Hello again! So much to fill everyone in on!
A few weeks ago, Jenny and I attended the Seattle boat show,
and let me tell you, it rocked our world. First off, the Seattle boat show is
HUUUUGE! Everything boating related was there: from wakeboards to multimillion
dollar yachts. While Jenny and I were
there to learn about sailboats and cruising, we took the opportunity to tour
some of those multimillion dollar yachts.
We spent 3 days at the show, and in that time we barely had
enough time to see all the vendors. In addition to speaking with vendors we sat
in on a bunch of seminars related to boating and cruising. During the course of
these seminars, we discovered several aspects of our plan were not exactly up
to par and some tweaks were needed. First and foremost, we got a MUCH better
idea of the type of boat we should be looking at. We had initially been looking
at coastal cruisers because we will be cruising along the coast. Makes sense
right?
Wrong.
Wrong.
It turns out that, while coastal cruisers could do the trip
we are planning, it would be uncomfortable, and somewhat questionable in terms
of boat strength. Coastal cruisers are light and fast, not built to withstand
long ocean passages. Because they are lighter, they have a tendency to pitch
and roll much more than a heavy, beefier boat. We are now looking at …… heavy, beefy, well
built boats that are capable of crossing oceans.
This, of course, has cost implications, which drives the
price of the boat higher (basically double what we had thought we would pay).
Tough pill to swallow, but the peace of mind that a well built, strong boat
gives will most definitely be worth it – that’s the hope anyways.
Getting guidance on the caliber of boat we need to be
shopping for was the main take away from the boat show. We also learned that we
need to be ready to buy a boat NOW. We had initially thought we would wait for
boat prices to drop in the Fall and purchase then. Wrong. The market for ocean
crossing boats doesn’t really fluctuate with the seasons- if you find the right
boat, buy it.
The best part of the boat show was the free seminars put on.
I think we attended 12 one hour seminars over the course of 3 days. One of the
seminars we really liked was about the “CoHo Ho Ho Rally”. The rally is
collection of boats that will make the passage from Seattle to San Francisco
and San Diego every August. In addition to that, the group meets every week for
“class” and a potluck. There are even some field trips where we get hands on
experience with diesel engines, rigging, and much more. The Coho Ho Ho serves
to connect sailors looking to improve their sailing ability, and help newbies
like us get down the West Coast. We already joined and look forward to
attending.
Alrighty, I’ve gone on long enough. Major takeaways from this
post: We got a (revised) plan and we are ready to buy that boat at a moment’s
notice. Stay tuned!
Oh and here's a quick video of the boat show. Please excuse my poor video editing skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaoMTBMmLOA
Oh and here's a quick video of the boat show. Please excuse my poor video editing skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaoMTBMmLOA
