up a Lowrance XOG for well under $200, and
NauticPath mapping chip for $54 - it has all the charts for the coast of
the US and is the same chip for all their chartplotters. Now granted, on
the XOG you aren't going to see a great deal of detail, but it works way
better and a whole lot easier than my Garmin 76Cx (although not as many
features, but has a larger, more detail-readable screen) and even has
touch screen. It might not interface with the radar, but it makes a good
little backup.
Besides, I don't have radar
Red