‘It’s our Super Bowl’: Expect a spectacle at 60th annual Fort Lauderdale boat show
If Fort Lauderdale is the Venice of America, the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is its biennale.
And while the boat show may be comparatively younger than the Italian city’s world famous art show, the marine event, and the city that hosts it, are all grown up.
Now in its 60th year, the boat show, which kicks off Wednesday, has turned into a magnet for yachters from around the world. At least 110,000 attendees from 52 countries are expected to traverse the six miles of floating docks stretching along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Over the past few decades, the show’s importance to Broward has grown exponentially. What began as a local exhibitor’s show has evolved into a worldwide mega-event, with an estimated statewide economic impact of nearly $1 billion.
“This is our Super Bowl,” said Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, Broward County’s primary economic development engine. “There’s no better hosting event for business recruitment.”
It’s estimated that the marine industry, including ancillary enterprises, is the second-largest in Broward after tourism. According to the Alliance, seafaring now employs 134,000 people and has $10.78 billion economic impact. That means big business for local boat businesses.
The show is also seen as a bellwether for the global economy. If luxury is the last industry to catch up in a recovery — as was the case following the Great Recession — it can be the first to go in a downturn.
“It’s the most important show on this side of the world for the industry,” said Federico Ferrante, president of luxury yacht company Azimut-Benetti USA.
If last month’s Monaco show is any indication, both the economy and this year’s show have room to grow.
As in years past, the show is organized in a collaboration between the Marine Industries Association of South Florida and Informa Global Exhibitions. Informa Americas president Andrew Doole says expect a spectacle.
“It’s a very, very high-end audience that attends the show,” said Doole. “But everyone can enjoy looking at the show. Several cars will get sold; there will be helicopters, submarines, and all sorts of toys.”
SUPERYACHTS WORTH BILLIONS
The Fort Lauderdale show does tend to be an eye-popping experience, with approximately $4 billion-worth of yachts on display, including $2.2 billion-worth of superyachts (usually 131 feet or larger). Last year, sales averaged $100 million a day, as average boat length on display increased from 100 to 126 feet. Even the “smaller” boats of around 30 feet tend to be styled and designed for higher-end buyers.
“It’s a high-dollar show,” said Kevin Falvey, editor of Boating Magazine. “We’re talking big, huge superyachts.”
This year’s show promises to be no different: A new “superyacht village” will host at least one vessel as big as 311 feet in length. That would be the MADSUMMER, designed by London-based Harrison Eidsgaard, with an interior from Rome’s Studio Laura Sessa; according to Forbes, it was built for an “experienced American owner.” It comes with a pool and helipad. The boat is currently available for winter charter starting at $1.4 million per week through Moran Yachts in Fort Lauderdale.
Other marquee boats include a Lexus. Yes, the luxury carmaker is joining some of its luxury-brand peers in entering the boating industry. The Japanese manufacturer’s LY 650 65-foot yacht features classic Lexus design elements and comes loaded with three “lavish” staterooms and multiple multi-purpose entertainment and lounge areas.
List price: $4,745,575.
Meanwhile, a fleet of manufacturers will debut models of 100 feet or more, including Hargrave, Heesen, Damen, Majesty, Astondoa, and Marlow.
And then there’s Azimut, the world’s largest manufacturer by volume, which is marking its 50th anniversary this year. Azimut will introduce a new 45-foot Atlantis edition to the Americas this week; all five Azimut brands will be represented, with an estimated total of $25 million worth of boats in the water.
Azimut-Benetti’s Ferrante says the Fort Lauderdale show has grown in importance as Miami’s boat and yacht shows have moved locations in recent years. The two shows take place concurrently, but have different owners. The former show, run by the National Marine Manufacturers Association, has seen attendance decline approximately 3 percent from 2017; the latter, run by Informa, continues to see healthy attendance, according to a representative.
“It became a little more significant for Latin America since Miami has been struggling, going through logistical problems,” Ferrante said. “So from a consumer standpoint it’s become less attractive.”
The Fort Lauderdale show, by contrast, is in the same place, and at the same time.
“It’s extremely stable,” he said. “That has made it more attractive for Latin buyers.”
HUMBLE LAUNCH
That stability has not always been a given. The show was created in 1959 at the Lauderdale Marina as a way for area boat salesmen to promote their products. That first year, it featured 13 exhibitors.
Over the next decade, the show bounced around the area, with brief runs at Pier Sixty-Six, Port Everglades, the former Dania Jai Alai Palace and the downtown Fort Lauderdale municipal docks. In 1976, it arrived at its current location on the 17th Street Causeway at the Bahia Mar Resort and Marina, today a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.
In its earliest incarnations, the show featured local “bathing beauties” as promoters, and a beauty pageant was also held.
A converted yacht served as a floating billboard that traveled along the Intracoastal Waterway all the way to New England. No admission fees were charged until the 1970s. For most of the early 1970s, the largest yacht on display was a mere 40 feet.
In 1976, Kaye Pearson and his company, Show Management, took over as show-runners; Pearson continued to oversee the show’s production for decades.
Pearson is credited with renaming the show the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. He moved the show to autumn to allow for new models to be displayed, and relocated it to the Bahia Mar. He would come to be known as the “P.T. Barnum of boating.” Pearson passed away in 2009.
By that year, the show had grown 10 times its original size and featured increasingly wild stunts, including a Mako-powered motorboat “launched” in Bahia Mar’s pool, a fashion show and costume parties featuring palm readers, and a white Ferrari on the docks. Fishing, diving and even cooking clinics were also added.
A decade later, the show had grown to more than 900 exhibitors and was attracting worldwide attention. In 1988, renowned Jamaica-born marine life artist Guy Harvey agreed to provide the cover art for that year’s program; he has continued to provide more than a dozen more.
