OK, so I don't have pictures, but I did spend a good portion of the afternoon down there today waiting for Kachina Ken to show up and setup his little lighting gig and it was rather entertaining watching people try and squeeze boats in and around the crew working on putting the carpet in, then cover it with plastic. The worst part was, the guys that were the furthest back were the last ones in for the most part. Amazing stuff. :idea:
Let me start by saying, it's half the size of what it was last year at the Civic Plaza. It's in the south hall rather than the north, so that means more of a walk from Hooters.
In the far Northwest corner is Kachina and Magic/Sleek. They kind of have their own little area. In the same little cubby is Nordic, Calabria, Tritoon and some plain chopper gun specials that all pretty much look alike.
Kachina brought out 5 models. A 23', a 26' 2 30's and the new 34.' All pretty tame gels so they weren't obnoxious and offensive like some of the last couple years shows. These ones actually had a color theme kind of deal to them, not just white boats with random crap painted on them.
I did see Gary's new 30' complete with the new 600hp Merc. Very nice looking boat, although we did harass him a little on the phone when he called today.
Magic/Sleek have by far, the best looking boats at the show. They brought in the new 30' deck boat/cat with the automatic bimini top and by far it is the baddest boat at the show. Up close it looks way bigger than 30'. They're running a couple of 650hp N/A engines under the hatch (non-Mercruiser) and claim pump gas reliability. The colors, fades, trailer, pretty much everytyhing about the boat is unreal. They seem to have an open bow them rolling this year as I don't recall a single cuddy cabin there. They had a bright red 28' cat that was absolutely unreal, again down to the trailer. There were a couple of Sleek 30' v-hull's in the bunch, which I found ironic right across (like 10') from Kachina.
Nordic has a 25' Rage and a 28' Heat for the show. Aside from being buried in with a fleet of tan fiberglass they're nice looking boats. The 28' is sporting the 600 Merc as well as the new Bravo XR drive.
Other than that, it's a plethora of ski boats/wake towers, some big cruisers, a house boat, and bass boats until you get to the other end of the hall.
Eliminator has a couple of 26' Daytona's and v-hulls and the dealer from Prescott brought down a 32' Fountain.
There are a couple houseboats out side as well as a couple more big cruisers backed up to the loading dock. The outside boats should be a hit as it's supposed to rain all weekend anyway. :idea:
I'll be back tomorrow and drag my camera along. Maybe someone will drop off some hardware out there overnight.