Best sailboat show for newbies

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, TeaBag.

[boatman61]

Save your money.. fly to the UK in September and visit a Real Boat Show in the UK... the True Heart of Sailing..
Exhibitor List

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by TomLewis

Also there is a cool miniature ship museum at the Naval Academy you can walk to. Very neat little town.

To call it cool is an understatement. It's incredible and any sailor who visits Annapolis should definitely check it out. It's in the basement of the Naval Academy museum, the rest of which is pretty cool too. This picture is just a small part of the model collection:



The most fascinating are the model ships built by prisoners of war back in the 18th/19th century, out of found scraps. Absolutly amazing.

I forgot to point out that for the last few years the fall show has added "Broker's Row", just west of the bridge, that has expanded brokerage boats in the show. A lot of people miss it because it's a short walk from the main show. Stumbled on Evans' and Beth's boat Hawk there a few years ago, that was a treat.

[Caribbeachbum]

Last year we went to St. Petersburg, Miami, and Annapolis boat shows.

Downtown St. Pete is just a fantastic place to visit. The boat show is small, but still quite enjoyable. This is worth attending simply because the city is so nice. Make time for Salvador Dali.

Miami show was split, with Strictly Sail being at Bayside and a big powerboat show somewhere else. Lots of sailboats to look at. Vendors on the sailboat side are in relatively short supply, many wanting only one tent and choosing to put it up at the much larger powerboat arena. The upside is that the seminars and forums are very accessible, the downside is that there is less to see on the boat show grounds.

Miami is a great international city. If you're not fond of it, go a few blocks to a different neighborhood. Seriously, we ate authentic Bavarian food one night and some remarkably fantastic Peruvian food the next.

Annapolis in the fall is fantastic. It was a little cool at night, but we wore shorts in the daytime (aside from that hurricane day). The downtown is a little restaurant mecca with loads of good eats.

The boat show is enormous and all sailboats. It seemed like every imaginable vendor had a booth, and there was much to learn (along with a sales pitch, of course) at every one.

Downside is that the show is so well attended that the seminars and forums require advance registration; and many boats have a line to get aboard. Caveat: don't let the hype fool you, there were only a few brokerage boats on display, at least relative to what we were hoping to see.

I don't recommend dining at Pusser's. But do get a crab cake at Dock Street.

If you can do only one, go to the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, and allow two days for boat show action.

[WSMFP]

We went to Annapolis for the first time this past year. I would highly recommend going on VIP day and paying the extra ticket price. Over the Friday and Saturday it was very crowded and tough to get onto most of the boats because of the lines. Had a great time anyway.


Miami is generally a disaster of traffic and rudeness so zero interest in going to that again.

[Caribbeachbum]

Originally Posted by WSMFP

We went to Annapolis for the first time this past year. I would highly recommend going on VIP day and paying the extra ticket price. Over the Friday and Saturday it was very crowded and tough to get onto most of the boats because of the lines. Had a great time anyway.

Miami is generally a disaster of traffic and rudeness so zero interest in going to that again.

We didn't experience any rudeness. In fact, we liked Miami. The only rudeness we encountered was from a few attendees waiting in a 30-minute line for a cup of free Bob Bitchin beer. We walked around them and bought a full beer from a vendor, and were happier than they were. Free is rarely worth it.

The traffic part is doubtless true, as with any big city. It's trivially avoided ... stay at a hotel from which you can walk to the boat show.

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[MikeJulieStL]

Does anyone have any experience with "boat show pricing"? Looking at new(and maybe new-ish)40-45" cats and pricing seems to run about 20% less than listings I have seen elsewhere much less building/customizing one on their site.

Example: a 40" Leopard at $399,000 after the Miami show vs $499,000 on various listings or on their site.

Would manufacturers match this or even come close throughout the year? We will be buying in a few years and Id rather not have to time our retirement and sale of our home around the Miami Boat Show.

[YachtBroker]

Originally Posted by MikeJulieStL

Does anyone have any experience with "boat show pricing"? Looking at new(and maybe new-ish)40-45" cats and pricing seems to run about 20% less than listings I have seen elsewhere much less building/customizing one on their site.

Example: a 40" Leopard at $399,000 after the Miami show vs $499,000 on various listings or on their site.

Would manufacturers match this or even come close throughout the year? We will be buying in a few years and Id rather not have to time our retirement and sale of our home around the Miami Boat Show.

They do have better pricing during the show to entice contracts. Timing is everything.

[TomAndLee]

Just my newbie 2 cents, we just got back from a smallish boat show and while it was nice, we got SO much more out of visiting the Little Yacht Sales marina area. Going forward for us in the research stage, We are much more comfortable checking out the boats via marina where we can stay in our price range and jump on and off any boat we want to see.

[MikeJulieStL]

Originally Posted by YachtBroker

They do have better pricing during the show to entice contracts. Timing is everything.

So better pricing on contracts too? I was thinking the hulls that they bring to the show would be it for special pricing - but that's good to know as well!

Does anyone have any examples of discounts? A couple weeks after the show the Leopard 40 was still not sold so 20% off that particular yacht was offered.

[YachtBroker]

The discounts at any show and on any model is goign to differ with the time of the year and what is the model and who is the builder. 20% discount is about all the margin in a boat is so, to me, that is probably not the real price of the boat. The Cat market is very strong. They don't have to discount them that much.