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 Seattleites Love Their Coffeegrinder Seattleites can’t resist a coffeegrinder, so it’s only right that 48° North sported one in their booth, although people had to bring their own double-shot. The grinding was fast and furious with only the occasional bump, as visitors to our booth at the Lake Union In The Water Boat Show tested their stamina on the Lewmar winch. No beans were ground but some good times posted as grinders worked to pull up a hypothetical mainsail on an America’s Cup boat. Everyone was all smiles as they began the easy cranking at the start, but faces reddened as the load increased and the "sail" got higher and heavier. Finally the buzzer would sound, indicating the sail was up, and the limp armed participants would stagger back to smiling and laughing family and friends. "Geez!" was the general comment. A lot of sibling rivalry and father-son competitions produced some good times. I didn’t quite beat my son but I think I surprised him (gasp). Next time. The fiercest competition, however, was the Exhibitor Challenge, where those in the boat biz competed for bragging rights and a special prize from 48° North. Andy from Northwest Rigging and Chris from UK Halsey really attacked the machine, but in the end, Pete McGonagle of Swiftsure Yachts repeated as the Exhibitor Challenge Champion. 
Lowest time prizes were generously provided by Lewmar, with Men’s and Women’s division winners receiving a 10" Lewmar Powergrip Carbon Fiber winch handle. Doubles and Senior Mens and Womans winners receive 10" Lewmar Condor Winch Handles. A hearty thanks to Lewmar for again letting us present their Grinder Challege, providing the winch handle prizes and also the T-shirts and rubber canholder thingies for giveaways. Our hats are off to them. Speaking of hats, thanks to everyone who bought our new special 25th Anniversary hats at the show. We sold more than we anticipated and are already restocking! Thanks to all for supporting our advertisers at the show and throughout the years. We really appreciate it. Like you, we enjoyed crawling over the new boats and look for reviews on some of them in upcoming issues. It was great fun talking with you at the booth. We learned a few things and enjoyed all your comments, shared some info with new sailors, ran into old friends and swapped some great sailing stories.
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