Common nominator between old wooden boat and writing this blog post.

“Just dropped anchor on the coolest boating event in the Baltics: The Tallinn Boat Show! This epic three-day extravaganza (March 8th-10th) reeled in over 10,000 visitors and enough boats to make your inner pirate jealous.

Imagine this: Picture giant halls overflowing with shiny new sailboats promising epic adventures, luxurious cruisers built for chill vibes, and everything in between. Kayak? Check. Speedboat? Check. That crazy inflatable banana thing? You bet they had it!

But the Tallinn Boat Show wasn’t just about drooling over dreamboats (although, there was plenty of that). It was a treasure trove for anyone who digs the water life. Think sleek engines, fancy navigation gadgets, and all the cool gear you need to conquer the waves.”

This was the description of Tallinn Boat Show by one of the most popular AI tools. Pretty accurate, uh? After few more iterations it became very clear that AI might soon take over the world, but it’s completely usless for writing a blog post.

IDK how many visitors this show actually has but i was positively surprised about the buzz and the general vibe of the show. Maybe this is because boating and marine lifestyle are booming in Estonia, maybe this is because the show is really small and intimate – unimaginable elswhere but here you see some familiar faces on every step or maybe it was because my expectations after Helsinki show were not too high.

Did we see any luxury cruisers? If we talk about boats – no. Shiny new sailboats? There was one Beneteau Oceanis 34.1, the same boat we actually saw last year sailing on Baltic Sea and spent one night next to it in small Lohhusalu marina. Dreamboats? Nothing to be really excited about.

But i think this is all irrelevant. Important thing is that the show like this draws likeminded people together and you can feel this energy immediately when you step into the room. It’s like huge marina sauna in the evening after long day at the sea. In the sauna everyone is sitting in the steam room and talks about what they usually talk – sailing and sea. Only difference between sauna and trade show is that there is considerably less naked people on the trade show.

There was one boat that really stole the show. This was fully restored 1964 Oxelösundare. We are talking about the same boat we made tent and cockpit roof frame last November. Yes we are a bit biased here, but i think you agree with me if you see this beauty with your own eyes. The wooden boats that are restored with such a detail and craftmanship are really true gems. My only problem is that i just can’t imagine this thing in the water.

Craftmanship like this is the complete opposite of AI tools in my mind. Tools that generate hundreds of blog posts in a blink of an eye is far from varnishing. Restoring a 24 ft. wooden boat takes about 1 man year of hard work. And so does the good blog post, compared to using AI a good amount of time and effort to write and edit. But this is how we like it. And we keep it this way and promise to keep “cheap plastic” away from this blog.