Thoughts on the 2011 New England Boat Show
I shot plenty of video as I walked around the 2011 Boat Show with my two daughters, but I haven’t had time to post edit and honestly, I’m not sure it’s all that good to begin with. My hand shake (essential tremor) has gotten bad enough that I don’t think I should be handling the lens work anymore.
My initial thought was that there were a whole lot more ski and sun boats this year. The true coastal fishing machines were somewhat few and far between. In general, I found the prices on most of the boats utterly shock worthy, enough that I question who has the money to spend on a 42′ boat that’s north of (touching pinky to chin in the best Dr. Evil I can manage) $1 MILLLION DOLLARS. I guess that’s a good way to weed out the folks who would have trouble tossing a grand or two into the fuel tanks a weekend.
The good:
- J-Way Diesel of Scituate offering Diesel Engine Courses for boaters – If you can’t do basic triage on your engine you shouldn’t be running one.
- Allied Boat Works WB-20 – A no nonsense, no frills 20′ center console with a good casting platform, clear deck and sqat console, for under the price of the truck you’d tow it with.
- Rampage 34 – now available with IPS Pod Drives – you absolutely have to check out their video of them dancing the boat around. It doesn’t squat when you back down on a fish, and is the most nimble boat in that size I’ve ever seen (oh wait, this is the web, why don’t I just show you…)
The Bad:
- Edgewater Boats getting $65,000 for a 20′ center console – Seems like the decimal point is in the wrong spot there. I love the boat, but the price point on this and so many others is wayyyyy out there.
- Sealegs – the boat with wheels – an amphibious rigid inflatable center console. So you can drive to the water in your boat. Really? Again, let’s go to the video…
- Starcraft, my beloved Starcraft…only showing a handful of mundane center consoles…with FIBERGLASS hulls. Maybe its the economy, maybe NE just doesn’t hold my affinity for aluminum boats, but not seeing a decent aluminum boat makes me feel empty inside.
- Me for pulling a rookie mistake and wearing work boats (we’d had 2 inches of snow the night before) instead of boat shoes. Dumb, dumb, dumb…
The Ugly
- Guy getting in a fist fight with a parking attendant when he asked to park for a second at the side of the hall, was turned away, then the attendant let the next car park. Literally, the guy got out and chased down the attendant. Wonder how he like the police station…
- The Boston Convention Center – who employs something like half of Southie: perhaps they could find someone with the technical prowess to plunge a toilet once in a while.
I’m sure there were a lot of other monsterously priced center consoles, but here’s my take: for $65k, I’d give up and start chartering exclusively.
Boat dealers, you know where the comment form is…many of you will remember it from last year…flame on.
Not enough? Here are the reports from last year and the year before…