Thoughts from the Annapolis Boat Show

Good show. The weather was much better than last year although it would have been tough to have had it any worse. We only stayed for the Friday but accomplished a few things. We spent some time with the representative from Spectra Watermakers. Until now our interest has been on the Catalina 300 model which can make about 12 gallons of fresh water per hour. I was able to discuss the Newport 400 Mk II which is 10% more expensive but has two appealing features.

1. It can easily reconfigure (use of 2 switches) to bypass the electronics in the case they fail.
2. It can operate in two modes – one where it is equivalent to the Catalina in terms of efficiency and out put and one mode where it produces 16 gallons per hour.

We now prefer this latter model. Looked at a few nav stations as I can never bury the geek in me. I’m now back to favoring the Garmin 5212. But the time we’ll buy one is a while off and things are changing. Doesn’t stop me drooling over the gear. Helen saw some titanium cookware that she became very attached to. I am not going to say how much we spent except for the fact that just buying 4 items has probably more than doubled what we’ve ever spent on cookware in the last 20 years. The highlight, as ever, was getting to rummage around the Lagoon 420 on show and to talk to the CatCo and Lagoon reps. One thing that was exceedingly reassuring was that despite the communication issues we’ve experienced in the past, the manufacturer Lagoon remains totally committed to the future of Hybrid technology and to it’s first generation of Hybrid owners. If the insight I was provided plays out we can expect some interesting news to come. I was also able to meet up with one of my soon to be charterers, his sister and his friend. We knocked back a few Caribs and talked boats. I’m now looking forward to some new photos of Dignity later this month which will, of course, be published. We toured all the tents and looked at most of the stands, learned a few things and lusted after a few others. Apart the pans we were able to restrain ourselves. The evening ended up with a party on the CatCo stand after the show had shutdown. We met a few other Lagoon owners as well as 2 sets of Lagoon 420 owners. I can say we’re all a happy much and very pleased with our decisions.