Attendance steady, dealers happy with boat show

The annual Roanoke Boat & RV Show was successful and attendance numbers were steady, said Virgil Naff, president of the Southwest Virginia Boat Dealers Association, which put on the show.

"In order to be realistic, we must compare the show to last year," wrote Naff in an e-mail. "We attained the same attendance and both outside vendors and dealers were very pleased with the results."

Eight boat dealers, including Naff, owner of Virgil Naff Lynchburg Kawasaki Yamaha and SeaDoo, participated in the show Feb. 26-28 at the Roanoke Civic Center.

Non-Association members also participated, including several who had safety in mind. Sea Tow's Capt. Rick Ellett presented Leigh Conrad of Moneta with a Mustang inflatable life preserver ($200 value) as part of a raffle.

More than 100 children also participated in Sea Tow's "Passport to Safety Challenge," a boating safety scavenger hunt during the three days of the boat show.

To complete the challenge, kids needed to find the six participating vendors, answer a boating safety question at each stop, and return to the Sea Tow booth with their completed "passport" to win a prize.

Participating vendors were: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, U.S. Power Squadron, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Smith Mountain Lake Boating Association, Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Bridgewater Marina.

At the Bridgewater Marina booth, employees handed out Life Savers to children who stopped and got sized for life preservers, said Roy Enslow, managing partner with the marina.

They also took photos of each child in the life preserver as part of the "Life Jackets are Life Savers" program, which have been posted on the marina's Facebook page.

Enslow said he hopes the children will get positive feedback from people who see the photos, and then the children will equate wearing life preservers with being cool.

-- Laurie Edwards