One of the hot spots of the United States Power Boat Show, which is being held at the Annapolis City Dock through the weekend, will be the TrawlerPort.
A show-within-the-show, it features one of the fastest-growing sectors of the power fleet - trawlers, styled on commercial fishing and tug boats and built for safe, comfortable, long-distance cruising.
"Trawlers are so popular now," said Dee Newman, the show's manager, who keeps track of marine trends while allocating space to exhibitors.
Trawlers are proving particularly attractive to aging sailors who want to stay on the water without the hassle of handling sails.
"It's the ideal crossover boat from sail to power," Jim Barthold, general manager of Annapolis Boat Shows Inc, which stages the events. "It's reminiscent of sailing, but it has lots of room. There's no attempt to streamline it.
"God forbid, anyone would ever want to associate the word houseboat with it, but it has tremendous live-aboard facilities. Trawlers are not meant to go fast. And, in truth, anyone who wants to go from A to B in a hurry should not go in a boat, anyway.
"But for people who want to relax on the water, who are comfortable giving themselves the time they need to get from A to B at 8 knots, a trawler is a very economical boat."
Usually powered by a single diesel engine, trawlers certainly will get you where you want to go far more cheaply than gas-guzzling performance boats and sports cruisers.
In the TrawlerPort this year will be 57 boats, up from 40 last year; seven are making their debuts at the Annapolis show.
The debutantes are the Manta Trawler Cat 52, Smart Trawler 50, Passagemaker 45, Linssen 45 and 43, Sumner Kyle 42, and Le Blanc Forchu 32.
The main attraction of the TrawlerPort and the Multihull Lagoon, which features power catamarans, is that they allow would-be buyers in Annapolis to compare similar boats at close quarters.
"It's really become a one-stop shop for people who are really interested in trawlers," said Sue du Pont, public events manager for PassageMaker magazine, which sponsors the TrawlerPort.
Charles Chiodi, publisher of The Power of Multihulls Magazine and sponsor of the Multihull Lagoon, predicted that expansion of the power catamaran market would outpace that of sailing catamarans.
"There's not enough choice yet," said Chiodi. "It's the same situation as there was with the sailing catamarans in the beginning."
Sailing catamarans, he said, had to overcome their reputation for tipping over and the difficulty of finding a marina slip for a boat two or three times as wide as a sailing monohull.
But power cats are no wider than power monohulls, are more stable, and offer faster, more economical and smoother boating.
PassageMaker magazine, which introduced the TrawlerPort to Annapolis last year, also will host a two-day seminar program at the Annapolis Waterfront Marriott Hotel this weekend to introduce couples and families to power cruising.
"The lifestyle is very appealing to people," said du Pont.
Like the sailboat show before it, the powerboat show reflects the strong national economy, with bigger and better boats vying for favor. The show features 450 boats, 50 more than last year.
"I don't think there's any question that the boats are getting bigger," said Buddy Davis, North Carolina builder of sports fishing boats, who is displaying his new 50-foot Express boat at the show.
It's the first time that a Davis boat has been shown in Annapolis since 1993, when the boat industry went into a slump. Davis wanted to exhibit last year but couldn't find space. Next year, he will be back with several boats.
A local company ready to cash in on the boom is Chesapeake Boats Inc., of Crisfield, which is showing a 46-foot bay-style boat, designed for both charter fishing and cruising.
A "dead rise" boat - so called because of the near-vertical sides found on bay working boats - it is designed by Raymond Pruitt, the company's chief boat builder.
"A lot more people are becoming interested in Chesapeake Bay boats right now," said Pruitt, adding that 15 of the $225,000 model, which cruises at 30 mph on its twin, 600-horsepower engines, had been sold in the past three years.
Looking at the Maryland boat, with its comfortable pilot house and spacious v-berth in the front cabin, was Lee Raver, a veteran boater from Deltaville, Va., making his 12th annual pilgrimage to the Annapolis show.
"This is a very luxurious dead rise," said Raver. "They normally have a very small cabin, and don't even have a seat. They started as work boats, and they're working them up more and more as comfortable boats."
