"Bigger
and better" is perhaps the most overused cliché in the advertising
business, and the Seattle Boat Show is as guilty as any other business,
but this time that tired phrase is statistically correct.
There have been just a few major expansions of the number of exhibitors
and the goods they display, each directly concerned with the size of
the building in use. Given that the boat show is the best selling vehicle
anyone in the boat business has, exhibitors have always clamored for
space, and the Northwest Marine Trade Association's (NMTA) job has never
been to find enough exhibitors to fill the building, but how to fit
them all into the available space.
Historically, the boat show has occupied
the biggest available building in Seattle, whatever building that turned
out to be at any given time, at least since the show left the circus
tent Jerry Bryant erected on an empty lot across the street from his
store on Boat Street and moved into a group of buildings left over from
WW II near Piers 89, 90 and 99 in Smith Cove.
Given
that the boat show is the best selling vehicle anyone in the boat business
has, exhibitors have always clamored for space.
That move was to accommodate more exhibitors, of course, as was the
next move, to the Seattle Center Coliseum (now home of the Sonics) and
then the Kingdome when that now-defunct structure was the largest covered
space available. Even that was not large enough, so the NMTA rented
a huge tent and erected it on the south parking lot (later made permanent
by the administration).
The planning discussions that resulted
in building Safeco Field and then the Seahawks Stadium included a provision
for an exhibition building to house the boat show, home show and dozens
of other exhibitions throughout the year. And this year even that enormous
space has been enlarged, so "bigger and better" is no exaggeration.
One of the uses of the new space will
be a provision to display all the sailboats, complete with their masts
in place, in one big place, so the sailing fraternity can study all
the boats and their attendant gear side-by-side. That'll be fun for
an old sailor like me (and a few thousand others, I suspect).
I don't know where Nor'westing's booth
will be this year-probably pretty close to where it was last year. I
hope to spend at least a little time there, saying hello to all the
old friends we've made over the years. Having been involved in every
boat show since 1965, I really wouldn't know what to do for 10 days
in January if it wasn't for our annual extravaganza. Having lived through
the period from the time most production boats were built of plywood,
it's fun to see the exotic shapes now easily possible with fiberglass
and all the still newer exotic materials being used today. I've also
lived through the period from when the electronics aboard a boat consisted
of a depth sounder and a medium-frequency radiotelephone to these days
with the modern electronic charts, GPS and myriad of other gear we all
"need" to go to sea.
It's all there at the Seattle Boat Show, and I can't wait to see it. 
