The Annapolis boat show makes Grown sailors look like proverbial kids in the candy stores. My only previous experience with boat shows having been limited to the one held at Navy Pier in Chicago, I was blown away by the size of the fleet and the flapping of so many brightly-hued company burgees. Everyone made the best of the downright drizzly weather–it has rained continuously for the last two days– donned their foulies, and walked the docks to gaze in wonder at the glossy hulls and shiny, new gear. For most sailors present, these shiny new vessels offer distant dreams that are merely impossible to realize, as D.H. Lawrence once noted, dreamers by day are a force with which to be reckoned. We may not ever be able to afford our favorites, but we can make mental notes of the ideas and innovations that we can replicate on the boat we have. The challenge is not to let all of the new ideas cloud or devalue our concept of the beauty that lies in wait in The Run. Our boat is still beautiful, and she has a unique character that the orher brand-new Dehler at the show did not possess. So, despite the fact that we left the show empty-handed, we have new memories, new friends, and a stronger will to craft bits of dreams into the one that has been taking shape for the last 4 years.
