Live from boot 2020
Jan 23, 2020
Seventeen halls full of water related exhibits, perhaps a dozen of them full of boats and equipment. You might go to Miami or Annapolis to see the boat of your dreams, but you still wouldn’t get the same overwhelming scene. It might be because the whole show is inside that it is such an exciting event.
The show, boot with a lowercase ‘b’ starts with Big Willi, a ginormous travel lift that’s all over the TV news hauling colossal yachts from the Rhine and loading them on trucks. Now they are in Hall 6. It’s almost too much to see every model of Princess Yachts right up to 78 feet in just part of the hall.
In the sail area you’ll be able to board most Beneteau, Jeanneau, Hanse, Dehler plus Swans, X-Yachts and a number of other brands that don’t show up elsewhere.
Why is this of value to Canadian boaters? Well pure spectacle of course – what’s more fun than trekking though acres of boats. But there’s more – other boats you’d never see with design features and equipment that will stimulate dreams and maybe even give you some good practical ideas.
There is a long list of premieres, so you can get ahead of the game when the builders unveil new ideas.
– the new Dufour 530 rolled off the line straight to Dusseldorf for this show
RIBS are huge in Europe, daysailers with windshields, curvy bows on runabouts, rechargeable electric runabouts with retractable foils capable of significant speeds and zero on-the-water emissions. Brands I haven’t encountered – Invictus, an Italian builder with almost crazily designed 35-foot runabouts, was just one of dozens that wowed me. Have a look at Speed Lounger, an 8.5 m aluminum machine that looks like someone’s posh living room going over the waves.
{videobox}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw25y6S1a6w{/videobox}
It takes a Dutch mind to dream up boats like this.
Accessories are different in Europe; clothing is impressive, dark sails, endless instruments and a surprising array of berth mattresses (yes, even that can interesting!)
One thing is very clear – comfortable footwear is a must. It would take several days to see everything at boot 2020 and you would certainly do your 10,000 steps every day. The crowd, as you might expect, is largely European boaters but even though it requires a trans-Atlantic journey taking in this show certainly makes sense if you want to add some continental perspective to your boat dreaming experience. Today it was +12 in Dusseldorf… not so bad!
-JM
PS more photos to come
