The largest full-service marina on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod is trying something different to start the 2013 boating season — launching a new open house/boat show.
“While people in the marine industry are already working to get the boating season up and running, traditionally the boaters around here don’t really get ramped up and ready to go until June,” Kingman Yacht Center president Scott Zeien said. “We’re always looking for something new to give boaters a reason to get down to the water and excited about the summer a little earlier than they otherwise might.”
So 2013 brings the first Red Brook Harbor Boats Show, scheduled for May 18, for which organizers are still recruiting local marine businesses to exhibit.
“Our objective is to get people out here,” Zeien says.
As of Monday afternoon, 37 exhibitors had signed on to participate, Zeien said. He expects upwards of 25 boats on display, ranging in size from eight to 43 feet, along with a variety of manufacturers, vendors and other marine organizations.
Zeien says the new show offers an opportunity lost to many when the seventh annual Boatbuilders’ Show on Cape Cod was canceled with the Feb. 10 blizzard that buried much of New England.
“We opened at 2 p.m., right about the time the governor came on TV to announce a state of emergency and banned all travel except for essential personnel,” said Zeien, who was also an organizer for the Boatbuilders’ Show. “So we closed the show at 3:30, and a short time later power went out at the hotel and was out all weekend.”
The region received about a foot of snow in the blizzard. The 2014 Boatbuilders’ Show is scheduled for Feb. 7-9.
Information about the Red Brook Harbor Boats Show is available by contacting Tara Regan at the Kingman Yacht Center, (508) 563-7136, Ext. 110, or at [email protected].
