Motorboatin Mania – Palm Beach International Boat Show
Show me the money!!! That’s all I could think as we walked the docks at the Palm Beach Boat Show. Oh the opulence! Two, Three or four million bucks is just a starting point around here. Unless you are looking for a dinghy, then 15k might get you into the entry level.
Ok, I may be exaggerating a little…but not by much.
In all honesty, we didn’t come here to look at boats. We can’t afford a new boat and that’s exactly what you’ll find at a boat show. Even if we could afford a new sailboat, one glance at the vendor list online and we knew this show wasn’t geared towards sailing…this show was all about the mega yachts and fishing boats. But, that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth investigating.
We’ve been to a couple of boat shows now and plenty of RV shows over the years. There is a lot more to explore at a show than just the vessels. If you want to learn more about the industry and especially about tech and toys, a show is an excellent place to do just that!
Overall we found some cool marine gadgets we didn’t know about, learned a lot more about some of the systems we might need in the future and had fun wondering around the mega yachts…although we were smart enough not to step foot into any of them as it would just sour our used sailboat shopping experience.
The practical side of our day was spent looking at Sunbrella fabric swatches for bimini tops, cushions and covers, which we’re sure we’ll have to replace on a used boat. We found the fanciest high speed ice makers and water makers of all sizes, types and prices. We realized a “center console” dinghy is way out of our budget and probably too fancy for leaving at the dinghy dock. We had the chance to drool over some fancy SCUBA gear which will no doubt be a future upgrade once we get the budget for it. Oh yea, and the underwater LED lights…maybe we can get them in our Gone With The Wynns blue! 🙂
There were also lots of options for safety gear and emergency equipment. Which provided us a nice insight to the uncertainties of the sea during long crossings (let’s hope we never need to use any of it). I found some cool polarized glasses which should be a major help for spotting the dolphins as they swim around our cat, and help protect our eyes from all the sun exposure. In all seriousness, we know the sea is unforgiving, as is Mother Nature, and we’re not making any of our sailing decisions without careful considerations.
We stumbled upon a few RV friendly items that we hadn’t seen before like the nesting, stacking and induction approved Nautical Scout cookware. I think our favorite random find was the floating, waterproof wallet thingy called the Ugo. And the upcycled sea bags were pretty awesome too!
What about you? Have you been to any industry shows and if so, did you find it helpful? Are you one of the people with a mega yacht that we need to be friends with? Chat us up in the comments below, we always love hearing from you.
