50 Years and Going Strong
Like many great ideas, the Annapolis Sailboat Show was born in a bar. Legend holds that someone — exactly who is lost in history — jumped into a conversation at the bar of the Annapolis Yacht Club with a prophetic suggestion: Why don’t we just have them come to see the boats already in the water?
Jerry Wood saw opportunity.
The National Boat Show in New York City had long ruled the field, more precisely a concrete convention center. Smaller regional shows in cities including Baltimore and Washington, D.C., lacked an important ingredient: water. Indoor shows restricted the size of boats to be displayed, ruled out tall masts and failed to stir the imagination of sailors.
Collaborating with his sailor-wife Kathy, home-show producer Peter Carroll and local yacht brokers, Wood — who’d founded the Annapolis Sailing School a decade earlier — organized the first national on-water sailboat show. The waterfront of Annapolis was the venue, on docks already in place.
This very first Annapolis show claimed to have the “largest display of sailboats ever exhibited at one time afloat or on shore — more than 100 models from sailing dinghies to 54-foot yachts.” The 1970 show announcement went on to invite visitors to “board the boats, compare them and order at the show for early delivery.”
The combination of an historic town with the lure of the water is credited with making the show a success.
In a city with “a rich history as a thriving port,” says Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley, “these shows attract vendors from around the globe, allowing attendees to find just about any boating need, from the latest in life vests to a fully outfitted yacht.”
Over the years, southbound cruisers found Annapolis an attractive stop, offering to work setting up the show. One was Paul Jacobs, who in 2013 took over as president of the company that manages all of the Annapolis boat shows, now four distinct events: spring and fall shows for sail and power.
The Stuff of Dreams
Jacobs describes the U.S. Sailboat Show as a place for dreams. The stuff of those dreams has changed dramatically over the past five decades.
In 1970, the boats were mostly monohulls in the 25- to 35-foot range, primarily built in the U.S. Boat manufactures represented at the show now hail from China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Slovenia, South Africa and Taiwan, among other countries.
The little sailing sloops of the 1970s, Jacobs says, “have evolved into luxurious production and semi-custom cruising or performance machines with their beams carried aft to massive wide sterns, towering rigs and innovative steering, propulsion and electronic technology.”
In the 1970s, a boat might have been considered fully equipped with a radio and depth finder. Now satellite communications, radar, sonar, wireless wind speed indicators, autopilots, emergency position radio beacons and chart-plotters are becoming standard equipment. Automatic identification systems tell recreational boaters almost anything you would want to know about other boats in the vicinity including their size, speed, heading, destination and cell contact information. All the new electronic data can be integrated and routed to a central display as well as a smart phone and tablet. You can monitor your boat from a remote location or set an alarm for an alert if the anchor drags.
“The show lets boat owners know about how far we have come in making technology available to sailors and making it affordable,” says Bob Leichtman, who represents the marine electronics manufacturer Navico/B&G Sailing.
More technology has been accompanied by more mechanical aids, including electric windlasses to raise the anchor and electric winches to raise and control the sails. These all require more power and thus bigger batteries. New battery technology requires more elaborate systems to stay charged, now by solar and wind power as well as by gas or diesel generators.
Sails once cotton or Dacron are now made from Mylar, Kevlar, and other new synthetic fabrics.
Another innovation: the sailboat show is now becoming a big cat show.
“The current trend is toward catamarans that people intend to charter or put in charter management,” says Ken Comerford, owner of North Point Yacht Sales.
Big Business
Among so many boats — this year about 600 power and more than 200 sail — money flows.
The boat shows have played a big part in making Annapolis a national and international center for boating. In a matter of two weeks, the sail and powerboat shows welcome more than 80,000 visitors and generate an estimated $112 million in economic activity for the city and Anne Arundel County. The shows share a portion of the entry fees with the city and pay an additional rental fee for using City Dock. The shows also support fund-raising by about two dozen charitable organizations that offer food, parking, and other services to patrons.
Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the show, Gov. Larry Hogan noted that “attendees and exhibitors support Maryland’s local businesses and the boating industry with a $3.5 billion impact of the state’s economy.”
Boat dealer Comerford describes the effect on his end of the business: “For a boat dealer, the shows bring energy, excitement and a little magic in the air along with an opportunity to talk to lots of new customers.”
For the potential buyer, the show provides opportunity to compare many different boats in one spot and to meet experts on almost any sailing topic.
Annapolis sailor Jim Kevern came to the show to compare choices for his move from a coastal cruiser to a larger boat with offshore capability. Talk with representatives of the Outbound line led to an invitation to their owner’s association dinner. Kevern describes this as “the most expensive free meal I’ve ever experienced” as it clinched the deal. He ordered a new Outbound 46, taking advantage of various incentives offered at the show. The new boat was built in China and delivered a little less than a year after the order was placed. Kevern has sailed it south to Florida and the Caribbean for the past several winters.
A Modern Experience
Shoppers have changed, too. Fifty years ago, the show drew a crowd from the region and East Coast.
In 2018, “visitors came from all 50 states as well as 27 countries,” show president Jacobs reports.
Also different are buying habits. Half a century ago, people typically learned to sail on small dinghies and worked their way up to bigger boats. Now, it’s not uncommon for a starter boat to be 40 or 50 feet long. More money in the economy is not the only reason.
“New equipment and technology make it easier for one or two people to handle a bigger boat safely. Bow and stern thrusters make pulling into a tight slip easy,” Jacobs says.
Education and training are now part of the show. Courses to introduce new people to sailing include a First Sail workshop with instruction on land and on the water. Couples can learn to manage together in the Two Can Sail seminar. A Take the Wheel program invites prospective buyers to try and compare two boats to narrow their search for the perfect one.
More experienced sailors find courses to meet their needs as well. This year, you can enroll in a course in offshore emergency medicine. Cruisers University offers a full curriculum of 50 courses for sailors aspiring to long-range voyages.
Not only boats but also the boating lifestyle is on display. To suit the lifestyle, all types of clothing and accessories are on sale.
The Vacation Basin displays boats available for charter around the world. “Charter companies make as much as half their annual booking at the show,” Jacobs says.
Boat clubs are another innovation on display. Rather than owning a boat, you can buy a membership that allows you to use boats in a fleet managed and maintained by the club.
Entertainment is also part of the evolved show, with music, wine and gin tastings and a VIP tent where folks enjoy the show without needing to visit a boat.
The Largest Portable Marina
Creating the platform for all the excitement of the 2019 show requires its own magic. In three days, the show creates a marina to accommodate more than 200 sailboats. This requires driving 50 temporary pilings, constructing and moving hundreds of floating dock sections and installing miles of electrical cable.
Staging the show requires the assembly of the largest portable marina in the world. “It is a complex jigsaw puzzle with moving parts,” says show manager Sheila Jones. “Many important pieces arrive by ship in Baltimore and need rigging, cleaning and other work before fitting into their assigned slip.” Typically one or more boats have a brand new engine that will not start at a critical moment.
After the Sailboat Show, the break up of the marina is its own local party as boats leave with choreographed precision to cheers from an admiring crowd.
“Each year brings new excitement, new boat designs from around the world and camaraderie that is unmatched,” says Jacobs, “as show patrons begin making sailing plans for the year ahead.”
Oct. 10-14: VIP Preview Day Th 10am-6pm, Block party Th 5-9pm, Market Space, F-Su 10am-6:30pm, M 10am-5pm, City Dock, Annapolis, $35 VIP day, $18 w/discounts: www.annapolisboatshows.com.