-By Joe

I am just getting my feet back on the ground after attending the IBEX (International Boatbuilders Exposition) show https://www.ibexshow.com/show-info/ in Tampa FL last week. It was a great show and the education seminars are some of the best there are in the marine industry. The trade show portion of the event includes suppliers of everything to build and repair boats, from the smallest skiff to the largest super yacht. This is not a show for the general public but is geared toward the boat builder and professional repair / refit yard.

I enjoyed catching up with a number of vendors on the show floor and seeing and hearing about advancements in equipment for the marine industry. But I mostly enjoy learning about the newest materials and manufacturing techniques. The show floor is a great place to get the information directly from the manufacturers and distributors. I plan to paint our boat Stardust again this winter so learning the latest painting techniques and discussing formulation updates with the paint manufacturers like AwlGrip, AlexSeal and Interlux will help me continue to do a professional job.

But for me the real draw for this show is the educational seminars. I attended a pretty full schedule of sessions and was invited to moderate several. There were sessions on boatbuilding process improvements like Belle Blanding and Dean Callander of Composites Consulting Group talking about how to properly evaluate reinforcing fiber architecture, core material preparation, flow medium and resin characteristics as these things pertain to Resin Infusion processing as one example. There were design roundtable discussions like “Designing for Speed” including notable designers Nigel Irens, Michael Peters, Pete Melvin, Donald Blount and Michael Reardon and moderated by Dudley Dawson and Aaron Porter of Professional Boatbuider Magazine. This was a fantastic discussion of how to determine how fast to make a boat, whether it’s a race boat, a sail boat, a fast cruiser or a runabout for family use. It was enlightening to hear the discussion of how they each evaluate how fast they will design a boat to be for a given market.

 

A favorite session was Michael Reardon and Richard Downs-Honey discussing a new project at Daedalus Yachts. This new boat is a large carbon fiber catamaran that will use electric propulsion and carry no fossil fuel for energy generation. The yacht is designed to use large high voltage battery banks for energy storage, and wind generators, solar panels and hydro generators while sailing fast to produce that energy. Once the battery banks are full, excess energy will be used to process seawater to split off hydrogen for storage in tanks built into the hulls. If there is a need to produce electric power while there is no sun, no wind and therefore no fast sailing, the hydrogen will be processed through a fuel cell and recombined with oxygen to produce electricity (and water). It seems a bit far out there but they are actually using off the shelf components used in the International Space Station, on submarines and in electric or hybrid automobiles. This is not a yacht for the general public yet, but all of these technologies have to start somewhere in each industry.

Another really interesting session was titled Next Generation Buying Habits presented by Jared Mikacich. He presented the results of several years of research into how the newer generations approach researching and purchasing a boat. One of the big takeaways for me is that younger folks (Brad’s age) will do most of their research online, and will often consider YouTube videos and online reviews to be more accurate than information provided by more traditional methods like books or on the water training. I find this fascinating but a bit scary. The scariness stems from the fact that there is no peer review of the information provided and in many cases these sources perpetuate myths about sailing or boat maintenance that can cause physical and financial harm to the unwary consumer of this misinformation. As I have looked at these sources of information, I see that they are not generally experienced folks with accurate information, but more often, folks who are gaining experience through making mistakes and sharing that online. In many cases, there is no recognition that what was just produced as information is actually a mistake. For me, this validates the reason Brad felt that we could be helpful to the less experienced sailor. I guess we simply have to try to reach those folks studying the internet to try to choose their first (or next) boat, learning to sail or trying to learn how to properly outfit and maintain their existing boat.

As I think about this session in particular, and IBEX in general, I realized that it is up to all of us to try to share accurate information, and work to hold the attention of the audience at any given time. However, it is also important for younger learners should try to stay focused on learning proper sailing techniques and maintenance methods using some of the more traditional and proven educational tools as well as online learning tools. I am convinced that this will save money, speed the learning process and maybe prevent an outcome that drives the new sailor away from the sport we love.