Fort Lauderdale ’18: A New Look, New Entrance, New Food & Drink and 1,500 New Boats. Plus: Our Reviews of 40 New Cruising Boats There
By Peter A. Janssen
The ever-growing Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show will run from Wednesday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 4, with a lot of improvements from its new owners – and a lot more boats, displayed at seven locations linked by a network of water taxis and shuttle buses. The first thing you’ll find is a new, redesigned entrance on Seabreeze Blvd. a few hundred yards north of the Bahia Mar Hotel and Marina, where the entrance has been located by generations, and just south of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
“First impressions are crucial,” says Andrew Doole, the show’s general manager, “which is why we are creating a professionally designed, dedicated show entrance with a thoughtful layout and other elements of convenience for guests and exhibitors.”
The show is still centered around the Bahia Mar, but it extends to six other locations as well: Hall of Fame Marina, Las Olas Municipal Marina, Hilton Marina, Pier 66 Marina, Sails Marina/Pier 66 South, and the Convention Center. Now in its 59th year, the show is produced by Informa, a London-based show and events producer, which has hired new food and drink concessions and promised to make security more efficient than in the past.
With more than 1,500 new boats on display and 1,200 exhibitors, Informa says the show is the largest in-the-water boat show in the world. Last year, some 110,000 people from 52 countries came to the show.
Tickets cost $51 on Wednesday, a preview day. Thursday through Sunday tickets are $33 for adults and $15 for children from 6 to 15; children under 6 are free. If you want to avoid the crowds, you can pay $300 a day per person to join the Windward VIP Club in the Hall of Fame Marina, where you can relax in AC comfort and enjoy an open bar, gourmet food, daily wine tastings and the services of a concierge.
The show’s primary attraction, of course, is the introduction of new boats, everything from megayachts (stretching for what seems like miles along docks on the Waterway) to jet skis, plus such other yachting accoutrements as helicopters, Ferraris and submarines. (See our reviews of 40 new cruising boats at the show below.)
Totally aside from the show, Lauderdale is a boater’s mecca, with 165 miles of canals (the city is often called the Venice of America), sprawling waterfront homes, the historic New River in the heart of downtown, the charming Las Olas shopping and dining area, and the massive Port Everglades, which heads out to the Atlantic. And great waterfront restaurants and bars.
For more about the show: http://www.flibs.com
For our reviews of 40 new cruising boats you can see at the show:
