The biggest builds usually get all the glory during autumn boat shows. New flagship models are unveiled with first-ever features and a stunning array of equipment options. Superyachts dazzle with helipads, submarines and unprecedented levels of luxury. Whole new docks need to be built just to accommodate the ever-expanding boat sizes.
Yes, there will be plenty of that at the top boat shows this fall in the United States and Europe alike, but for multiple reasons, it appears that smaller boats, so often left to be admired quietly in the shadows, may be the ones with the most buzz this year.
“The trend is boats getting bigger and bigger and needing more space, but for the sailboat show, we’re seeing more small boats,” says Mary Ewenson, president of the Annapolis boat shows. “This is trailerable, cool stuff, which is nice. There typically have not been a lot of small, entry-level boats.”
Several show organizers on both sides of the Atlantic say smaller, more affordable power- and sailboats may be exactly what showgoers make a beeline to see this year. A number of builders are coming out with new offerings in smaller size ranges at the same time that high interest rates and inflation, combined with the stress of a chaotic election year, have depressed boat sales.
The slowdown in boat sales is widespread. In the most recent Pulse Report by Soundings Trade Only, Baird Research and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas surveyed nearly 90 dealers, and 74% of them said they had too much inventory in terms of new boats, at the same time that a flood of pandemic-era purchases were hitting the preowned market.
“It has always been a luxury activity to own a boat — we all know that — but now, it’s really high,” says Sylvie Arnoult, show manager of the Cannes Yachting Festival. “The market is in difficulty. The small-boat producers are suffering more than the big-boat producers, economically.”
Like other show organizers, Arnoult is encouraging builders and dealers to see this autumn’s events as an opportunity to keep potential buyers engaged. “Going to boat shows is the way to promote that product,” she says.
Ewenson says the smaller models are also an opportunity to bring young families into the boating lifestyle. At the Annapolis sailboat show, she’s expecting not just a number of boats 35 feet and smaller, but also some that she describes as “really small,” going down to 10 feet.
In a similar vein of trying to appeal to everyone, this year’s Cannes show will include a new, dedicated section for smaller powerboats. There won’t be more smaller boats than the show has included in past years, but the boats will no longer be displayed sporadically along the docks. Boats in the dedicated section will start around 20 feet and stop around 42 feet.
Creating this section of the show was serendipitous, Arnoult says. Construction forced organizers to rethink some of the show’s layout, and this idea for smaller powerboats ended up coinciding with what is likely to be increased showgoer interest in the size range. “For the visitors, it’s much nicer,” Arnoult says. “The one who wants to compare this type of product can go right to that area.”
Andrew Doole, president of U.S. boat shows for South Florida Ventures, a luxury lifestyle division of Informa Markets, says that ahead of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, previous exhibitors are coming back with displays the same size as last year or larger, including smaller-boat dealers and manufacturers. “The small boats with the interest rates, they’ve been hurting all summer, but the show always generates a lot of traffic, a lot of excitement and a lot of sales,” Doole says. “The dealers and manufacturers, nobody is cutting back.”
Lisa Knowles, show director for the Newport International Boat Show, says she’s seeing the same phenomenon in the New England market. Dealers and builders that are sitting on unsold product are looking to the boat show as a possible place to jump-start the flagging sales.
“Exhibitors have a lot more inventory this year — a lot more boat inventory. Sales are quiet at the moment, but so far, nobody is shying away from spending money to display,” Knowles says. “This is where we as a show can really shine. People aren’t going to stop buying; sooner or later, they’re going to go into their pockets again. This is an opportunity to have fun.”
Here’s a look at what’s new and noteworthy at all of those upcoming shows, along with the Monaco Yacht Show and Southampton International Boat Show.
Fort Lauderdale
The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is scheduled to run Oct. 30 through Nov. 4, with more than 100,000 attendees expected to check out the offerings from 1,000-plus exhibitors. Informa produces this show, which is owned by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida. Venues include the Broward County Convention Center, Bahia Mar Yachting Center, Hall Of Fame Marina, Las Olas Marina, 17th Street Yacht Basin, Pier Sixty-Six Marina, and Superyacht Village at Pier Sixty-Six South.
Doole says that as of late July, “despite the industry being in a tight spot,” tickets and VIP tickets were selling well — and he was expecting to end up with more exhibitors than last year. “There’s definitely more product in the market, more brokerage boats available,” he says. “And also, even on larger listings, the 50-, 60-meter-plus, we’re getting a lot of interest in larger yachts coming to the show. There really wasn’t a lot of movement in those boats after Covid. People are starting to trade up and down now. There’s a lot of buying and selling going on with the big boats right now, and it’s encouraging to see.”
The biggest change showgoers will notice at Fort Lauderdale this year is the lack of construction, which has been happening at Pier Sixty-Six as well as at Las Olas Marina. Everything is expected to be built-out and operational, with some of the boat show’s biggest exhibitors already having taken office space at Las Olas. “We’re actually building additional floating docks because of the demand from exhibitors for barges, and we need them for Las Olas,” Doole says. “We’ll be increasing the water taxis. They’ll obviously include Las Olas now. We’re increasing the number of shuttle boats between the marinas.”
Also new this year will be additional seminars at the SuperYacht Village venue, as well as more “pop-up activations” at the Windward VIP lounge, which means things like a well-known chef or mixologist coming for the day.
The Windward VIP Lounge is also getting a new location, at the Hall of Fame Marina. “We’re going to put up a 6,000-square-foot tent,” Doole says. “It’s a little more space, it’s more accessible for people, and it’s all on one level.”
Newport
South Florida Ventures also now owns the Newport International Boat Show, following the purchase this past February. “A lot of industry people are completely unaware that Newport has joined the Informa family,” Doole says, noting that the announcement was made during the busy Miami International Boat Show.
The Newport show is scheduled for Sept. 12-15, and Doole says the idea is for it to grow. There will be a VIP Windward Lounge at Newport this year, too, along with new sections that go beyond the show’s usual new-model offerings.
“We will add brokerage yachts and charter yachts to the show, and we’ll grow the size of the boats and the number of boats in the show,” Doole says. “With Informa’s support, we can add more equipment to the show. We’ve already sent up an additional 1,200 feet of floating docks, and we’re working with the local marinas to increase the footprint on-water. We also increased the footprint on land a little bit.”
Knowles says the new brokerage section will be small this year, with about a dozen boats from 60 to 110 feet, give or take. Dealers are asking to include more, she says, but the available space this year is limited — the best that organizers could find to get the new section of the show up and running. “Informa was sending us docks, and we had to look at how to use them, and they were getting inquiries from Florida exhibitors who have New England visibility. So we put this together, but it’s just a small basin,” Knowles says. “We could fill the basin three times right now. That will be in the future.”
The Newport show will be marketed similarly to Informa’s other shows going forward, and both shows will use the same ticketing systems, which include digital tickets that can be scanned from smartphones at the entrance. Also this year, there will be a Cruisers Classroom at the main show site. “They were at the Marriott last year. It was too far away to accommodate a last-minute walk-up,” Knowles says. This year, the free classes will be in the parking garage beneath Hammetts Hotel, protected from the sun and rain.
A separate diesel talk by longtime industry expert Ed Sherman will take place at IYRS School of Technology and Trades, with a fee. “He’s great. He sold out last year, and he’s actually coming for two days, Saturday and Sunday, this year,” Knowles says. “People love him.”
Cannes
The Cannes Yachting Festival, planned for Sept. 10-15, will be set up differently this year, too. In addition to the new section for smaller powerboats, the Vieux Port and Port Canto venues will be more balanced, Arnoult says, with a similar number of boats at each location.
Vieux Port will still be home to the biggest boats on display — with more than 80 yachts larger than 72 feet expected to attend — but Port Canto will have the same number of boats as Vieux Port. “Same number of boats but not the same size, not the same market or the same target clients,” Arnoult says.
The show was full with exhibitors before the end of July, which is the earliest that Arnault can recall selling out on space. “That may be that the industry is not going well,” Arnault says. “People are booking ahead because they need to reboot the business. They want to be at the show.”
Europe, she says, is experiencing a situation similar to what’s happening in the United States with the economy and inflation, as well as political challenges that can lead buyers to pull back on boat purchases. However, she sees current conditions as an opportunity for showgoers to get away from those problems and have fun thinking about boats they may want to buy in the future.
“The fact is that people who want to sail are still here,” she says. “Maybe they will take more time to invest. OK, fine, it will slow down for some time, but the people are here. The business is here.”
Arnault adds that there will be plenty of new product for showgoers to explore, with about 140 world premieres expected. They include new models from a wide range of builders, such as Candela, Axopar, Sunreef, Nautor Swan, Bali Catamarans, Fountaine Pajot, Lagoon Catamarans, Sanlorenzo and others.
Still, she says, the industry will need to evaluate the sales patterns following not only the Cannes show, but also other shows this fall, to truly understand what’s happening with business levels across various boat categories. “I cannot control if people will buy or not, but what I know is that I want people to come, and for people to come, you have to have a good show — well-organized and well-communicated,” she says. “What I’m saying today is that the Yachting Festival is ready and is doing very well. I’m staying very positive.”
Annapolis
Ewenson says ticket sales as of late July were up over last year for the Annapolis sail- and powerboat shows alike. The powerboat show is set for Oct. 3-6, while the sail show is scheduled for Oct. 10-14. Some docks are being added to accommodate an increased number of boats that are expected, and the sailboat show, which wasn’t open on Monday last year, will run a full five days this year, as it has done in the past.
Another change that showgoers will notice this year is the addition of more free seminars. Annapolis shows have always had paid educational programming, Ewenson says, and the organizers tested free seminars at the spring shows. “It went really well, so we have a great new lineup,” Ewenson says. “We work with a lot of really cool industry professionals — powerboaters and sailors — to put together the schedule. The same person puts together our Cruisers University, which is a very intensive program geared toward people who want to go cruising long-distance and offshore.”
Ewenson encourages exhibitors with new boats or products to have their information to the show office by mid-September so it can be included in the printed packet that gets handed out to members of the press at the annual welcome breakfast.
Southampton
The U.K.’s Southampton International Boat Show will take place Sept. 13-22. It’s the show’s 55th year, with products ranging from standup paddleboards to superyachts.
British brands such as Sunseeker tend to make a big splash at this show, and this year is expected to be no different. The builder will be bringing a number of models, including the new Ocean 165, which is making its global debut this fall. The yacht measures 82 feet, 6 inches overall with a top speed of 25 knots and a reported range of 900 nautical miles.
Also a perennial presence at this show is U.K.-based Princess Yachts, which is scheduled to bring more than a half-dozen models to the quay this year.
This year’s show will include a Watersports Zone with activities such as kayaking and diving and experts on hand to help showgoers learn. Within the Watersports Zone is the Watersports Lake, which will have 30% more paddle-boarding and kayaking activities than last year. Rockley Watersports will provide experts free of charge.
Showgoers will also be able to check out a Classic & Day Boat Zone, featuring restored classics and modern builds, and there will be a Shipyard section with live music and food stalls. Gourmet burgers will be available at the Quarterdeck Bar & Restaurant, and a Quayside Club VIP experience will have an award-winning chef on-site.
Fans of the America’s Cup will be able to watch the races live on oversized screens, with what show organizers say are “special guests joining from Barcelona.” The Louis Vuitton Cup will be underway at the same time as the Southampton show; it’s the series of races that determines which team will face the defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup, scheduled to be held in October.
This year’s charitable partner for the show is the Southampton Hospitals Charity and its Light the South art trail to raise funds for Southampton Children’s Hospital.
Monaco
The Monaco Yacht Show, established in 1991, will run Sept. 25-28. More than 120 superyachts are expected to be on display, along with about 50 tenders. Dozens of premiere models are expected.
More than 550 companies are on the docket to attend, including naval architects and designers, equipment and and service providers, and tender and water-toy manufacturers. There also will be exhibitors focused on ultra-high-end customers, such as luxury car and motorcycle manufacturers, helicopter companies and private-jet builders.
One of the big-name shipyards with a Monaco model debut this year is Wally, which is part of the Ferretti Group. Wally is scheduled to display the wallywind110, the first model in a new performance cruiser range that is also expected to include a wallywind130 and wallywind150. The first hull of the 110 launched in June, and hull No. 2 is under construction.
The Monaco show is also known as the place to see some of the world’s largest yachts. As of this writing, the biggest new build scheduled to attend is the Lürssen Kismet, which was delivered this past May to its owner, Shahid Khan — the owner of the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars. The yacht is currently being offered for charter through Cecil Wright at a base rate of about $3 million per week.
Kismet is a prime example of the type of top-level luxury that is synonymous with the Monaco show. The yacht measures 400 feet and is built with an array of features and amenities. For owner and guest relaxation, Kismet has a hammam, sauna, cryotherapy chamber, massage room, gymnasium, yoga studio, juice bar, indoor and outdoor cinemas, DJ station, teppanyaki grill, wine cellar, basketball court, pickleball court and underwater viewing area.
Systems aboard Kismet include a hybrid powertrain with a full-electric mode, a heat-recovery system in the generators to warm the pool water, and dynamic positioning for electronic anchoring in ecologically sensitive areas.
This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue.
