Show report: Melbourne's festive boat show

ORGANISERS and exhibitors of the Melbourne International Boat and Lifestyle Festival report a positive turnout and response to last weekend's in-water boat show at Melbourne's Docklands.

This year's show took a slightly different approach with a last-minute name change to align with the show's festive lifestyle component. Thousands of Melbournians, many unfamiliar to boating, walked along the promenade where local dealers and trailer boat manufacturers were on display together with boat related businesses in nearby marquees. On the marina, many Victorian, and a few interstate dealers and manufacturers reported strong leads and a handful of serious buyers.

The weekend's weather was fine after a drizzly start on Friday. All exhibitors, and organisers at the BIA, agreed it was very different show compared to last year's 45 degree heat wave. This year's show also coincided with a much stronger economic outlook for the year ahead.

Marine Business spoke to recently appointed BIA Victoria GM Clyde Batty on the show's opening day about his expectations for the show.

“The show is exposing the general public to boating, to fishing, all types of watercraft, and to some new innovations in boating. And except for the marina, it's free with no gate charge,” said Batty.

“It just brings people out, there’s huge advantages for Docklands, the real estate, the shops, and it’s such a good thing for Melbourne and a pre-curser to the winter boat show later on in the year,” he said.

This year's marina was condensed into a slightly smaller area with only five less boats than last year. BIA's event coordinator, Ashley Farr, said the show provides the only opportunity for big boats that otherwise miss out at the winter trailer boat show.

“We wanted to have show similar to Sanctuary Cove, with the festival feel. This show also gives the larger cruising boats an opportunity that’s usually lost at the trailer boat dominated winter show,” said Farr.

Farr said dealers were happy with the BIA combining a boat and lifestyle show for the exposure it provides to the rebounding boating industry.

“We put a sign up this year at the front of the marquees and have run the marquees along the promenade towards the festivities at the end to drag people past all the boat exhibitors.”

“It’s a double edge sword getting people down here - the dealers don’t seem to mind with that many people walking through the show.”

Darren Finkelstein, dealer principle at St Kilda Boat Sales, was positive and said compared to last year “it was chalk and cheese”. St Kilda Boat Sales displayed two Carribbeans on the marina.

“Last year we had three of the hottest days in Melbourne's history and were right in the midst of a global financial crisis,” said Finkelstein.

“This year we had delightful weather, the enquiry rate was slow, but we thought they were quality leads. We were quite excited by the types of leads and the level of interest we were getting and we look forward to building some new clients into the Caribbean family.”

Finkelstein was surprised with the boat research potential customers had been doing over the past 12 months. “They used the time in the past 12 months, when perhaps they weren't in the position to buy the boat, to use the internet and do their research,” he said.

“It was really apparent to us that people are watching the interactive videos on our website for new and used boats. And, secondly, it reminded us just how good the Caribbean brand is for boat buyer reputation, and we will be able to back that up with some good sale results out of the show.”

Finkelstein also thought the lifestyle component added positively to this year's boat show.

“I thought that was terrific. On Sunday there was a market down on the dock and I though the idea of having a roving microphone and interviewing people was a great idea. I thought the lifestyle component came out nicely and the weather backed all that up.”

Bar Crusher Boats director Peter Cleland agreed, pointing out the huge branding potential of displaying boats along the busy promenade.

“We probably had 50 or 60,000 people walk straight past our boats along the board walk, so exposing our boats to that many people who are interested in boats, or the boating lifestyle, all helps in putting our brand on their minds,” said Cleland.

“I spoke to people who didn't know our brand existed and were ready to buy a boat - that's positive.”

Cleland said there were plenty of good enquiries and reported a busy, positive show.

“We had lots of good enquiries and we were happy with the feel of it. It's difficult to tell with these shows, we may not know for a couple of months whether we've done well from this show,” he said.

“We felt like we were talking to genuine buyers. Saturday was busy and I'm told Sunday was very busy and felt positive.”

Marine Business spoke to Queensland-based Tim Catanese down on the marina. Catanese was at the show seeking dealers for his re-released range of Stejcraft boats, which are now manufactured in China.

“It was good for us, we're the there not so much to sell retail, but to talk to dealers, and to try and get a dealer on board. I was there for a different purpose and it was a really good show,” said Catanese.

Also on the marina Scott O'Hare from Aussie Boat Sales was showing Maritimo's new Aegean 50 Enclosed and Chaparral's 226 SSi Widetech Bowrider, which was an Australian debut.

“We have a strong inquiry on the Maritimo with a likely 470 offshore sale to be finalised this week. We sold with contracts and deposits three used Chaparrals and we have interest in our Deep V 280 Twin diesel Shaft drive from Tassie. Overall it a good show for Aussie Boat Sales,” said O'Hare.

Other new show releases included BarCrusher's one-off 560XS Tournament model (pictured), Mustang's 2850 Sports Cruiser, Seawind's 1250 flagship, and the finnish-built Nauticat 42 “Arctic Wolf” (pictured).

Check out the March issue of Marine Business magazine for more on Melbourne's Summer boat show and an exclusive interview with BIA GM Clyde Batty.

Bar Crusher's one-off 560XS Tournament model

BIA Victoria GM Clyde Batty

BIA Victoria events coordinator Ashley Farr

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