Report from Miami: A Great Opening Day Jeff Druek, the president of Outer Reef Yachts, didn’t make it to the opening day of the Miami boat show this year, although a lot of other people did. The problem was that Druek was just returning from going around Cape Horn on one of his boats, Argo, an 88-footer; he did make it for the second day, however. The mood on the opening day of the three Miami Shows was decidedly upbeat and optimistic. Down on Virginia Key, home of the Miami International Boat Show, George Armendariz, CEO of Beneteau of the…

Countdown to Miami I can’t say, or more accurately, I don’t want to say, how many Miami boat shows I’ve been to over the years. Let’s just say, a lot. I do remember vividly the first one; it opened my eyes, and blew my mind. I know it started with dinner with the president of Hatteras and moved on to boat tests in Government Cut and raft-ups in Stiltsville. I previously had been a writer and editor at Time and Newsweek, sitting in corporate offices in New York. Now I was the editor of a boating magazine, taking off on boats,…