Different Priorities for Annapolis Boat Show

We have enjoyed several years of the Boston and Newport Boat Shows, spending most of our time stepping on board every new boat and dreaming. Not so for the United Sailboat Show in Annapolis this past weekend.

We are still dreaming, but our dreaming is much closer to becoming reality now. We are no longer interested in spending time checking out the new boats, we won't be getting one of those. Our boat will be about 30 years old and will need a bit of work. We're good with that and have been enjoying the search.

This boat show we found ourselves interested in everything but the boats themselves. In the very near future we will have a need for boat financing and insurance, so picked up info from all vendors in the field. We also checked out and picked up info on various rigging, solar panels, anchors, fuel pumps, auto pilots, whisker poles and more.

It was our first trip not only to this show but to Annapolis itself. What a great little city. We only visited the waterfront area but definitely liked what we saw. We agreed to check out the climate (both weather and political) a little more closely to see if we should consider for our home port.

Annapolis Here We Come!

Packing up to head to the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis. Can't wait to seriously check out cruising gear for our much anticipated boat!

Sailboat Shopping in New Bern

We just returned from an afternoon checking out boats with Mike of Neptune Yachts in New Bern. Mike is a very experienced sailor and therefore a wealth of useful information for virgin blue water sailors like us. We checked out a 37' Pacific Seacraft, a 38' Island Packet, and a 37' Tartan.

 

The Seacraft has a NEW engine, which is huge plus. It also has a Harken Battcar Batten Traveler System. This system utilizes ball bearings to allow the mast to slide up and down easily without having to head into the wind. Ramon and I had never seen this before, but we are now planning on installing it on whichever boat we buy.

The Packet has the original 1987 engine. We are not sure of the hours on it or the maintenance schedule, both of which will be a big factor in our decision. The Packet has much of the offshore equipment needed that the Seacraft does not have as well as a larger cockpit and cabin. The Packet has a rack and pinion steering, also something we had not seen before but really liked.

We learned that the 1979 Tartan is probably too old to get financing but was not one we ended up being interested in anyway. We are planning on looking at more boats next weekend in Virginia and Maryland as we head to the Annapolis Boat Show. We have also started the process for pre-approval on financing,  checking out requirements and costs of insurance, and availability and cost of slips in Oriental and New Bern.