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February 11, 2013
2013 Fort Lauderdale Trawler Fest By Jeff Merrill
We enjoyed beautiful weather in Fort Lauderdale last week for PassageMaker magazine’s Trawler Fest. Hosted at the Bahia Mar hotel, a large dock side tent housed dozens of vendors and over 60 trawlers were tied up in the slips and available for boarding, making this an extraordinary experience for all involved.
Nordhavn had the lovely 68 Rest Assured on display. Captain Dustin Bumgardner with mate Ryan Kreutz were on hand and my colleagues, Andy Hegley and Ted Robie from the Nordhavn Southeast office in Stuart, Florida rounded out the Nordhavn contingent.
Attendees were treated to an incredible opportunity to inspect Rest Assured. For details and photos describing Rest Assured (which is listed for sale and will also be on display coming up at the Miami Yacht and Brokerage show on Collins Avenue) please click here.
At last October’s Baltimore Trawler Fest I gave a seminar called “Cruising from Point A to Point B”, and it was so well received that the event organizers asked me to elaborate on the concept and turn this into a two-day course for Trawler Fest University. I had a blast giving the class to a sold out group of 12 students and after spending mornings in a classroom setting at the Bahia Mar, we adjourned to Rest Assured for the afternoons to discuss standing watch in the pilothouse (which has an incredible assortment of ALL the latest navigation gear demonstrated by Dustin) and also reviewed what you do during engine room checks inside the palatial machinery space.
If you have not been to a Trawler Fest I encourage you to give it a try, it is so much more than a boat show with many informative seminars in addition to the broad assortment of boats to view. Andy, Ted and I ran in to several Nordhavn owners throughout the week who were truly enjoying themselves. The next Trawler Fest will be held in Anacortes, WA, this coming May – maybe we’ll see you there?!
One new Trawler Fest contest this year was the first annual Rum Fest sponsored by Pusser’s Rum. Captain Dustin concocted a fruity rum cocktail dubbed the “Rest Asslured” and took home first prize in the competition. A commemorative Pusser’s flask was awarded (still corked when I last checked!).
If you missed Trawler Fest, never fear, we’re in the process of setting up for the Miami Yacht and Brokerage show where we will have the Nordhavn 47 Miro and the 68 Rest Assured, on display at the TrawlerPort Collins Avenue venue – ramp 4 and, both of these Nordies are available for purchase!
For an sneak peak preview of Rest Assured, you’ll enjoy this Rest Assured walk through video
Jeff Merrill, CPYB, is a thirteen year veteran salesman for Nordhavn based in the CA office. He has been a featured speaker at Trawler Fest for the last ten years. Jeff spends a lot of time out of the office, mostly at sea and has used these experiences for the material in his “Cruising from Point A to Point B” two-day course. He will be giving this same course this May at the Anacortes, WA Trawler Fest. For more details you can contact Jeff directly – jeff.merrill@nordhavn.com. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter – merrilljeff.
