Vendors expect good outcome at boat show

Day two brings sunnier skies

The weather gods were in a better mood Friday as sunny skies greeted boating enthusiasts on the second day of the Palm Beach International Boat Show, a welcomed change from the steady rains on opening day.

“We cleared the weather up just for you,” joked West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio to media and others at a press briefing as the show got underway. “I guarantee it’s going to be a beautiful weekend.”

The weather upgrade was welcomed by show organizers and exhibitors who were eager to see more people shopping for boats along the docks than the day before.

“The first day of the show it rained us all out, so it was very slow, but overall the market is really active at the moment both for charters and for sales, said Daniel Ziriakus, chief operating officer of yacht broker Northrop & Johnson.

Northrop & Johnson, which has an office in Fort Lauderdale, has 18 luxury yachts in the show ranging in price from about $1.2 million to more than $46.5 million, he said.

“We expect a lot of people to come to the show … we have about 100 people attending for private viewing of some of our vessels, so we expect a good outcome,” Ziriakus said. “Every year we’ve sold boats out of the show, it’s one of our highest grossing shows.”

Others were also prepping to reel in major business during the 32nd edition of the show, which runs until Sunday in downtown West Palm Beach along the Intracoastal Waterway on Flagler Drive.

Andrew Cilla, president of Luke Brown Yachts of Fort Lauderdale is forecasting an increase in sales for his company this year after being “consistently good” in previous years.

While business isn’t as “crazy good” as it was in the 1980s and 1990s, it’s been improving steadily since 2008, he said.

The yacht broker, which specializes in new and preowned off-shore and trawler yachts, has nine boats in the show.

“We sell boats as a result of this boat show,” Cilla said, noting that actual sales typically take up to a month or more to close. “There are as many serious buyers here as Fort Lauderdale or Miami but the venue is more comfortable and easier [to navigate].

“There’s a good vibe here,” he added.

Worth Avenue Yachts, which operates offices in Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, has 13 yachts on display, including four for charter.

The luxury yacht broker is expecting a solid turnout in leads, sales and charter business during this show, where it has its largest layout compared to the Fort Lauderdale or Miami shows, said spokeswoman Danielle Giordano.

In spite of its damp start, first-day news of the sale of the 279-foot Lurssen super yacht Solandge, which had an asking price of nearly $167 million, augured well for the event overall, organizers said.

Although the transaction led to the withdrawal of the huge vessel from the show, its sale ahead of the event “shows the health of this market,” said Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III, chairman of Active Interest Media.

Word is spreading worldwide about the rapidlygrowing show, he said.

“This is the fastest-growing boat show in Florida,” said Zimbalist, former president of Show Management, the boat show’s producer. “A lot of factories, a lot of shipyards are taking notice of that and coming to this show for the first time or expanding their presence here.”

The number of boats displayed in-water increased by four percent this year to 717 vessels, and new boats are up 12 percent across all categories of sizes, Zimbalist said.

“This is the biggest show we’ve ever had in terms of the footprint and the number of boats,” he noted.

Earlier this month, Show Management and the five U.S. boat shows it produces and manages including the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and Yachts Miami Beach, was sold to London-based global exhibitions company Informa, in a $133 million deal.

Two other Florida-based shows — the St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show — were also part of the deal.

The five Florida shows will increase Informa’s portfolio of boating and yachting events to six, which includes the Monaco Yacht Show, considered the leading event for the super yacht industry

On Friday, Stephen Carter, Informa’s group chief executive, stressed his company is determined to maintain stability for the Palm Beach show and all of the others in its fold.

“In the first instance, we don’t want the show to be either disturbed or suffer through change of ownership, so we’re very keen to have continuity of people, continuity of team [and] continuity of leadership,” Carter said.

He noted that Informa sees a potential to grow and develop the international sales and marketing aspect of the boat shows.

“We want to invest in the shows,” Carter said. “Build the brands both domestically and internationally and then maybe look at [whether] we take [them] to other parts of the world as [they] start to see international yachting as a mark of prosperity and innovation.”