Go for a pair of the boating sneakers. If they want you to take them
off to board their boat, simply say no thanks, and leave. Their is no
good reason for them to ask you to remove clean boating shoes. If more
people simply refused to take their boating shoes off, they would
change their minds, they need people to buy their products. No
lookers, no customers.

I did this at the Norwark show a few years ago at one of the large
sport fishing manufacturers boats. They knew I was representing a
buyer, I said no and went to leave. They let me on with my shoes.

I'm inclined to side with the boat dealers on this one, at least when it
comes to outdoor shows. Shoe soles pick up a lot of grit etc...and it's
one thing to let the odd one or two people who absolutely refuse to take
off their shoes, quite another to let several hundred--even a thousand
at a large show like Annapolis or Miami--people track it aboard,
grinding it into the deck and carpet. A boat can take more wear and tear
in a single show than any owner can do to it in several years. And you
wouldn't believe some of the stories I've heard about the things people
will do...everything from using the head (and not just liquid waste) to
having sex in the aft cabin to changing the baby and leaving the dirty
diaper in a galley locker to giving an older child food that he smears
all over everything. Anyone who can pay for a ticket can get into a
boat show, and a surprising number of people are pigs. So I can't fault
boat dealers for doing as much as they can do to protect their boats.

Peggie
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Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://www.seaworthy.com/html/get_ri...oat_odors.html