Though it’s not the greatest venue for sailboats, the Miami International Boat Show is normally my favorite show to attend simply because it offers a fantastic excuse to visit Miami Beach in February. It’s also the only show I go to regularly that exposes me to the mainstream boating market. It’s always useful to get a glimpse of this much larger alternative universe where nearly naked women lounge around on phallic powerboats and people buy things like pontoon boats, bass boats, and ski boats festooned with industrial-size woofers and tweeters.
I’m heading down to Miami Sunday night, and one thing I look forward to checking out this year is this new EzyBoat, which hails from Australia and is now being introduced to North America. Yes, you can sail the thing, but somehow I doubt I’ll find it in amongst the other sailboats.
It is, quite literally, a Swiss Army knife of a boat. For starters, not only is it trailerable, it is its own trailer. It has retractable wheels, a built-in stainless-steel trailer tongue, and can fold up on itself, comme ca:
You can row it, sail it, or run it under power. Most probably it sails like a dog, but as an outboard skiff it seems to do fairly well, as you can see in this video here.
It also, obviously, makes a great chick magnet.
I’m envisioning an EzyBoat one-design triathlon class: you sail a leg, row a leg, then haul it overland up a steep hill to the finish line.
After hitting the last day of the show Monday, I’ll be hanging out test-sailing real sailboats for the comic. So I look forward to throwing up more posts next week while smoking Cohibas and lounging around in cafes on Ocean Drive.
Yes, I know, this is Hard Work. But someone has to do it.
