Make Waves for the Atlantic City Boat Show!

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT > FEATURES

Expanded to include all types of watercraft and a myriad of accessories and activities,  the 33rd annual indoor boat show is stressing education.

By Ray Schweibert 

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Feb. 1, 2012

With leisure-time dollars under stress, making sure major purchases are the right ones for your budget is crucial in this economy. That’s become the mantra of this winter’s annual indoor boat show, underway for the 33rd year at the Atlantic City Convention Center now through Sunday, Feb. 5.  

“The economy affected the boating industry, but we’ve been seeing some recovery,” says show manager Jon Pritko. “This year we’re really focused on education. We believe that an educated boater is someone who’s going to find it more enjoyable and stay in the boating industry for a long time.  

“Buying a boat can be a big undertaking, especially if you’re a first-time owner who doesn’t really know a whole lot about what to do once you’re out there. It’s not like driving a car off the lot and into your garage — there’s a lot of things to consider when you’re buying a boat, and that’s a huge part of what this show is all about.” 

In years past the show was limited to powerboats, but this year’s will include sailboats, kayaks and all facets of the growing paddle-sport industry. There will be seminars from experts in the boating and fishing worlds, and a special section called Welcome to the Water designed to educate the novice boater.  

“We call it Boating 101,” says Pritko. “It’s a bunch of entry-level subjects like the rules of the water, what role the marine police play, how to purchase the right boat for what you want to use it for. It’s a Q&A where people can go to get answers. It’s really cool because we have a boating simulator and the Powerboat Docking Challenge, which is there for two reasons — as a teaching tool to show things like how currents can affect docking — and also as a contest, in which the person who docks their boat the fastest will win a $300 all-weather Cape Fear boating jacket.” 

Show-goers can also win, through separate drawings, a boat-motor-trailer package, a hand-made wooden Adirondack guide boat, and an original Willard Bond painting valued at $3,400. Among the dozens of workshops and free seminars is “Fishing University,” produced by the Recreational Fishing Alliance, and “Fred’s Shed,” produced by two certified marine technicians. All the seminars are listed by category, date and time on the show’s Web site (acboatshow.com). See them by scrolling down from the Highlights bar.  

“Fred’s Shed is basically an interactive learning center with all DIY [do it yourself] type workshops and seminars,” says master boating mechanic Keith Ammons, one of the Fred’s Shed hosts. “We do hands-on training to help people interested in doing their own boating maintenance. The booth is set up to look like a shop — it looks like a mini marine center with cutaway motors, tools and parts on the wall, and it has a little stage as you’d have in a typical seminar area with shop stools for people to sit on.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT > FEATURES