Boat Show Special?

A boat show is the next best thing to sailing?   Nah!!  Not even close.  But at least it keeps you thinking.

The 2013 New York Boat Show, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, was called the Progressive Boat Show. Not because it was progressive -- with only two Hobie Cats and one Sunfish to represent the sailboat manufacturers, it was a REGRESSIVE power boat show! But it was "sponsored" (whatever that means) by the Progressive Insurance Company -- hence the name.

I went on Friday and Sunday to work at our Club's booth. Some of our members are retiring and moving away. Others stop boating due to illness. And  the recession has unfortunately forced some of us to give up boating due to economic pressures. So the number of our members, as at most all clubs, is down -- and our fixed costs are, well, fixed. Our way of soliciting folks is to ask them to sign up to receive an email inviting them to come to the Club for a free "open house," drink some of our wine with cheese and meet some folks. So it is not a hard sell. We cast our wine upon the waters. The problem is that 95 percent of the people at the show are either (A) power boaters who can't conceive of joining a club which keeps boats on moorings or (B) live near their boats but far away from City Island. But the show was crowded and we got a number of prospects. The only problem was too many volunteers at the booth. It is a small booth and six volunteer members behind it makes the space crowded and perhaps intimidates prospects.

So I gallantly absented myself from the booth for substantial periods of time during my four hour shifts and toured the show. I focused on how to sell a friend's boat, and bought stuff like riggers tape, hand tools, and a doughnut shaped container to store the 30 amp shore power cord more efficiently. I also checked out some electronics upgrades and the use of a faux teak product to cover the flat surface of the swim platform, about two square feet, at the stern of the boat, to dress it up.

One of the two  "dogs," the fasteners by which one "battens down the hatches," at one of the six side opening ports (portholes) is broken, so we have kept that particular port closed -- for the last two years. During this period I have tried to find who manufactured the thing so I can buy a replacement dog, but every lead has turned into a dead end. (So you will note: ILENE sails with both dogs and cats!  Sorry about that one.) At the show I passed a big Marquis power cruiser and noticed that its opening ports seemed like those on ILENE. Anyway, the designer of the boat was kind enough to give me his email and has promised to send me info on how to contact the manufacturer of his opening ports.

And oh yes, I signed up to take a nine day course. When I pass the Coast Guard exam they administer, at its end, I will have a so called "Six Pack" Captain's license -- the lawful right to take out up to six passengers and charge them a fee. I have had hundreds of people sail with me these past 20 something years, sometimes more than six at a time, but never even one for a fee. I do not intend to get into the paid sailboat chartering business. And there is a lot of stuff that they will be teaching me that I already know. After all, we did get the boat down to Grenada and back, which is evidence that  I must know something. But learning and the review of learning is always good, and my insurance rates may go down after I become a licensed captain.