Miami Boat Show – Sailing Catamarans

 It’s the longest running boat show in the world.  It’s huge, and has three different venues – Miamarina (the Strictly Sail Show), Sea Isle Marina (New Yacht and Power Boat Show), and the Miami Beach Convention Center (main area).

In 2010 the Miami Boat Show included 2,000 exhibitors and over 91,00 visitors. Again – it’s huge, international, and worth attending if you’re in the boating industry, or in the boating market.  Naturally I’m in the market for a sailing catamaran, so I’m going to take advantage to the opportunity to get onboard several of the sailboats – both mono hull and catamaran.  A bit of poking around should help guide me as I’m making my choice.  As a reminder, in the catamaran space I’m looking at Leopard, Privilege, Lagoon, and Fountaine Pajot.  Seems like the Miami Boat Show is the place to visit several of these in a single spot.

Obviously, I don’t live in Miami (Austin is where I call home) so there’s a plane flight involved, and some kind of lodging necessary.  The plan is to jump on a plane in Austin on Feb 15th, but stay in Miami until the Blue Wild Expo (that’s a different story though).  It turns out staying in Miami around this time is super-expensive so I relied on a series of social-media (Instgram/Facebook) requests to find a place to stay.  It was a huge experiment, and I have no idea how it’ll end up – but we’ll see and I’ll let you know.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Either way, being in Miami will be a hell of a good break, and I’ll be able to take some killer pictures. If you’re going to be in the area, I’d be more than willing to have a beer and talk shop or exchange fishing/boating lies.

Cheers,

-Nate