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2011 Oriental Boat Show
Winds Hit But Show Goes On
April 22, 2011

S
ailors, as a rule, hope for wind. Boat shows do not. Case in point was the Third Annual Oriental Boat Show at Pecan Grove Marina last weekend.

Tents that wanted to be sails on Day Two of this year’s Oriental Boat Show. Rotary Club members took down tents on Saturday as winds started gusting in the mid-to-upper 40Mph range. The middle day of the boat show was cut short but was followed by a sunny day for Sunday.

Saturday, the middle day of the three day show, brought rough weather and gusts in the upper 40’s. While they didn’t reach the tornadic conditions that devastated other parts of NC Saturday, the winds did take their toll, closing the show a few hours earlier than scheduled on Saturday.

In-water boats at the Oriental Boat Show.

The weather conditions put a serious crimp in attendance figures. Boat show coordinator Sam Myers says that over the course of the three-day show, 925 people came through the gate, compared with the 1500 or so who attended last year’s. Saturday is usually the big day for attendance and the threat of rain along with gale force winds kept people away.

Marlinspike for four hands. Ross Pease led seminars on Saturday and Sunday.
Marine Consignment of Oriental’s road show.

GIven all that, says Myers, the Boat Show “did far better than expected,” raising over $9,000. There were boats sold or had offers made during the show. For those who attended the show during the calmer conditions on Friday and Sunday, there were boats and boat bits to see, and seminars covering a range of subjects such as marlinspike, first aid, rigging and flares. The smaller group who ventured out on that gusty Saturday, were left with some enduring reminders about the force of wind power.

Sam Myers, the Rotarian who organized the Boat Show. Sam got volunteers to obey… but not the weather.
Kathy Brugett of the Pamlico Coastal Activities Council which was raffling off the hand-made boat. PCAC raises funds to help promote outdoor activities in the county.
Rika, the canine part of the sales force at St. Barts, works the docks.

More scenes from the boat show weekend – click here.

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Testing the cockpit seating…
Paul Wells of Triton Yachts.
Pete Waterson of Seacoast Marine Electronics showing Raymarine navigation equipment.
Tim Fowler of the Coast Guard Auxiliary led a demonstration on flares. Don’t hold it this way, he said, or the molten chemicals will drip on you hand. Or on to your boat or dinghy.
The proper technique — after lighting it, hold it horizontally. The Coast Guard Auxiliary had planned to demonstrate aerial flares but the winds Friday prevented that. Instead they focused on the hand-held ones.
Everyone got a chance Friday afternoon.
Flares reflected in the sunglasses of the Auxiliary’s Tom WIggins.

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The breezes of Friday gave way to stronger winds on Saturday and by midday, Al Herlands of the Rotary Club was working as ballast. A number of the tents had already been lowered to lean-to status by then, bu even that wasn’t enough to keep them from going airborne, or their poles from coming undone.
Despite the gusting wind bashing against the already-lowered tent wall, Ross Pease held a marlinspike workshop Saturday.
Bryan Spain of the NC Marine Fisheries, which covers the salty waters finding that the winds can be rough on land, too.
Packing it in Saturday. In the early afternoon, the winds had become so strong — gusting in the 40s — that the Rotary took down many tents.
An unannounced seminar on putting away would-be sails.
One exhibit that didn’t have to worry about blowing away, was the dock brought in by Bobby Prescott Marine Construction. Granddaughter Lena Robertson walks across the top of the dock. (The wind was at a lull at this point.)
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Flipping burgers.. but not too high … for fear they’d fly away. Warren Funk at the Rotary grill which, despite the wind, was still doing a good business selling hot dogs and hamburgers.
Greasy buildup for Rotary volunteer Bob Miller. The wind was so strong that it quickly left his glasses covered in the flying residue form the grill.
Burghees were flying too, at the Neuse Sailing Association booth.
Hunky Dory was the boat, but not Saturday’s weather.
Despite the wind, some boat sales were started. Kevin Quade of St. Louis, who stays on a sailboat at Pecan Grove when in town, added to his fleet with this fishing boat from Cape Lookout Yachts.
Flags aflutter in Saturday’s wind.
Another boat name that the weather did not live up to.
The boat show at Pecan Grove closed for the day on Saturday at 3p, earlier than scheduled. Back in Oriental at Hodges and Broad, the wine-tasting on the porch of Nautical Wheelers was very well attended.
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Sunday morning, it was time to set up the tents again. Here, the top awaits the Rotary crew to lift it.
What was taken down Saturday went up Sunday.
Also pitching in for the tent pitching, was Zack Bruno…
,,, and his brother, Ben.
Dave Wright and crew from St. Barts Yachts put the Beneteau flag back up the forestay Sunday morning.
A test run for a prospective boat buyer.
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Not all the sailboats were in the water. Triton’s was selling this Catalina.
Head shot of the Catalina.
Jack Coulter of Deaton Yacht Sales takes some shade in the cockpit.
Down below on a Beneteau offered by St. Barts.
A sail system and solar system were featured on this boat..
Richard Johns showing off the Mack Pack approach.
Elvis song as boat name.

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Jan Kleinrath of All Things Canvas. A one-time resident at Whittaker Creek, she runs her business out or Bryson City, NC now.
Stanley Feigenbaum of Beta Marine talks up the virtues of a Beta diesel. Beta was inside the “big tent” – which was able to stay up during the high winds.
While there were many boats for sale, there was one for sailing. Jim Edwards of Bow to Stern took his catamaran, Sea Dragon out for several sails Sunday afternoon. (The boat is being hired out for sunset cruises.) .
Nautical Wheelers displays its NC-made sail boat pillows and the doormats made of the bits left when flip-flops are made.


The free water taxi from Oriental’s Town Dock sidles up to drop off some passengers, Neil and Laurie Racicot.

Marine Consignment of Oriental presented a microcosm of its Broad Street store.
John Fifer of MIke’s Dive Service. He says he has a lot of business on this side of the Neuse and its murky waters. (The day he was working on a boat underwater and could see the front of the full keel from the rudder, was a day that he says he was “quite shocked.”)
John Fifer of Mike’s Dive Service out of Havelock.

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Under calmer conditions on Sunday, Ross Pease held another session on marlinspike.
Near the bow on one of the Pacific Seacrafts for sale. .


David Pfefferkorn of Neptune Yachts of New Bern.

Inflatible boat, one of two items being raffled off by the Pamlico Community College Foundation.
Bev Furhling, who heads up the Pamlico Community College Foundation.
Not every vessel had a price on its hull. One of the boats that is permently docked at Pecan Grove Marina.

Posted Friday April 22, 2011 by Melinda Penkava


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