The 54th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

By Ben Roberts

The 54th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show was a resounding success. With exhibitors and superyachts strewn across three million square feet of space, a never ending stream of visitors and clients alongside widespread reports of positivity, the FLIBS ended the 2013 boat show season on a very high note.

Headliners such as Cakewalk, Sycara V, Salute and Mi Sueno were just flagship vessels to an almost endless list of stunning superyachts on display in Fort Lauderdale. The sun was blazing and more and more reports of positive activity with qualified visitors and clients swept the scene.

“For us it’s a reunion.” explains Henk de Vries, CEO of Feadship. “This is where Feadship started, in 1976, and we belong here. Even though Monaco for us is, commercially speaking, a more important show, America is where we’ve done so much business and we have so many old friends here.”

“The 54th Boat Show has been great for us,” explains John Lance, Marketing & Advertising Director of Christensen, “the weather’s been fantastic the traffic’s been up and it’s really been a great experience for us this year.”

“It’s been outstanding,” adds James Brewer of Derecktor. “We’ve had a very successful show and generally the sense of optimism in the air is much improved from last year. There’s actual tangible business being done, so we’re very happy, it’s been an outstanding show for us.”

As always, we await with baited breath for reports of serious industry movement to emerge after the dust has settled from the 2013 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show; however, in the meantime, we’ll be releasing images and interviews with the world’s most renowned names in the superyacht industry over the next few days.

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By Ben Roberts