By the 1990s, the show had expanded beyond Bahia Mar to the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center; live bass casting was featured. In 1993 Pier Sixty-Six Hotel and Marina was added as a show venue.
In 2017, London-based Informa purchased Show Management.
Local photographer Forest Johnson has been documenting the show for decades.
“It’s always in a constant state of evolution and change,” he said. To start with, he said, as boats keep getting longer, the slips need to get bigger.
“Often what you have this year won’t fit in what you might have had the year before,” he said. “It keeps the show fresh.”
The superyacht village will become a permanent feature, Doole said. It promises an ultra-luxury experience, with automakers McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, and others showing off their latest models alongside the 100 footers.
Oh, and an Airbus helicopter will also be on hand.
“It’s a showcase for the yachting and luxury lifestyle,” Doole said.
SALES
As for sales expectations, while the boat market shows some signs of softening, experts say growth is merely slowing, not stalling.
According to the NMMA, new powerboat sales this year are down 0.9 percent through August. But at September’s Monaco Yacht Show, the average superyacht price remained stable at about $42.2 million, even as the average length of vessels displayed remained stable at about 49.5 meters, or 162 feet.
“There’s nothing we see that looks frothy,” said Phil Purcell, president and CEO of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida.
In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, spending on recreational marine products and services in the U.S. reached $41.8 billion in 2018, up 6.8 percent from 2017. U.S. boat registrations totaled 11.9 million in 2018, down 0.8 percent compared to 2017.
Florida continued to rank first in the U.S. in spending for new powerboats, outboard engines, boat trailers and aftermarket accessories at $3.2 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.6 percent from 2017. Florida also ranked first in the U.S. in registered boats with 925,141 in 2018, an increase of 0.7 percent from 2017.
If size matters, boats are no exception. But high-tech flourishes are part of the mix. The consensus must-have accessory this season is a boat stabilizer. These are gyroscopes that, when attached to a center console, can stabilize a boat in all but the roughest of seas. Depending on their size, the gizmos can cost $25,000 to $250,000.
They’re designed to enhance the overall boating experience, a buzzword increasingly bandied about by the leisure boating industry. Notably, it’s also turning to a hometown team, Boatsetter, to bring in younger and less experienced boaters to the marine life.
“She is a disruptor,” Purcell said of Boatsetter CEO Jaclyn Baumgarten. “They’re definitely adding value. That type of technology, combined with the experiences they provide ... it’s so easy, it lowers the barriers. So for our industry, they’ve really taken the lead in breaking new folks in.”
Boatsetter will not have a stand. Instead it is taking a “startup,” guerrilla approach to outreach, according to Boatsetter Chief Growth Officer Julien Geffriaud: Team members will be stationed at entrances and exits distributing info — and ice cream, he says.
‘REAL CITY’
More than anything, promoters say, the show reflects the growth and evolution of the city and region itself. As Miami has grown up, so has Fort Lauderdale: For the first time in living memory, downtown Fort Lauderdale has a train station with the arrival of Brightline. Flagler + Arts + Technology (FAT) Village is attracting young professionals back to the urban core.
“It’s becoming a real city,” Purcell said.
Swindell also notes fixed-base operators at area airports expect brisk business from high-net-worth individuals flying in on private or chartered jets; about 1,000 are expected.
But the show’s importance is not limited to high-flyers. Kristina Hebert, COO of Ward’s Martine Electric, says she does 30 percent of her business for the year just this week.
“They all have services performed prior to the show,” she said, adding that by some estimates, half of all boats sold in the U.S. are brokered through a South Florida agent. “Every time there’s a survey, a new owner, new usage ... all of that means work everywhere in South Florida.”
And though the show takes place in the least affordable metro in the country, many locals still find a way to make room for the boating life. As of 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, there was about one registered boat for every 50 people in Broward County, including 261 boats at least 65 feet long and another 17 boats at least 110 feet long. In total, Broward County registered 45,418 boats last year, down slightly from 2017 but up from 42,131 in 2012. (In fact, the county had more than 50,000 registered boats in 2008, before the Great Recession.)
None of that should not be taken for granted, Swindell says.
“Boating is the foundation of our economy,” he said. “It’s more important for Broward than for any other county in South Florida. If you’re doing carpentry on yachts, you’re at the epitome of your industry, and you’re going to be compensated accordingly. We’re going to continue to make the marine industry one of our top priorities. The boats are like floating corporations — they could easily go somewhere else. We want to keep them here.”
This story has been updated.
Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show
Dates: Wednesday, Oct. 30-Sunday, Nov. 3
Address: Bahia Mar Fort Lauderdale Beach - a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel
801 Seabreeze Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
Tickets: From $34 per day
Expected visitors: 110,000
Number of boats: 1,500
Number of exhibitors: 1,200
Countries represented: 52
Value of products displayed: $4 billion
Staff: 250
Estimated statewide economic impact: $857 million
Pounds of conch fritters served: 3,000
Parking
Superyacht Village
Location: Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina’s new “Pier South” property, adjacent to the southesast corner of the 17th Street Causeway bridge.
Cost: $40 per day
Main show
Location: Las Olas Parking Garage, 200 Las Olas Cir, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
Cost: $40 per day
16 additional lots throughout the area; visit the FLIBS website for details.
Transportation
Shuttles
Loops from Brightline Station, Pier Sixty-Six South lot, and Fort Lauderdale Convention Center
Uber/Lyft drop off
East end of the Las Olas Bridge near Las Olas Circle, or under the 17th St. Bridge at the south-east corner
Water taxi
Main pick-up: Riverside Hotel Water Taxi Docks, 600 SE Fourth St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
