Capt. Luke joined Peter O'Brien at the boat show yesterday looking at gear for the new boat. They looked at the new Furuno NAVnet 3D system - which looks absolutely awesome - as well as RayMarine's new G Series . As the new boat will sport a pair of MTU2000 Series CR Engines, they visited the MTU display and had a chat with Capt. Bob Jones and got to look at the engines first hand. At Cummins they had a quick review of generator needs (Onan ), paint samples from Alexseal and Muir winches and davits to name just a few, for the casual observer (or the third wheel - me), it was a looonng day!

Overall the boat show seemed a little less well attended - which was actually a nice change being able to walk around more freely. As this year is definately a different year to last, we'll be very interested to hear how boat sales went though most seem confident the higher end of the market will remain steady.

As always was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and have a drink or two at the Pier Bar. I spent a lot of time at Mick Keoh's Marine Electronics stall looking at John Faulker's new Tow Cameras. It's amazing how far they have come in just a couple of years. The new cameras shoot much higher quality footage and the clarity and colours are spectacular. (I heard Capt. Jim spent much time there also which is very encouraging for the season;-)

About Kekoa II: For those who have not yet heard, Kekoa II is under construction. She will be the first O'Brien 56 and is due for completion in early 2010 for Kekoa I 's current owners and all are very excited about the new plans. Stay tuned for progress reports as the build progresses.