Annapolis Sailboat Show

I'm a small boat sailor, and a cheap one at that. I allot about 4 hours to poke around the Annapolis sailboat show and unless a friend prods me, I avoid stepping onto any type of cruising boat. This year, as usual, there wasn't a whole lot for the small boat sailor. Laser Performance (buyers of Vanguard) were represented by surrogate dealer APS. They had their passel of British designed dinghies they are trying to flog onto the American market (names like Vago, and Bahia, and such .... but I must admit I like the smaller Jo Richards Pico and Bug dinghies). Surprisingly they left their two very popular American dinghies, the Sunfish and the V15, out of the show. I didn't see their SB3 keeler at the show either; they were great guns for getting the SB3 going in America last year. To the amusement of the friends I was with, I climbed into the Optimist sized Bug dinghy for a test sail. No wind but I was impressed with how stable this little dinghy is; I leaned hard on the leeward gunwhale and it didn't give up much in the way of a lean. The Bug, being stable, also meant it was somewhat stuck in light air (it has some very big hull strakes that don't help). Still, this is a small dinghy that won't scare the beginner and should be sailable in big breeze (one of the best strengths of the Optimist in my mind!).

Because the in-the-water sailboats were off in numbers, two of the so-called tall ships were berthed on the outer docks ....... The "Pride of Baltimore II" and the pilot schooner, "Virginia". Two of the crew of the "Pride of Baltimore II" were busy varnishing the transom and re-painting the name. I asked the one doing the varnishing what varnish "The Pride" uses ....... it's Epiphanes.

Small wooden boats are one of my soft spots and for some reason, the builder of the Adirondack Guide Boats had a booth in this show (a very rare occurrence indeed). He has a beautiful wood version for around 14K, a cheaper glass version with chines (didn't ask the price) and also offers a wood kit for 3.5K. It seems he sells to a fair number of celebrities ..... he rattled off several names that I have promptly forgotten. For some reason I got a free DVD (maybe I asked the right questions) which I'll get around to viewing one of these days.

Just beyond the Laser Performance booth was the small sport boat row. Two American production versions of the Mini-Transat, a Juan K small day racer that looked like a Mini Transat with no accomodations, a Viper and the new Melges 20 (cost of the Melges 20.... 41K base...... 47K with sails and some covers). If you want to get the thrill of a Laser offwind and spend a whole lot more money, I reckon one of these choices would fit the bill.