Boat Show Before Buying

It is hard to commit to just that one boat. We had seen so many yachts. Most of the boats had pluses and minuses just as our dream boat in Drachten had. We found out about an annual boat in Sneek which is not far from Heeg (about 13 minutes by car according to Google Maps). We though the Show might help us feel better informed somehow.

Here is the lowdown on the Boat Show in English taken from www.motorbootsneek.nl

“Motor boot Sneek, is an unique boot show in Sneek which has grown into the largest motor yacht show in the north. The event takes place on location of the organizing companies that you can all visit during the event. In this way you can get to know all the different yachts at once and you are immediately get ‘a look behind the scenes’at each location you will be informed about the latest trends and novelties. In short: motorboat snake is the event for finding your dream boat!”

With advertising language like that, especially the last line, who can resist.

The above two photos show you inside one of the boat show rooms. There were boats outside in the marine to look at, also. You could go inside many of the boats. Some boat, or should I say yachts were new, some were used. Nearly all were amazing and super expensive. I forgot to say that we were keeping in mind the boat in Drachten when we looked around - what was good about it, what could we add to it or change slightly to improve it. We could, for example, add a microwave or a built-in cutting board above the sink. We could change the carpet to wooden flooring. We could change the captain’s chair. Anyway, here is what we saw that was important to us newbies to the yacht world. 

Good brand of microwave, wouldn’t you say? 

This microwave was totally built-in.
We thought we could do this with the boat in Drachten.

This is a galley in a very expensive yacht. It made us realize that price might not give you a more expansive galley, just maybe a built-in microwave. It appeared all brand new but was not much better than the Drachten boat. 

Below are two other inventive galley additions - wine bottle holder and the wooden cutting board meant to fit into the round sink. 

The flooring in the Drachten boat is carpet. Seems like an odd flooring choice for a boat. By the way, the Drachten boat is done up beautifully otherwise with stunning mahogany on walls, cupboards and doors. We saw potential flooring choices at the boat show. 

This bathroom floor is designed to accommodate water spillage.
Perhaps there is a shower. 

This is typical wooden flooring for a boat.
There are no cracks that water could penetrate. It could be teak flooring.

Then there was the captains seat, fit for a king. Who wouldn’t want it with the built in fridge underneath? 

The Motor Boot Sneek Show certainly gave us lots to think about. The biggest take away was that for us to go up a notch from the boat in Drachten we would have to spend at least twice as much. We saw   other boats with similar interiors but newer boats, all out of the price range we wanted to be in. This encouraged us to really see the potential and value in the boat in Drachten. 

Plus, more incentive. On top of the pluses we saw with the Drachten boat our friend Andrew gave us a serious talking to about the Drachten boat. He sang its praises and discussed its faults. He left us with the thought that his brother in Germany was very interested in the boat and would purchase it if we didn’t. We also did not like the thought of returning home without having purchased a boat. After all we had put months of looking, knowledge and time spent. We had to make in informed decision.