Boat shows are really competing in these moments. In USA we have a three boat show top spot challenge with the Palm Beach Boat Show being the challenger who in recent years is competing to the other two long standing Fort Lauderdale and Miami boat shows. In Naples, Italy a competition has come between three boat shows were probably no one is really winning.
Miami is feeling the competition from the Palm Beach boat show and in the 2026 edition responded with some changes. The important change was returning the in-water part of the show to Collins Avenue, alongside Miami Beach. Since 2019 the water part of the show was held at Miami Marine Stadium Park and Basin, just north of downtown Miami. Now the water part of the show has returned in central Miami, in a more central location and next to some of the famous hotels of the area. The bad news for the Miami 2026 boat show was that Viking, and Invincible and Yellowfin both owned by Eagle Tree Capital did not participate at the show.
This though was soon forgotten as many boat and yacht builders showed support to the show to the best of there means, by making important World debuts at the show. Nothing beats boaters interest then the debut of new models. Aquila, Boston Whaler, Formula, Galeon, Grady White, Intrepid, Nor-Tech, Pardo, Regal, Sabre, Sea Ray, Tiara, Tidewater, and WallyPower. The most high profile debut was the one from Boston Whaler, presenting in its 68 years story its first stepped hull design, and debuting the two new 290 and 330 Outrage models with the new hull shape. Mercury also presented the 808hp outboard concept for the first time in a boat show, after showing it for the first time at the 2026 CES in Las Vegas.
An important note comes from the three World debuts from European boat makers; Galeon, Pardo, and Wally. The Pardo and Wally world debuts rightly so involved more North American desired outboard versions of already shown inboard models, while Galeon world debuted the 520 Fly. Galeon which is distributed by MarineMax in North America has had a growing success which today has become a strong following in the continent. It is also not the first time that Galeon World debuts a model in Miami, with the 560 Fly in 2023 also debuting at the show.
Miami showed its muscles in the sub fifty foot sizes, a foot-hold it has always had to be fair. The known format has always been that the Fort Lauderdale is the show for the big yachts, while Miami was more the one of the smaller sub fifty foot boats. With the return to Collins Avenue, Miami hope to capture the attention of larger yachts, and compete more even with the Palm Beach show in the near future.
In Naples Italy, we have a different situation were we have a three boat show competition, and probably a couple more if one includes nearby Lazio-Rome province. In the noughties decade the Naples Nauticsud boat show became Italy's second boat show, then came the Big Recession of the 2008, and the show went on a diet and a shadow of its former self, reduced in size with the water part of the show in the centre of Naples in Mergellina removed and not returned to this day. During the twenty tens then the Navigare Boat Show held in November started to grow, and this year the Naples Boat Show at Marina di Stabia also debuted. Naples is trying hard to capture its second spot again, but the reality is that none of these shows can compete with Venice, because La Serenissima is backed by the big Italian names.
The second in size Italian boat show, has always been a challenging affair. In the eighties and the growth of pleasure boating in Italy to new heights the second spot was taken by the short lasting Viareggio boat show. Following the early nineties recession Naples started to grow in the late nineties taking the spot as second largest boat show till the early twenty-tens. The twenty-tens is a mixed decade with Viareggio taking the spot for some years, before Venice takes the spot in the twenty-twenties.