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The Annual Winter Gathering Well, how did you survive our latest "Winter Blast?" Did it keep you from going to the combined Seattle Boat Show and In the Water Show at Lake Union? It seems that boaters will brave wind, sleet and weather forecasters to browse through the boating goodies and gaze at their first lottery winner purchase. While the first weekend did feature a bit of icy excitement north and south of Seattle, causing a lot of boaters to stay home, they made up for it the next weekend with attendence for both shows virtually identical to last year. Ah, us Nortwesterners are a hardy lot. I like hardy more than obsessed. We don't get to spend a great deal of time in our booth as the Boat Show always falls over our deadlines, but we do try to rotate into a couple shifts. When traffic was a little slow, it was refreshing to have a few of our advertisers gathered around the booth for an impromptu gab session, talking sailing, not business. When she wasn't giving seminars on "Cruising With Your Four-Footed Friends", Diana Jessie spent a lot of time in our booth. Her last article on using roller furling for reefing provoked some lively discussions which were fun. I think everyone finally agreed it was a function of wind force and distance to sail. It's always good to talk with readers, give out information, and hear all the different stories. Just during the afternoon on the first Saturday, I talked with folks sailing Alaska, Florida and the South Pacific, folks plying our Northwest waters year round, not to mention a surprising number of rivers and lakes. Sailors truly are a diverse and interesting bunch. Even the brokers had some good stories. Robbie Robinson of Signature Yachts had two large sailboats that were supposed to be on display at the show, but were stuck on trucks in the snow in Utah. He's probably one of the few brokers that needed a dog team to show his boats. Please remove your mukluks. Of all the stories, my favorite story happened at our own Lake Union. Manuevering all those boats into the docks at the In the Boat Afloat Show on Lake Union is quite a task. But, with over 200 boats from 30 - 140 feet nestling into their spots, there was only one mishap with a boat hitting the dock, and actually that boat wasn't even in the boat show. Some fellows were coming in to visit the local establishments and spend the night. Unfortunately, they attempted to tie up to the temporary boat show docks which was a bad idea for two reasons; 1) there were boats scheduled to be tied up to that dock for the show that day, 2) their vessel was way to big and heavy for those light docks. After some conversation they agreed to move their vessel, but in doing so rammed into the docks rather forcibly. It seems the person on the bow with the radio and the person driving the boat were otherwise preoccupied during their attempted exit. Anyhow, they did get settled elsewhere and were seen heading off to some place that rhymes with scooters. Oh, did I mention it was a large Coast Guard vessel? Name withheld for homeland security. I suppose this could lead into a discussion about Mandatory Boaters Education but we'll save that for another time. Great seeing a lot of you at the Boat Show, thanks for stopping by to say hello, buy a hat or shirt, and share some of your thoughts and experiences. |
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