The Changeover

The Annapolis Boat Show changeover from sail to power was just incredible. I can’t believe we’ve been coming up here for over 10 years and we’ve missed this each time. From now on, when we come for the boat show, we’ll always stay Monday night.

There was a lot of excitement in the air Monday afternoon and once the cannon was fired to signify the end of the show, Marci, my boss lead me over to her favorite place to watch the festivities. I wanted to see if Reinhart made it back over to the Caliber Yachts float, so I ran up there to look for him. I just met him as he was coming back from his off-site work. Everyone remaining at Caliber was on-board the 47’, Bright Ayes, having wine and crackers and we joined them. In the background we could hear the huge crowd down at Pusser’s celebrating and cheering & jeering the boats that were already leaving. We were all the way at the top of Ego Alley, so we had a long time to wait while the water crew removed the maze of docks to free our section. As time neared for us to leave, we joined our captain, Mel, and another Caliber owner, Gus, on Mel’s brand new Caliber 40 LRC. I was getting quite nervous because I felt like we wouldn’t be very special and the crowd would just do nothing; especially after I noticed the Sunsail charter catamarans heading out before us were throwing T-shirts and other giveaways into the crowd. However, Mel wanted me to film the crowd and they just went absolutely nuts waving at the camera. Reinhart had them waving in unison with the bar’s music for a little bit, and they really cheered when he blew the air horn. Mel was just grinning from ear to ear at the wheel. We were looking up at all of them crowded on the docks, rooftops, and balconies and it felt like we were on a football field looking into the stands…it was a great feeling. Once we got to the marina behind the Spa Creek bridge, Mel opened a celebratory bottle of wine and we chatted about his new home in eastern NC before we headed back to see who was still hanging out at the show.

When we got into work on Tuesday morning, there were lots of hangovers. It was a relatively easy day though, and we just needed to adjust a few things as the powerboat vendors made their way in. We only worked about 7 hours and we actually got to come home and see Maia in the sunlight; I only got a couple of bruises and didn’t bleed once. We get to go in late, 8 am, on Wednesday, and hopefully we won’t have to work until dark either. Then on Thursday, the powerboat show starts and we’ll be back to 10-11 hour social work days.

Check out this website if you’d like to see an article about the Changeover in 2000: http://www.bayweekly.com/year00/issue8_40/lead8_40.html
It’s pretty accurate, except for the part about Pusser’s being a reluctant participant…now they have lots of beer specials and separate tent bars set up outside for Pain Killers, Red Bull drinks, Jagerbombs, etc. They also didn’t say anything about the other waterfront business, like Fleet Reserve and Fawcett’s who have people on their rooftops as well.