A.C. Boat Show is eco-friendly, but bad boys of power still reign

ATLANTIC CITY - Going green while navigating the deep blue sea is a concept connecting mariners at this year's 32d annual Atlantic City Boat Show, which has dropped power from its moniker for the first time.

Sailboats have returned to prominence among the featured vessels, and not just a little Sunfish either.

The rakish elegance of 40- and 50-foot French-designed Beneteau and Jeanneau sailboats that sell for as much as $440,000 greet showgoers as they walk through the front door in a space double the size it was last year when the show introduced wind-powered vessels.

"Sailboats have always been eco-friendly," said Glenn Winters, owner of Riverside Marina & Yacht Sales in Burlington County, who brought the Beneteau and Jeanneau boats.

"Nowadays, manufacturers look for other ways to be green, like using farmed mahogany grown in Africa instead of rain forest woods in production," he said. "The lights have gone all LED. I would say about 5 percent of powerboaters also own sailboats, so there is interest all around, whether it's about being green or just living the sailing lifestyle."

But true to its history, the annual winter showcase continues to highlight the big, bad boys.

Just beyond the sophisticated sails lie acres of the gleaming diesel engines and lollipop-colored hulls of powerboats. The unmistakable smell of fiberglass and fresh varnish greet the senses of those with saltwater in the veins like a whoosh of springtime more powerful than any flower-show fragrance.

A sleek, blue-hulled 50-foot Formula speed yacht, with a price tag that hovers under $1 million, seems to command center stage, surrounded by a fleet of sportfishing and recreational vessels and related merchandise.

While the boats are powered by engines like Yamaha, Evinrude, and Mercury, which are, indeed, still big and powerful, the engines are as much as 70 percent more fuel and emissions efficient than they were a decade ago, said Ellen Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the National Marine Manufacturers Association.

"Green boating is a concept that has certainly been around awhile, but as the industry continues to evolve, manufacturers also have continued to create products that meet environmental and economic needs of the boating public. The evidence of that evolution is seen not just at the Atlantic City show, but at boat shows across the country this year," Hopkins said Thursday.

An everything-old-is-new-again exhibit called the "History of Boating in America," presented by Hull's Boat Corp. of Lake George, N.Y., emphasizes the use of electric - rather than diesel- or gasoline-powered - engines in boats.

Hull's, whose display featured an 1890s Elco launch and a 1920s Chris Craft motorboat, has been refurbishing classic wooden boats at its works since 1929. It offered a look at a new electric 35-horsepower Elco engine, which sells for around $11,000, that it says can match the power of a 70-horsepower diesel motor.

"The efficiency of these engines is amazing," said Larry Reynolds, director of sales for Hull's. "And they are the perfect application for auxiliary power for someone who has a sailboat and wants the vessel to be completely green."

Reynolds said Elco's 27-foot Hunter 27E sailboat, powered by one of the electric drive engines, was recently named the 2011 Green Award Winner by Sail magazine.

Under wraps until Thursday afternoon at the boat show was Chaparral Boats 327 SSX, a new model that is part-performance boat, part-family cruiser, part-sport-fishing vessel, and part-overnight cruiser.

"The idea, in terms of being green with this boat, is that a boat enthusiast would not need a vessel for each individual need in the family, whether that's waterskiing or fishing or just cruising around," said John Pritko, manager of the Atlantic City show. "I think that particular Chaparral kind of shows the mind-set of both the manufacturers and the buyers. People want more bang for their buck these days, but they want to do it efficiently and in a more eco-friendly way."

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