Vietnam’s largest show is of a more maritime commercial bent, but some pleasure boats are also built on the coast. The 4th Indonesia Yacht Show takes place April 21 to 23, at Batavia Sunda Kelapa Marina in Jakarta, and there are other fledgling events in Sri Lanka and India.
Australia and New Zealand are advanced boating markets. The largest events on Australia’s East Coast have been at Sanctuary Cove from May 25 to 28 on the Gold Coast, the epicentre of the country’s boat building industry, and at principal city Sydney, from August 3 to 6. The latter has been split for several years while new exhibition halls are built at its lovely in-water Darling Harbour location. This year marks its return to one easily navigable central CBD venue.
Rest of the World
The Gold Coast Marine Complex near Sanctuary Cove has long been holding its own events, some conflicting with the ambient resort. This year, it has rebranded itself Gold Coast International Boat Show, to be held over three days from March 17 to 19. Riviera is a prominent participant, as is Gold Coast City Marina, which offers in-water berths to other non-Riviera exhibitors.
Other Australian capitals have smaller boat shows that can be checked out online. In West Australia, one well-supported event is at Mandurah, south of Perth and held from October 6 to 8, not far from Henderson’s Australian Marine Complex where 70m to 90m superyacht builders like Echo and SilverYachts are based.
Across the Tasman Sea, the more local Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show is held in suburban Auckland showgrounds from May 18 to 21, and the International Auckland On-Water Boat Show is in September.
Further afield, September is the month to visit Europe, when late summer weather lingers and the tourists have mostly gone home. Start at the superb Cannes Yachting Festival in early September, drive down the coast to explore the Genoa Boat Show and boat building centre Viareggio, perhaps calling at Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino in between, then finish with the inimitable Monaco Yacht Show. Paris, London and Dusseldorf are three other big ones, but they take place in mid-winter.
In the United States, Ft Lauderdale International Boat Show, held from November 2 to 6 in Florida, is a month after Monaco. Billed as the world’s largest, a claim challenged only occasionally by Dusseldorf, it spans five venues, and one could spend all five days in the principal Bahia Mar site alone. Miami is in February, and Palm Beach in March, geographically located on either side of Ft Lauderdale.
In the Middle East, the Dubai International Boat Show (DIBS) is held from February 28 to March 4, and is definitely worth attending for anyone who wants to get a hang of what’s happening in the always-evolving United Arab Emirates and the wider Middle East. Other boat shows are also held in Turkey and Lebanon.
Here, space decrees that we must wrap up this potted tour of particularly Asia-Pacific boat shows and their 2017 dates, hoping that readers have found something of value, and that they will check out more of these events this year and in the future.
This article was first published in Yacht Style 37.