Everybody Loves NY

I stopped by the New York National Boat Show on Thursday to check out the boats, as well as to scout out story ideas, advertising leads and the competition. There are more pics on the FirstBoat Facebook page, but I included a few below, and also a write-up on the Daily Boater.

Love the classic look of Silverton Yachts

This seems like bad business. Shouldn't they have at least shown up and talked about their product?

Deadliest Catch in the house. These guys were a riot.

Chaparrals always look sharp.

Providence (and more) Boat Shows

I attended the Providence Boat Show yesterday (see my Daily Boater article for a few boat pics) and met lots of great folks. Attendance was not great when I was there (and I heard it was even worse on Thursday), but I was there on Friday afternoon during business hours when people who can afford boats were working at their day jobs; I suspect traffic will pick up over the weekend.

Hopefully I'll be seeing many of the exhibitors I met again over the next few weeks when I exhibit (for BoatNameGear) at the Hartford Boat Show, the Northeast Fishing Expo, and the big New England Boat Show in Boston.

Not exhibiting, but I'll be doing a similar drop-in at the New York Boat Show next week and will try to bring back some stories and pictures... Stay tuned.

Welcome 2011

It's hard to believe that BoatNameGear just celebrated its 4th Christmas in business (the site's first online order came at the end of November 2007), and the site has seen a pretty good increase in sales each Christmas over the previous year. Flat would have been good given the economy, so north of 150% was especially sweet. Thank you to everyone who helped give BoatNameGear a big boost this holiday season and into the New Year. It was great to see so many familiar names of customers (and their boats - love those boat names!) come through the site's order system this November and December... and of course it was nice to see so many new customers come on board as well.

If you shopped at BoatNameGear for the first time this year, how did you find us? Most customers I asked on the phone said something along the lines of "the internet" or "I did a search". Uh huh. We were featured in several online and print publications for the holiday season, and we can't thank those folks enough for mentioning us. Let me know if you saw BoatNameGear mentioned in any of these places or by any of these authors, or somewhere else:

Christy Johnson, in the Florida Keys Fishing Examiner

Ericka Watson, the About.com Powerboat Guide

Tom Richardson, the co-director and host of BoatingLocal

Marine Product Reviews

WindCheck Magazine

Boaterlifeonline

A special thanks to our first affiliate across the pond, New Freebooters.

And last but not least, although I'm probably forgetting some, the folks we mentioned in our first Daily Boater Gift Guide, who reciprocated with tweets, facebook posts and newsletter mentions, including SeaSquared Charters, MegaYachtNews, Autotether, and Caron's Beach House.

Please follow BoatNameGear on Facebook to get new product announcements, special offers, contests, and to find out which boat shows we'll be at in 2011!