A few weeks ago there was a boat show at Sunroad Resort Marina.  Natalie and I went out to breakfast with Eric and Jaime and then headed over to the 2012 Sunroad Boat Show. Eric and Jaime were lucky, they were comp’d tickets in to the show by Deanna at Bay Yachts. She was their broker for their first boat. I got in to the show for free because it was military appreciation Friday, and Natalie’s ticket only cost $10. There was parking near the airport entrance for $10 and a shuttle. The show opened up at noon and we browsed the vendor booths, lots of local vendors and marinas.

The heart of the show was down on the docks. There were display boats from Beneteau and Island Packet that we toured, inside it felt like IKEA started making boats. The insides were open and light with large windows, unlike the sturdy teak and holly design of older boats. It was fun getting on the big yachts, they were like floating houses more than boats. We saw Marc, Bruce and Deanna aboard a megayacht, trawler and sailboat they brought up for the show. I’m a sailor but really enjoy looking at the trawlers because someday I’ll want a large, open boat.

What I hoped to see were boats that a regular person could afford. I think it would be neat to have a real consumer’s boat show with boats presented that accurately describe the boat market, not the high end yachting that was represented at the show. What many people don’t know is that there are plenty of great starter boats available that don’t cost $50,000 or more!

There will be more boat shows coming to the area that I want to check out. In June Kohler Kraft presents a wooden boat festival and there’s another boat show at the end of July on Harbor Island. The biggest boat show on the West Coast is the Long Beach Yacht and Boat Show and will be in October.

The best thing we’ve taken away from the boat show is an idea for how to store the jib sheets on our new boat. Some people leave them wrapped around the roller furler and then led aft to the cockpit, while others coil them and hang them on the bow pulpit. Both ways leave them exposed to the weater and sun. On one of the boats I saw a cool bag to store them in. The bag is made of Sunbrella fabric, and the bottom is mesh to let any water drain out. This would be a pretty easy project for Natalie to do and would make our boat look neater when we’re not sailing.