Palm Beach Boat Show Unstoppable Challenge

In a blogger post dated May 2024, I commented how the Palm Beach boat show is growing, becoming in recent years the third North American boat show.  A year down the line the challenge is not only growing, but also becoming more important as the Palm Beach show looks to become in a year or two the second or first US boat show in size.  

Palm Beach boat show is aiming high, wanting the crown as the biggest boat show in the most important boating market of the planet.  As an example the 2025 Palm Beach boat show featured more super yachts to the Fort Lauderdale show, and apart this detail, the novelties presented in size upwards of ten meters were as much if not more to those of the Miami show.  One famous boating publication, Boating International also said that the Palm Beach is becoming the first US show for big yachts.  

The debuts at the 2025 Palm Beach show were again important, with three Italian builders making World new model debuts at the show; Azimut, Pardo, and Tankoa, and another important name like Grand Banks, also presenting a new 62 model.  Another debut, and probably the most important one on a national USA level was also that of Scout which publicly unveiled the 670 LXF, which is not only the South Carolina boat builder new flagship, expanding its size by fourteen foot, but the largest center console ever made.  But other important notes to take from the Palm Beach show, was also Viking who presented itself officially to the show for the first time, rather then by one of its dealers.

So the way things are moving the Palm Beach is set to become the other boat show of the USA. Because of its timing in end of Winter early Spring, the Miami boat show is the one in this cross road, rather then Fort Lauderdale which is held in mid fall.  

It will be interesting to find out the success of the Palm Beach boat show, the visitors are about half to what Miami brings for example; 50,000 versus 100,000.  But then many times the quality of the visitors is more important to that of the visiting numbers alone.  It is a bit the analogy of the Cannes Boating Festival versus Genoa Boat show.  Cannes has similar visiting numbers of about 50,000 to the boat show in Palm Beach, but if you ask the boat builders, many will tell you in the past decade or so it is the show to be, and they do especially in the bigger twenty meters plus sizes prefer it to Genoa show which scores 150% more visitors.