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Larry

wrote in news:5c005d03-868c-4c22-aff1-
:

Is this
true? Do you pay to go into boat shows?

Crazy, isn't it? Paying to look at advertising. But, alas, you're
already doing that renting cable TV service to look at the ads on most
channels....then paying them extra for some channels so they DON'T put
ads in the middle of the movie....

How much did that 52" billboard in your living room cost you? It just
displays ads.

I took my well-to-do friend Dan with me to the local Coliseum boat show,
a big toodoo affair that runs every year. Dan is a biology researcher,
as is his wife. Let's just say unless I put over $1200 in the Hatteras
56 diesel tank, he didn't look upset.

I told him to please wear the clothes he wears to mow the lawn or work
on his Lingenfelder Corvette, not his "doctor clothes" so we could poke
around in boats and see the boat show without a personal dealer escort
making offer after offer, drooling over our backs as we looked. He
agreed, jeans and pocket t-shirt, no clothes or shoes over $25. We had
a great time. He had sold the Hat 56 and moved ashore, giving up the
liveaboard lifestyle because of his bad back and to placate his wife.
They live in a beautiful house in a gated community.

He and I got ignored most all day even getting shooed away as
undesirables a couple of times by the arrogant *******s at Sea Ray and
some other dealer I've forgotten. We both fell in love with a Grady
White runabout with a walk-thru windshield into a nice little bow lounge
that would be fun at the beach powered by a salt water Yamaha 150 4-
stroker, nice bimini top for the noonday sun and aluminum trailer. Now
being ignored was not what we wanted. A young salesman who looked
"new"....without that arrogant attitude most of them acquire....ambled
over as I was inspecting the inside of a cavernous locker, my butt
sticking out. He asked us if he could help us old farts in our pocket
t-shirts. Dan says to me in the locker, "What do you think?", one more
time. I snapped my fingers a couple of times without backing out of the
locker and said, "Checkbook! Checkbook!" The young man looked shocked.
I backed out and said, what kind of deal can we get on this boat if we
come get it next Tuesday after the show is over? The kid sped off to
talk to the boss. He gave us a really nice discount and said he'd load
the boat with all the required gear, installing a depth sounder and VHF
Marine Radio I had previously asked for. A quick look from Dan....who
then said, "Deal! Write it up!" They agreed to deliver it to Dan's new
house as he had no tow vehicle we'd have to do something about after the
show. (He just had to drag me to the Cadillac dealer to pick out a
matching Escalade with tow package big enough to tow a 70' 14-wide
mobile home over the mountains. Hell, I couldn't even SEE the boat
behind it without opening the rear gate! It was only 21' long!....The
boat, that is...(c;

The kid went for his paperwork, making his first sale of the boatshow
before anyone else to those guys in the lawn mowing clothes. The other
snobbish *******s got a $35,000 lesson in humility. It was a really
nice boat. I got to cruise around in it a lot because Dan discovered
his trailer backing skills were near Zero...(c; Just because one has 5
PhD's in biological sciences, doesn't mean one can back a boat down a
ramp with a HUGE ESCALADE with way-too-long a wheelbase....a PITA even
for me...(c;

The best way to go to a boatshow is with a friend who has lots of money
left over from his $580,000 Hatteras sale. Been there...loved that...
It's nearly as much fun as going to Waste Marine with a rich boater's
credit card!....(c;

Be sure if you wear a T-shirt with a message on it, it has NOTHING to do
with BOATING! I have one I wear to computer shows that has SPAM on both
sides. That's always good. Another has Einstein on it with his quote:

If we knew what we were doing, we couldn't call it "research"

HOOTERS is always appropriate, especially on the larger yachts over 50'
long.

They have good beers at boat shows to put you "in the mood" to spend,
but are really pricey.....another reason to go with moneyed people. If
I sold boats at boat shows, there'd be one of those HUGE white dock
coolers full of fine beer and ale alongside a table with fine wine and
cheezes, trumping those jerks at Sea Ray. As they exited the last boat,
they'd be right in the party area so they didn't spill free beer in the
boats, listening to the Carolina Beach Music our DJ was playing for the
shaggers.

Boatshows aren't near enough PARTY to go with the SPAM.