We've never been to the St Pete Boat Show before. We went up to drop off our jib to Mack Sails yesterday and wandered around the boat show for a few hours. Did anyone else go & can you tell us if this year's show is normal, smaller or larger than usual? I'm just curious since we've been away from the US sailing community for six years.

We were surprised by the vendor tents which had maybe a third non-marine vendors -- 2 large booths selling regular home mattresses, a large cooking display with a presentation (which we missed) that looked like regular home cooking gear, not boat gear - too big, too many handles etc for my boat. So forth & so on.

We were able to discuss our teak decks with Teak Decking Systems out of Sarasota - they impressed us by offering suggestions to save our teak decks as long as possible since teak itself is a diminishing resource in the world. Also gave us a couple of cleaning products to try, altho' typically our idea of cleaning a teak deck is salt water and a soft brush.

There were some sailboats there - good displays for Hunter, Beneteau, Jeanneau, etc., a Tartan, a few Leopard catamarans, a few used sailboats for sale. And the rest power boats - some fishing, lots of searay types, one Nordic Tug. I'm sure I missed some, but this was my overall impression.

It was very windy and cold on Thursday as evidenced by this boat coming back to harbor with a big tear in the mainsail! Looked like a new sail too. BUMMER!