This year, the purpose of my visit was to see some devices and systems. I had only one available day to visit, and the weather conditions were not ideal for a roughly three-hour, actually unnecessary drive, but I decided to go anyway.
I was interested mainly in autopilots, AIS-systems, VHF-radios in general. I was also curious about the possible developments in the chart plotters, and small outboard motors, not in new boats.
I was shocked about the extremely ugly design of the modern boats. Ugliness is – of course – a matter of taste, but to me the modern boats start to look more like a combination of military bunkers and refrigerators than boats. Just look at this reincarnated Ligne Maginot relic… Where are the Maxim machine guns?
I wonder what is inside this massive, windowless powerboat. Maybe I should have had a look after all – if they would have allowed my thin wallet on board? The man sitting next to the boat gives some perspective to the size of this plastic box.
An Oyster sailboat is maybe somewhat more boat-like, but these windows do not please me. Somehow I feel that the window corners could be possible weak points in the hull. I assume, however, that it has been taken into consideration and the corners are round enough not to cause cracking.
Some still stick to the more streamlined design, as this British example. Beautiful work.
A cute little dinghy, my favourite of all the boats at the exhibition.
This monster represents the other end of the exhibition. I’d rather place this at the Schiff Düsseldorf.
A boat can be very simple, and still give a lot of pleasure to its owner. This was one of the simpliest models.
Last year, Bavaria had an impressive stand with many boats to show. Then, only a few months later, to my and maybe many others’ surprise, Bavaria was reported filing bankruptcy. Somehow it was solved and here they are again…
What would a boat fair be without a decent, masculine meal… Eaten out, of course. The white stuff on the upper right corner of the picture is snow.
So what happened to the things I mentioned in the beginning? Nothing… Instead of having different device manufacturers showing their newest developments, they seem to be represented by German boat chandlers, which are more interested in direct sales than giving information. In addition, it seemed to require a secret code to attract a representative to come and talk, just like last year. I obviously just don’t have it.
The trip was, not totally waste of time. I was able to purchase a traditional sewing awl to help sewing a few things, like a dog bone to Ofelia’s mainsail. An awl was all I could afford to buy, since the Germans seem to love cash, bar, not modern methods to pay. I soon ran out of my few euro bills, and could no more buy anything. It is far easier to buy in Sweden, although they have a different currency!
Ofelia II ja muita juttuja 