The Annapolis Sailboat Show used to be an annual ritual for me some decades back, but over the years the rite has languished as the necessity for new-fangled, innovative technicals and the more posh seemed to fade from my view ... but in recent years, accompanied by the family, I've rediscovered the easy fun I used to enjoy before I became preoccupied with bigger and better... just poking around, admiring the woodwork of a hand-built kayak, the engineering simplicity of a steering-vane or just chatting with a purveyor if some well-thought-out gizmo that leaves one scratching their head and wondering why no one had ever thought of that before... But this year, it was the grandson who got to set priority; he being of the age when faster, brighter and flashier rules the day... And, he announced, he wanted to see all the multihull boats we could... We went aboard the requisite number of condo-cats; sumptuous, airy and extravagant, but always inundated with a crowd of envious visitors. We also went aboard a smaller cruising tri-hull or two, I have grown to admire the simplicity of the smaller cruisers, but the grandson was unimpressed... Then we stumbled on a little Wharram cat and lingered for a second and third look -- chatting with the builder who seemed more interested in talking boats than in selling them... the little Wharram didn't actually have standing headroom and seemed to lack some of the glitzy accouterments and techno-gizmos of its big sterile sisters, but, oh, it had personality, real character... I remember many years ago a similar feeling I had when I went aboard a cozy little Bingham Flicka for the first time, comfy, tasteful, robust and affectionately crafted... that's what I was looking for... a boat with a heart... they're still being made; very reassuring...