In the early-to-mid '90s, a new national sailboat show, with a strong one design and class association focus (and lower stand rates for class associations), called SailEXPO was started in Atlantic City. After skipping the first year or two, the 505 class put a 505 and a stand in the show for several years starting with the 1995 show. We skipped the 1999 and 2000 shows, as we did not appear to have the interest from the membership in doing the show.
Since the first SailEXPO, additional SailEXPO shows at different venues have been added, making SailEXPO Atlantic city a regional rather than national show, and a series of Strictly Sail shows organized by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (a largely powerboat builder organization) have added to the number of sailing boat shows. SailEXPO Atlantic city started as a two weekend-and-intervening-week show, but was shortened to a Thursday through Sunday show. The show also moved from the old site along the Atlantic City boardwalk to the new Atlantic City convention center.
While the first shows had significant class association presence, the number of one design classes exhibiting has shrunk considerably; this year I saw the Jet 14, the Flying Scot and maybe two or three other class associations. I believe the 505 class did very well out of our SailEXPO Atlantic City participation, and that it was key part in the growth of awareness of the 505. The first year we participated, 1995, a frequent comment (and this was from people knowledgeable in the industry) was, "I didn't know you guys were still around." We have clearly corrected this problem in most cases, though there are probably people out there who have not seen us at a SailEXPO, come across our web sites, or heard about or e-mail listserver.
The merger of sailing industry associations Sail America and the National Sailing Industry Association (NSIA) was announced at the Sail Expo show last week, perhaps this will reduce the number of competing shows.
I spent Saturday afternoon at this year's show and saw some interesting things (not seeing some other things was interesting, too).
While at first glance, you may think a boatshow is to sell boats to the potential customers wandering around, this is only a part of why vendors participate. In the sailing world, the vendors are typically knowledgeable sailors too, and being seen by the key vendors like Harken, North, Ronstan, etc. was also beneficial to us. There are reasons that a 505 picture is in the current Harken catalog, that one of the first North sails 3DL for one designs will be a 505 mainsail, and that the 505 class is well known and respected in the US Sailing community. I was able to talk with people at SAIL magazine (Josh Adams is back after his stint with the Young America program), Sailing World (Nancy Haberland), Sailing Angles (Jeremy Hopkins), Ronstan (KC Fullmer), Vanguard and Byte boats (Tyler Bjorn).
Byte boats had the 29er on display. The boat lists for US$7,500, more than a JY15, Vanguard 15, Club 420, or Club FJ, but less than a KISS Rondar. From the hull and rig size, it is clear (at least to me) that this is a boat for small people/kids. Byte claims a target combined weight of up to 300 pounds, but the hull and rig look rather smaller than a 300 pound boat to me. I think the 505 class has a strong interest in junior sailors getting experience in two person boats, and higher performance trapeze and spinnaker boats, which they largely miss now (in the USA). Byte tries to position the 29er as a stepping stone from the 420 to the 49er, which in theory could hurt the 505 if people go around us to the 49er.
Speaking of the 49er, Vanguard didn't bother putting one in the show. There was an older rather dirty 49er on display at the US Sailing stand along with some of the other Olympic classes. Apparently Vanguard has ended the relationship with Carrol Marine (the actual builder of the US 49er) and now imports 49ers from McKay in New Zealand if someone orders a boat from Vanguard. As of a couple of years ago there were 50 49ers in all of North America. I would expect the number to be slightly higher now, but am not seeing a lot of 49er class growth in the US. It will be interesting to see what happens now that the Olympic trials are over. It is clearly a very interesting boat, but has not developed any sort of wide following in the USA, its basically a boat for Olympic wannabees.
Vanguard did put their smaller-than-a-49er skiff prototype in the show. This boat was called the 39er at one point, and was written up in Sailing World with that name. It is now nameless, as the 49er/29er people (Vanguard chose to not market the 29er and Byte boats picked it up) were not happy with the use of 39er. The Vanguard skiff is still being developed and played with. As shown in the show, it is bigger than the 29er with double trapezes (29er is a single trapeze boat). It has a sealed Fiberspar carbon and glass mast with external halyards. The boat is quite narrow on the waterline. In speaking with a Vanguard representative who had been sailing it (who is also well known on the New England 505 circuit) the boat is noticeably quicker than the 29er and has other skiff performance traits. While easier to sail than a 49er, it is still a "full on" boat. Apparently in multiple boat testing the new boat frequently has to slow down and wait for the 29er and it takes a little skill to keep the boat upright while waiting. It doesn't sound like you back the jib and heave to between races in this boat. Vanguard spoke of cored polyester construction and a price point of US$7,500. I'm skeptical about the polyester foam core construction giving them much longevity at the sort of weights skiffs target, and I also skeptical about the boat being buildable at the same price as the 29er. There's more boat and rig there and it is going to cost more to build than a 29er. None-the-less, a high performance skiff for mere mortals is an interesting concept. Vanguard also didn't bother putting a Laser II in the show, I'm hearing the boat is not a big seller for them -- The rumour I heard was 29 Laser IIs built worldwide last year, majority in the US -- since the Laser II Worlds were in North America last year. They also did not bother displaying the 470; I didn't ask if they still build them.
The North Sails stand was rather smaller than other year's and did not appear to have any North One Design representation. Ronstan has nice gear as usual -- they have dropped the "C cleat" from their lineup. I asked Ronstan about carbon fiber telescoping tiller extensions and learned that they are working on them, but the current cost is prohibitive. I also asked about getting 505 pictures in their catalog, and they were interested in seeing any good 505 photographs we could show them. Sailing Angles continues to refine their hi-tech sailing clothing. I always stop at their stand to check out what's new, and to harass Jeremy Hopkins about getting into a 505 (he's in Havre de Grace Maryland). He'd love to, but wants someone else in the area to buy one too, so he has another boat to race against. Douglas Gill, Henri Llyod and other sailing clothing vendors were there as well with nice looking gear. I spoke briefly with a rep from Selden spars. While Selden owns Proctor, Selden US is focused on big boats, and is leaving the Proctor operation as is for now. Selden US is based in Charleston (I think), so if they ever did get into dinghy spars, would be a little closer to the East Coast 505 fleets than is the major Proctor US dealer who is in Los Angeles.
I glanced at the new J24 in the J Boats stand. After five years of TPI not building J24s in North America, J Boats has gotten Waterline Systems to build the J24. While I have no interest whatsoever in owning or racing a J24, Waterline appeared to have done a nice job with the boat, and I managed to bump into Geoff Hurwitch, who works for Waterline. That was the end of the J24 discussion, as Geoff told me where Witch-Craft was on their 505 project. Witch-Craft has the last generation Ballenger tooling (which was much like a Kyrwood), and have made some initial changes in the tooling to update and improve the boat. The first boat - being built for Tom Hurwitch -- is under construction now. Geoff wants to bring it to regattas as soon as he has something for people to see.
I believe the 505 class needs to do boatshows from time to time. We had done SailEXPO several times, and were talking about doing other shows, such as Strictly Sail in Chicago. I think it is important to do this, especially in areas where we are not as strong like the Midwest. The merger of NSIA and SailAmerica may result in some rationalization of the shows, which may make our participation more attractive to us again.
- Ali