What a fun and invigorating boat show experience. Such an array of new boat designs, so much sailing positivity, and a surprising amount of PNW presence.

The Annapolis Sailboat Show’s reputation precedes it. I’ve been hearing about it for more than a decade. My co-editor Andy Cross has been there quite a few times and has shared his experience with 48° North readers, and I felt the FOMO. This year, the stars aligned for 48° North to have a couple of representatives attend, and we knew we were in for a treat. It’s the largest sailboat show on this continent, and is a comprehensive collection of the nation’s sailing industry, and many of the global players are there, too. And its sailing industry scale is almost incomprehensible for anyone whose boat show expectations have been built in the Pacific Northwest.

Sitting in an airport lounge after heading out from the show partway through the second of four days, my head is spinning with positivity, inspiration, and invigoration (definitely not from product-testing the famous Painkiller cocktail). I’ll have lots of decompressing and reviewing of the experience ahead, but I wanted to share some instant observations with you as a starting point.

There are a lot of new boats, and cool ones at that.

Any boat show story necessarily leads with the boats. They’re kind of the point, but whoa, there were almost too many sailboats to see. It was incredibly cool to check-out the full line-ups from the big manufacturers like Jeanneau, Beneteau, J/Boats, and more, whereas at shows in our region we might only see a small portion of their lines. It was also thrilling to climb aboard boats I’d heard of but hadn’t seen in person yet, like the Excess 13, the Beneteau 30, and the J/36. But perhaps most eye-opening were the boats I hadn’t even heard of, and was very impressed by, including the Pegasus 50, the Zonda Z28, the aluminum centerboarder Ovne 370, or the Hylas 57. I could go on and on. So many sailboats. So little time. So much fun.

The industry faces challenges, but the stoke is high.

Part of what was so fun about experiencing the Annapolis show was this injection of sheer excitement and positivity of the reminder that this many people love sailing. As I mentioned, there were so, so many boats. And there were lines to get aboard nearly all of them, sometimes very long ones, throughout the day. People who think sailing is amazing and devote countless hours and dollars to it are part of a special community, but this show really highlighted how much bigger that community is than we sometimes think.

There was also such a refreshing reminder of the tight-knit sailing industry’s commitment to one another. A number of factors temper the optimism from the industry at large, from workforce challenges to some complicating trends in the national and global economy, but resolve and enthusiasm endures. It was an oft-heard refrain, but it’s one I really believe is genuine—sailing businesses aren’t just doing a good job and out for themselves, there is an active culture of supporting one another and sailing at large. Such spirit is what figurative rising tides are all about.

There were a surprising number of Pacific Northwest friends representing!

It was more on the industry side than the attendees from what I saw, but there was a ton of Pacific Northwest presence at this show, in spite of its location on the other coast. And that was true from the very beginning.

From a shoutout about the awesomeness of our region’s booming J/Pod of J/70s at the Harken Press Conference in the opening minutes of the show, to a CEO of a major international catamaran manufacturer telling me that the Pacific Northwest is definitely the part of the United States where he wants to go cruising before trying anywhere else—the PNW love was in full force around the the show. I stayed with 48° North columnists Julie and Gio Cappelli (Necessary or Nice), who are so in demand as instructors that they’re brought out from Anacortes to teach multiple days as a part of the show’s Cruiser’s University.

It’s part of why we were there, but in booth after booth, we found friends and colleagues from our region. Boat Shows are often described as reunions, and for a first-time Annapolis attendee the extend to which that was true was a little surprising. From boat sales to marine equipment, from charter companies to education. The PNW shows up for the Annapolis show in a big way, and it’s really great to see.

For all these reasons and more, I can make a strong and enthusiastic recommendation that a visit to the Annapolis Show is worth it.