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But the best part of the show, as much as I love chatting with people at our booth, was the time that I got to spend walking around and checking out new stuff. And there was more new stuff in Newport than I remember seeing at any boat show in a long time. It wasn't the number of products that struck me. Rather, it was the fact that most of the companies had incorporated some type of cutting-edge or radically new idea or element into their designs.

For example, the number one selling product at the Bluewater/Armchair Sailor booth was the new Visual Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, by James L. Bildner. It was recently published by International Marine, and it's a great book. But what makes it different from all of the other New England area cruising guides is the fact that each area discussed in the guide is accompanied by a graphic of the proper chart and a color photograph that is overlaid with the navigational aids shown on the chart. You can look at a photo of the entrance to the Saco River and see exactly where the buoys are in the photo, giving you an easier way to reference them to nearby landmarks. You can tell that the outer ends of the breakwater are submerged, which is not clear on the chart. This technique is something that many of the cruising guides for Florida and the Caribbean have been dong for awhile, but this is the first time it has been employed in a New England Guide. This book, paired with Hank and Jan Taft's Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, which details many anchorages and points of local interest, is the perfect combination for cruising Maine.

Another thing that attracted a lot of attention from the customers at the Bluewater/Armchair booth was all the cool new stuff from Nobeltec. Version 9 of both Admiral and Visual Navigation Suite are now available. For information on upgrading your current software, call us and ask to speak to any member of the Electronic Chart Department. Version 9 features AIS Filtering (Admiral only), GRIB weather support, a hand panning tool, navigation info panels (displaying data in an easy-to-read format), and more. While it's not that unusual for Nobeltec to come out with a new version of its popular navigation software just in time for Boat Show Season, the "Plus Packs" that they introduced in Newport are unprecedented.

The Sailing Plus Pack is geared towards ocean-going sailors and racers, and is compatible with Admiral or VNS. It includes a polar diagram display, a histogram display of key sailing data, an auto record of real-time data for instant polar creation, laylines and wind arrows draped on top of the chart, and enhanced boat tracking. It also offers basic instrument support for B&G and Ockam instruments. The XM Plus Pack features a continuous data stream from XM WX Satellite Weather, giving boaters weather information that is always as up-to-date as possible. Radar, sea-surface temperatures, lightning and more are delivered for viewing, and an S-Band signal prevents loss of signal during intense thunderstorms. Weather data can be displayed right over navigational charts using one of Nobeltec's navigation programs. The Sailing Plus Pack and the XM WX Pack retail for $300 each.

The Tender Tracker Plus Pack from Nobeltec might be the coolest toy yet, provided that you had enough tenders to justify the $1,500 price tag. It was designed specifically for Large Yachts, and is compatible only with Nobeltec's Admiral 9 software and a special hardware unit. The hardware unit is installed on the yacht, and remote units are installed on each of the tenders. The hardware, by the way, is sold separately. The base unit receives signals from the tender unit, and displays the tender's lat/lon position, speed, course, wind speed and direction where the tender is located, and depth (if the tender has a depth finder). All I want to know is whether you can use it for jet skis.

If the Tender Tracker Plus Pack sounds a little too revolutionary, how about a sailboat designed to fit inside a shipping container? I only went on a couple of boats at the show, but this was one I just had to see. The Far Harbour 39, built by a company called Container Yachts, was one of the most unique vessels on display. It was designed so that the mast and keel pop off and the whole thing fits inside a standard shipping container. The idea is that, if you don't have the time to do your own ocean crossing, and don't have the budget for Dockwise, you can have your boat shipped to the Mediterranean or anywhere in the world for under $10,000. It has a unique look, and motors at over 8 knots. While it's by no means a classic beauty, it is certainly slender. The designers put a lot of thought into it, but only time will tell whether the idea takes off.

After two rainy days and two gorgeous days in Newport, where sailboats seem to outnumber people, I was ready to return to Fort Lauderdale and start planning for the rest of the Boat Show Season. Next up: The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Come see us at booth 1602 at Bahia Mar!