The Yacht & Brokerage Show in Miami Beach will showcase 500 new and brokerage yachts and super- yachts worth $1 billion and cover 1.2 million square feet — a far cry from its start 24 years ago, when just 60 brokerage boats were on display.
Stretching over 1.2 miles along Collins Avenue from 41st to 51st streets, the Feb. 16-20 show has grown as the size and number of yachts on display on the Indian Creek Waterway have grown, says Andrew Doole, senior vice president and chief operating officer of show producer Show Management.
There have been fewer yachts at the show in recent years, but they are getting larger, so the show stretches farther down Collins than ever, Doole says. “The boats, over the years, have just gotten bigger and bigger,” he says.
The mix of yachts has changed as well. What began as a brokerage event now is a 50-50 mix of new and used boats — typically 40 to 200 feet — as builders have joined brokers in exhibiting, Doole says. New this year is PassageMaker magazine’s TrawlerPort, a show within a show for new trawlers from 35 to 90 feet, all of them gathered around floating Trawler Island, where seminars on topics ranging from destination cruising to navigation are offered. TrawlerPort will feature displays from Fleming Yachts, Grand Banks Yachts, Outer Reef Yachts, Nordhavn, Kadey-Krogen Yachts, Krogen Express Yachts, Offshore Yachts and others, Doole says. “It will be like a little world of its own,” he says.
Sportfishing also will be represented. Viking Yachts, Hatteras Yachts and Cabo Yachts will be among those displaying at the Sportfishing Pavilion. It will include a cocktail barge with food, refreshments and music; booths for rods, reels, tackle, fighting chairs and fishing destinations; and tents hosting seminars taught by International Game Fish Association instructors. “[The seminars] are geared to the expert angler,” Doole says. “They are well-attended.”
European builders will be showing many of their latest yachts. Doole says models from such builders as Princess Yachts, Monte Carlo Yachts and Sunseeker draw a large contingent of buyers from Latin America; the growing number of megayachts woos “big-boat buyers.” Among the larger European displays, he says, are those of the Ferretti Group, Beneteau Powerboats, Azimut Yachts and Benetti Yachts.
An 80-by-280-foot barge with a 60-by-260-foot tent — the Yacht Equipment Pavilion — will have booths for engines, generators, transmissions, electronics, teak decks, insurance agencies and other products and services in an upscale “shopping mall environment.”
The Yacht & Brokerage Show in Miami Beach is free and open to the public. A free mobile app, MyBoatShow, for the iOS and Android platforms has maps and enables users to search for boats and products by category and size and identify their locations. It can be downloaded at iTunes, the Android Market or www.showmanagement.com.
The show is across the street from the iconic Fontainebleau, Eden Roc and Miami Beach Resort and Spa hotels, among others. Parking is available on Collins Avenue between 64th and 85th streets. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 16-19, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 20. Free shuttle bus service from the Miami Beach Convention Center and Sea Isle Marina begins one hour before opening and runs continuously until 8 p.m. Thursday; 9 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday; and 7 p.m. Monday.
With reports of an uptick in consumer confidence at the end of last year, “we’re looking forward to a good show,” Doole says.
Information is available at www.showmanagement.com.
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This article originally appeared in the Southern Waters section of the March 2012 issue.
