Nashville Boat Show opens Thursday at Music City Center

The current frigid temperatures are an indication that boating season is still several weeks away, but it’s never too early to start preparing.

That’s what organizers of the annual Nashville Boat Show will tell you.

The show opens Thursday at 2 p.m. at Music City Center and lasts through Sunday at 5 p.m.

Tickets are $12.

A total of 99 vendors will have booths and more than 300 boats will be on display.

Daily features include a boating simulator where visitors put themselves at the helm of a virtual boat race, a kid’s catch-and-release trout pond and Create-A-Boat: Kids’ Toy Building.

New this year will be former Middle Tennessee State football star Kendall Newson, who went on to play for the Miami Dolphins and is now a pro angler, on-site teaching a kids’ fishing clinic on behalf of his Teach a Child to Fish Foundation.

Some of the daily seminars include:

• How Your Prop Affects Your Boat’s Performance

• Docking Pool – Hands-on Practice

• Gas Outboard Troubleshooting, Repair and Maintenance

•.Keep Your Carburetor Clean and Running

• Oh No! There’s Ethanol in My Fuel

• One-on-One Service Tech Consultations

• Casting Class with Joey Monteleone

► More: Fishing expert Joey Monteleone shows how to stock a tackle box

• Free Boating Safety Course

• Meet Pro Fisherman Gary Klein

• Gateway to Boating

• Scratches dings and oxidation

• Boating Apps and Tablets

Officers and staff members from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will be on hand to answer questions about boating, hunting, fishing and other outdoors activities in the state.

For more information visit http://www.nashvilleboatshow.com.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 and on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.