Big boats, big dreams

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- Advice for visitors to the Newport Dunes Marina any time

between today and Sunday: bring some good sunglasses.

The 27th annual Newport In-Water Boat Show is in town and that means

hundreds of gleaming white hulls will be lined up in the water like

multimillion-dollar solar reflectors.

The show features an enormous variety of boats, from gargantuan luxury

yachts to sleek racing cruisers to smaller vessels that could conceivably

be purchased by mere mortals.

Although there will be a large “dry” exhibition area for boats and

boating equipment, the real appeal of the show is that so many vessels

are actually floating in the water, said Art Henry of The Crow’s Nest, a

Newport Beach yacht and ship brokerage that has 16 boats in the show.

“You get them in the natural environment,” Henry said. “It’s a key

factor. This is the best in-the-water show on the West Coast.”

Strolling along the docks past the towering white boats, it’s easy to see

why exhibitors like to display their wares in the water: it’s much easier

for the imagination to leap aboard a floating vessel.

A boat like the Carver 506, with its three staterooms, three “heads” and

fully enclosed fly bridge might seem a little intimidating in a showroom.

And the $700,000 price tag on some Carver boats might prove off-putting

if they weren’t bobbing happily in the bay.

But hop from the dock into the cherrywood kitchen, run a hand along the

taupe “ultra leather” couches, and admire the gleaming “Power Commander”

sign on the boat’s throttle, and the result is inevitably nautical love

at first sight.

Of course, it isn’t easy to maintain a boat in the state of radiant

perfection to which owners aspire. As exhibitors geared up to meet the

public Tuesday, the docks were covered with cans of wood wax, chrome

polish, bleach, acetone and glass cleaner. Laborers scurried to buff,

polish and wipe the boats into a state of nearly divine spotlessness.

For those who are truly passionate about boating, explained Fred

Humphrey, whose Compass Point Yachts company has 14 vessels in the show,

all the effort to make a hull perfectly white or a wooden railing satiny

smooth is actually a form of relaxation.

“It’s not work,” Humphrey said. “Most of the guys that buy these boats

like to come down and tinker on them.”

Some of the boats on display at the show look more tinker-friendly than

others. The 14-footers and 16-footers with outboard engines that are

sitting in the Dunes’ parking lot appear to be the kind of thing that

would respond well to mechanical inquiry.

On the other hand, the Sun Seeker Superhawk 34, a $1.6-million speedster

shaped like a torpedo, would probably not be such an easy machine to tune

on a Sunday afternoon.

But for Steve Besozzi, service manager for The Crow’s Nest, the range of

nautical possibilities on display at the show is the whole point.

“A lot of people come here to dream of something they want to have,”

Besozzi said.

Whether that dream involves a little rubber dinghy or a floating mansion

“all depends on how you think about boating,” he said.

FYI

* WHAT: Newport In-Water Boat Show

* WHEN: Today through Sunday. Weekdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday 10

a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* WHERE: Newport Dunes Marina

* CALL: (310) 535-9230