The 61st annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the largest in-water show in the world, just opened, with fewer exhibitors, smaller crowds, and lots of safety precautions taken because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The show runs through Sunday, Nov. 1.
The crowds may not have been as large as in previous years (last year the show attracted 100,000 people), but they included a lot of serious boat buyers. Indeed, Jeff Druek, the head of Outer Reef Yachts, said he was “extremely pleased” with people he saw. “It does not seem that Covid-19 has dampened the spirits of those shopping for a yacht,” he said.
Although many other shows were cancelled this fall, the Lauderdale show continued; it has never been cancelled. “The boat show’s economic impact economic impact is bigger than two Super Bowls,” said Phil Purcell, president of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, which owns the show.
Oddly enough, the day the Lauderdale show opened, the National Marine Manufacturers Association said it was cancelling its big Miami show in February because of the pandemic.
The Lauderdale show had just half as many exhibitors, 450, as it did last year, and the boats were concentrated around Bahia Mar and the Hall of Fame Marina. People were required to wear masks (although more than a few did not), to practice social distancing, and to walk along clearly marked one-way passageways (a good idea but also not always practiced).
There weren’t as many large yachts as in previous years. The queen of the show was a 164-foot Trinity named Amarula Sun. Just to give an idea of the proportions here, the yacht’s tender is 41-feet long and comes with a Seakeeper gyrostabilizer.
But the slips were full of many other new boats for the rest of us. The Azimut Magellano 25 Metri, a mini-explorer yacht from the upscale Italian builder, made its U.S. debut. So did the Riviera Belize 54, which the builder says is designed with “a keen-eyed balance between European panache and Australian practicality.”
The Prestige X70 (left) also made its first appearance in the U.S. The French builder calls it “a villa on the water” where the side decks have been replaced with inner staircases to maximize the interior spaces in the salon and galley. The new Prestige also has three consecutive full-beam staterooms, and even a beach club with seating and access to water sports.
Although many things were changed at the show because of the pandemic, others remained the same. Valet parking at Las Olas Marina, for example, still was $50 a day. Read more:
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