Sanctuary Cove boat show is huge! I actually spent Friday and Saturday at the show and still did not see as much as I would have liked. Next year I will go on all 4 days. Seriously. I had intended to go on all manner of boats to get ideas for fit out, but only had time to go on cats and around the halls (big tents!!). I got some ideas and a heap of motivation from the show. I think I am still a bit early in the build to buy stuff but I got a good idea of the kind of things I want on MM. I also got some misconceptions cleared up which opens more options. For example, with a bi-rig the placement of a radome is a bit of a problem. Usually these are mounted on the mast. I thought that a radome needed to be placed in the centre of the boat, but this is not the case, so it can go onto a post in the rear corner of one hull as in the Schionning waterline 1480 in the picture below. My original plan was to build a pole on top of the middle of a targa bar, but this new idea gives me the option of davits instead. I may still go with a targa but now I know I have a choice. In fact having a duckboard would make davits not so practical but it means I don’t have to mount the radome up there on the targa if I don’t want to.
Jo and I also really like the idea of large port lights (windows or hatches) and we saw some French cats (a Catana and a Lagoon) one with a large hatch the other a large flush non opening window both of which gave plenty of light below. So this is definitely something we will try to add to our boat.
Two other nice ideas we saw were a 12volt washer/dryer. We have decided that we don’t want to rely on Laundromats or other non onboard laundry methods, so will definitely have a washer. I assume a washer/dryer will not only be expensive but also consume a lot of power, but we would like one. The other idea we saw promoted was a remote control like one you would see a child using for a remote car to control the boat under power when manoeuvring in marinas, that you can use from the bow or anywhere on the boat. This device would also be useful for motoring back or forward to set or retrieve anchors single handed. This device works better in conjunction with a bow thruster although it is not mandatory and cats manoeuvre very well when one engine is reversed and one is in forward, but a bow thruster is great for manoeuvring sideways in and out of tight marina berths. Just a thought. I may also think about a drop down bow thruster rather than one built into a hull the way this one is. Although this is a really neat option, I am not sure what drag effect it would have.
Our conclusion about the boat show is that is was super motivating. When you step onto finished boats, especially the Schionning’s you cant help but want to get onto the water. And also a very satisfying knowledge that apart from the hard work involved, there are some $1,000,000+ production cats that are no better than the cat we will end up with. They are great boats don’t get me wrong, I would take one if it were given to me but I know we will have as good a boat for a quarter of the budget. More money to cruise! Even the cheaper production cats come in at over half a mill! The only one that isn’t is not a cat I would want to live on. I won’t name it as that would not be fair to them, I am sure there are some customers for their boat that would be very happy with it (and lets face it, anyone who has one has a better cat than I have right now!) but the finish and design was not for us! Suffice to say that they were the talking point of the show though, but for the wrong reasons!
