I had a reasonably good experience. Looking over the seminars, the wife and I decided to go to Tuesday's together, and I would go to one on Saturday by myself.
The "first aid" one on Tuesday was pretty much a bust, but I got some useful info. The seminars put on by the slowboat.com crew were well done and very informative. (The first was about the "gates of the PNW" - i.e. the various narrows - and the second was about provisioning.)
As I wrote in our blog -
Safety at Sea - M/V Mahalo was EXCELLENT. It definitely has me rethinking some issues and gear. At the bottom of the blog post are most of the reference web sites that were provided during the session. There is some seriously good content here. Another site was given but is for attendees only, but also very good content.
Dhays, in a follow up email I asked Mario if he had reviewed/tested the Mustang PFD/Jacket combo you have and like. He responded that he wore one nearly every day in his career.
As far as the boats, obviously I wasn't boat shopping, so I might not be the best to ask. However, there were the Rangers, Aspens and the various smaller boats. Although I have not really followed Nordic since the recession, they were there with a nice boat and said they are building several boats per year.
Trevor was there with a North Pacific. I was impressed with the Krogen 50 open (not so much the price tag, but that's another story). They keep refining their designs making them better and better. The engine room could handle NBA players!
There was a pre-owned Defever, but I didn't board that boat.
By far the most fun was checking out New Pacific, the boat I put on the "Interesting Boats" thread. The 98' steel one off boat. Just amazing.
And there was another nice boat on the dock, eh, "Hamp" something? "Enduro" something? it will come to me.
A very nice TF'er (with super cute kids) recognized me from the blog and told me to keep at it! That was fun.
The Hampton guys told me they got several solid, qualified, prospects out of the show.