UK IPOA

The Annapolis Sailboat Show

By Paul Bragg

Looking over a small corner of the Annapolis Sailboat show

The Annapolis Sailboat show is not the biggest US boatshow but is largest one dedicated to in water displays of sailing boats. In October 2004 I was able to combine business in Washington with the pleasure of a visit to Annapolis and the show. The show itself is in a wonderful setting; Annapolis is on the Chesapeake Bay and as well as being the capital of the state of Maryland is home to the United States Naval Academy and a wonderful place to visit. If you happened to be in the area this October I would recommend a visit to Annapolis and the show (http://www.usboat.com/)

The first night there I wangled an invitation to the annual dinner hosted by Island Packet Yachts for all its partners worldwide. It was a fun night and a great opportunity to meet up with members of the Island Packet team including Bob Johnson the companies founder and chief designer and Bill Bolin VP sales and marketing for IP. I joined up with Bob Harris our IPOA UK Commodore and his wife Carol and Bob and Caroline Stokes. The evening ended with various presentations, the highlight of which was Opal Marine being awarded dealer of the year.

I then spent the next few days looking at boats and gadgets and meeting with lots and lots of people. The show is not as big as the Southampton or London Boat Shows but there is still a lot to see and do with more different sailing yachts in one place than I had ever seen before. The first thing I did was to look all over the new IP 445 which was launched in the US at the show. It’s a very impressive boat as always from Island Packet. I took the chance to go onboard as many yachts as I could, and some of them are really worth looking at, but fortunately I still went away happy with our choice of an Island Packet. Many East Coast IP owners came to the show; people like Bruce Gregory who is a very knowledgeable contributor to the Island Packet email mailing list (http://list.sailjazz.com/read/?forum=islandpacket), Hayden Cochran who created and hosts the great Island Packet Photo site (http://list.sailjazz.com/read/?forum=islandpacket). I also got to meet with some gurus like author and sailor Nigel Calder who not surprisingly seems a very happy chap.

I managed to buy lots of interesting gadgets, the most fun was the Bridgenorth Bailer (http://www.bridgenorthbailer.com/). This is a cross between a boat hook and a pump and is absolutely brilliant at letting you get the water out of the deep bilges of an Island Packet. Of course when I bought it I hadn’t thought about getting it home and it would not quite fit in my suitcase. I had lots of fun with plastic bags and sticky tape at the airport as I worked out with the gate agent how to transport it! Eventually we all made it back to UK promising ourselves that we would visit this great show again.

From top:

The first glimpse of the new IP 445 • Bob and Carol Harris fly the flag at the IP dinner • Bob and Caroline Stokes are congratulated by Bob Johnson as they take the dealer of the year award! • The 74 ft schooner Woodwind II in full sail out on the Chesapeake • Helming Woodwind II • Hayden Cochran – the IP photo site developer • The very busy Island Packet demo boats • One the many chance meetings of IP owners • Bruce Gregory – offshore sailor and general IP guru