Well, it looks like not too many people here attended. I went on
Monday which turned out to be a beautiful day. Probably the busiest
Monday I have ever seen.
I was able to check out the new Flying Tiger 10M, Beneteau 10M, Esse
8.5 and the X-Yachts 35OD. I applaud the FT guys for bringing in a 32'
race boat that costs less than a house used to. Looks like it will be
a fun boat to sail but I don't know about some of the details like the
"bombay" doors that open for the outboard. Somebody at Beneteau should
be strapped to that head and taken out in any kind of seaway. The X-35
is one cool boat. The Esse 8.5 was very cool looking but what's with
no deck cleats? I asked a salesman how one is supposed to tie it up
and his reply was that everybody will be trailering it. Everybody?
Funny, some other 30-33 foot boats also had no cleats or one tine cleat
on the bow for tieing up. I guess you use clothesline.
I limited my $ spending at the "event over run" T-shirt booth and I
bought 4 sets of SplicingNuts to try them out.
This years show had to set some kind of record for the number of
manufactures requiring no shoes for boarding their boats. I guess they
all want to pretend they are a mega yacht seller.