04/18/2002 - 04/22/2002
Robin at 2002 Sail Expo
"Hey, what are you guys still doing here? We thought you'd left." Okay, we could not resist one last trip back to the Bay Area. The excuse? A boat show. The April 2002 Sail Expo in Jack London Square was too much to resist.
Thanks to the generous support of West Coast Yachts, we were able to mooch three days of guest passes to spend four fun filled days at the boat show.
We saw many friends over the course of these four days and we had a great time catching up. We talked to manufacturers and distributors of several of the systems aboard Whisper, discussing any issues we are having (or maintenance questions). It is nice to talk to real people that actually understand the gear they sell.
John and Amanda Swan Neal with Mike & Tracy and Robin & Duncan
Although we didn't get a picture, we first saw Carol Hasse of Port Townsend Sails. As we walked in the door on the first day, there was Carol in the Cruising World booth. It was great to see her and catch up -- you'll find more on Carol in our section on Sails.
As we moseyed around the tent, we encountered John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal. We first met John in January of 1999 while shopping for a boat. John was a VERY helpful resource that influenced our choice of both boat and options. John's experience and advice are appreciated, and we thank both John and Amanda for contributing much of the education and inspiration that got us out cruising.
We met our friends Mike & Tracy at John and Amanda's Offshore Cruising Symposium in San Francisco in February of 2001. Subsequently, Mike and Tracy joined John and Amanda's Mahina Expeditions on their passage from Antigua W.I. to the Panama Canal.
Left to right: Jim & Catherine, Scott & Jan, Robin & Duncan
Jim & Catherine are good friends that own a Hallberg-Rassy 36. We met them in Seattle in 1998 during an HR owner's dinner -- before we actually owned an HR. Our trip to the HR yard in Sweden luckily coincided with theirs and we were able to get to know each other better. We are blessed with the quality of people we seemingly stumble upon.
Jan & Scott Place are our friends from West Coast Yachts. Jan is the Owner & President of West Coast Yachts, Scott is the CFO and/or main accounting guy. More information can be found in the section on our Broker.
Pete McGonagle is new favorite broker from West Coast Yachts -- he has been a great sailing coach and offshore sailing mentor since our wonderful broker, Jack Heady retired to get ready for cruising. Although we have not utilized Pete's skill as a delivery skipper, we believe he would be great. You can Pete's bio and contact information here.
Todd Rickard from Sound Rigging and Yacht Services came down to the show (from Seattle) and made some social time to visit with us. Todd and his wife Lara are good friends of ours and we enjoy seeing one or both of them whenever we can. More scoop on Todd is in the Outfitting and Commissioning section.
Our friends Mike and Tracy are actively looking for their cruising boat to get out here too. We hope to see them soon!
Robin and Pete McGonagle from West Coast Yachts.
Todd Rickard from Sound Rigging and Yacht Services and friends Tracy & Mike.
One of the side benefits of going to the show is that we could discuss some of the challenges we faced on the way down the coast ( Half Moon Bay to Monterey) with folks that have far more offshore experience than we do. It turns out that a prevented jibe and 360 similar to the one we executed is not that uncommon and should referred to as a "pirouette". This makes it sound more graceful and almost acceptable. Also, hitting things and/or getting things entangled in the prop is fairly common too. Anything under $50 in boat damage seems to be declared a successful sailing day. Our bent pins on our transducer paddlewheel (Robin found them on the web), turned out to be less than $15 (with 2 sets of spare pins purchased). So, although the events seemed big at the time, they felt smaller after the more experienced folks set us straight.
It was great to see everyone -- including all of our old neighbors from Gate 11 at Marina Village Yacht Harbor.
The boat show was very "productive" from a boat gear/system question and answer perspective. We REALLY appreciated the support we received from Xantrex/StatPower, PYI (Max-Prop), Lewmar, Volvo, Fischer-Panda, Waypoint, and HF Radio On Board. We managed to make it out of the show with less than $100 spent on toys, an absolute low-spend record for us. I'm sure that at some point, we'll end up spending more on some of the cool gear we stumbled upon at the show.