Jon,

Chris & I just spent our 16th wedding anniversary at the Southampton Boat Show a few weeks ago. Now, I've never been to the Naptown Show, but I thought the Southampton show was fantastic. First, every vendor I could possibly wish for, was there. All the vane guys, the wind gen guys, the solar guys, the clothing, everything. We spent 2 full days from open to close going through the show and that meant only about 2 hours on the boats, because frankly we weren't looking for a boat. That said, the choice of sailboats, I thought was very respectable. Lots of boats in the 30-45 foot range and a number bigger as well on the water and then more a dozen varieties of daysailers and small boats.

There were of course Beneteaus and Jeanneaus, but there were also Ovni's, Malo's, HR's, J-Boats, Dehlers, Hanse's, Elans, Bavarias, two big Oysters, Arcona's, Moody's, and more that I can't remember. If you were looking for a 35-45 footer in the 300-500k range I think you had a least a dozen choices, maybe more. Granted 300k+ is ridiculous for a medium size production sailboat, but that is a reflection of the industry not the boat shows. There were just a few catamarans.

I enjoyed the shit out of it. The Ovni 395 was my favorite. Such a clever design, well built, and ready to go places you wouldn't dare with most production designs.

This winter we are looking forward to the Dusseldorf Boat Show. Apparently one of the largest boat shows in the world. My company HQ is Dusseldorf, so it is easy to travel there.