ATL boat show ....oops

[RichmonS]

I did not see any Silverton's on display. I will say that MarineMax and Singleton had the best displays of the show. The Regal sport coupe is one sexy boat. If I ever win the lottery!

I will say that there was not a lot of non-dealer displays at the show. Is that normal? I would have thought they would have more of a presence. My son loved getting his picture with Patrick Star and the fishing pond.

 

[mwph]

We went yesterday. It was a madhouse. The wait for the 450DB was well over an hour. The MM guys said they were selling boats like it was 1999. Interestingly, no canvas people, no wax guys, no silicone people, I think I saw one underwater light display (I certainly could have missed something). Lots of runabouts and pontoons. Not a lot of cruisers. A couple of tugboat looking things...go figure. Ran into a BUNCH of people we knew. Kids had a great time. I'm thinking a Six Pack (OUPV not exercise) is in my future. It really is beginning to annoy me that I'm the least credentialed boat operator on my flippin' dock. I bet we have ten guys with USCG licenses. Next year, I'm going on a Thurs or Friday. Yesterday was nuts.

I agree with the majority of this post. I am always suprised that there are no canvas, upolstery type vendors. No cleaners/polish/wax. No Garmin, Lowrance had a few fishfinders. There were about 3 or 4 kitchen knife & cookware vendors - no thanks.

As for the waiting lines, I don't understand. For the third year in a row, we were invited to bypass the line, straight up to the boat decks. We sign in/register with my SRO card, we are given a nice Sea Ray hat & 2012 brochure, As we walked toward the stairs we were asked which boat we would like to see. The line we bypassed yesterday was at least 30 people deep. Are we just the luckiest couple at the show?

We spent some time admiring and learning about the 330. I did not board the DB as it was so full of people you could not see a damn thing even if you were on it. Not to mention that we had taken enough of the salesman's time allready.

As for the madhouse, I agree here too. I was thankfull that the wakeboard was dry. I hated the crowd that that thing attracted. If I look back at my post from last year, I'll bet I find that I too vowed to go on Thursday or Friday. This time I mean it. No offense to anyone here that has or brought children, as I'm sure people here, and boat owners in general are not the problem. But some of the behavior and lack of parental supervision I see on these boats is un freakin real.

 

[cleanairguy1969]

I went on Friday. No lines, no kids! Still had sections of wet carpet and drying fans.