Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Three major events set for coming weeks
South Florida’s 2017 boat show circuit is revving up.
Next month, the 32nd iteration of the Palm Beach International Boat Show is set to open in downtown West Palm Beach along scenic Flagler Drive.
The four-day show, which runs March 23-26, will showcase more than $1.2 billion worth of yachts, boats and marine accessories, including tenders, small inflatables and super yachts up to nearly 300 feet in length.
This year’s show will also welcome several new exhibitors from leading European boatbuilders such as are Amels, Feadship, Heesen, Moonen and Palumbo, show organizers said.
“Exhibitors are reaching a different and very sought-after buyer at the Palm Beach show,” said Andrew Doole, senior vice president and chief operations officer of Show Management, the event’s manager and producer. “Palm Beach attracts an affluent audience of boat and yacht owners who typically do not visit the shows in Fort Lauderdale or Miami Beach. Palm Beach is their show of choice.”
To accommodate more of the bigger and pricier yachts, the show will offer a new location farther north along Flagler Drive at the Rybovich super yacht marina for vessels more than 200 feet in length. Interested buyers and charter customers will be ferried by water in private tenders to and from the new site, show organizers said this week.
The show will also offer educational activities, including free youth fishing clinics by Hook The Future, IGFA School of Sportfishing seminars, long-range cruising clinics and on-the-water boat handling classes, Show Management said. Visitors can also enjoy live music and food and beverage options across the event, which is owned by the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County Inc.
The county’s marine industry generated more than $1.8 billion in economic impact and accounted for 18,220 jobs in fiscal 2014, according to a study by Thomas J. Murray Associates Inc. on the association’s behalf.
In recent years, the show has gained more of an international following, both in terms of exhibitors and attendees, which led organizers in 2009 to include “international” in its name. Still, the boating event primarily targets the northeast U.S. and Midwest for its audience.
The Palm Beach International Boat Show will be the last major boat show in South Florida before the start of the peak boating and fishing season, which typically kicks off around Memorial Day.
It follows two other popular boat shows in Miami-Dade County — Yachts Miami Beach and the Miami International Boat Show — which will run Feb. 16-20 during Presidents Day weekend in Miami Beach and Virginia Key, respectively.
Show Management, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, also produces and manages Yachts Miami Beach and the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
The latter event, dubbed the world’s largest in-water boat show, will drop anchor for its 58th run at seven sites Nov. 2-6 across Fort Lauderdale, according to Show Management.