I wentto the boat show - I picked up a Halo 20+ radar for the offshore trip next year. I want to be able to see in the dark.
Few sailing boats of note - there were a few but in the end I just passed them by. The amount of money in our world today is pretty staggering and the boating industry does not focus on our end of the market.
It was really nice to talk to Michelle Lee - who rowed across the Pacific non stop and unassisted. She had some very good words about letting go of control when offshore and being fine with the elements being in charge. She did some really good mental and physical preparation before her Pacific crossing - well worth going to her talk as well.
solorower.com/I had a great chat with a guy about his 12 foot skiff - fun looking boats. He told me to come down to Lane Cove and have a sail - I just might take him up on the offer. I also liked seeing how they tie the modern boats together with carbon unis. Good stuff to copy on my boat.

This was on the Catana cat - a huge thing I couldn't afford to run for a week. But I liked how the furling genoa halyard was made from Dux and looped and ended on this track. You attach a tail to it to hoist and lower but most of the time the tail is untied and causes less mess at the mast - gotta do this. (Look at the lashed low friction ring to the left)

Lashing is cool nowadays - stainless shackles are old hat

Why pay for aluminium welding when you can fit and epoxy carbon tubes yourself and then wrap the joins in carbon cloth and then peel ply the wrap - lighter stronger and so much sexier. No bolts - no leaks and no electrolysis.

I love lashing the low friction ring to the boom with wet out carbon unis - easy and stronger.

This on the 18 - the loads were too high so they used toggles in the top of the boom to locate the mainsheet blocks.
I should do a dock walk on the Hobart start and get more ideas.
Cheers
Phil