Brenda and I spent three days at the show in order to see everything, spend some time with friends, attend lots of seminars and of course check out the boats. We accomplished all of this and had a blast doing it.
We got up at 4:15 a.m. to make a Van Galder bus to Chicago. It is a great way to go as they do all the work while we relax and use their Wi-Fi enroute. A quick cab ride to a hotel near Navy Pier and we are set to go. The reason we left so early was to ensure we arrived in time to attend Nigel Calder's sailing seminar.
I treasure Nigel's books and admire his lifelong drive to not only repair everything on his boats, but to understand the causes of problems. He studies each boat system in-depth and then writes clear concise maintenance and repair manuals for the everyday boat owner. For example, he carries a load cell on board to measure the loads transmitted from various anchoring tackle to the boat. He studies diesels, refrigeration, electrical systems, batteries and everything else aboard a typical cruising boat with the same attention to detail. I've only read Nigel's books and articles and seen his pictures which portray a quiet, intelligent, slightly nerdy kind of guy. Both Brenda and I expected his seminar to be informative, but dry and matter of fact. Nigel surprised us by being a little quirky, humorous and self-deprecating. I like this guy.
If you don't already have his books we highly recommend them. They will all be going on our cruising boat.
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