By midafternoon on Saturday, October 29, the 3rd day of Fort Lauderdale international Boat Show, thunderstorms and steady rain sent the weekend crowd scrambling for shelter.

You would expect that the weekend crowds would be the heaviest, but perhaps the weather forecast was a factor. Thursday and Friday were significantly busier with lineups and heavy crowds everywhere you went in the show.  By comparison, Saturday morning was noticeably less busy.

To get a read on the preliminary business results, Boating Industry Canada sought out comments from several Canadians who were working at the show.

Joe Johnston from M&P Mercury in Vancouver was in the Hatteras display. They are taking on the Hatteras line in 2012 for the Pacific North West and have a new 60 Motor Yacht ordered for the Vancouver Boat Show in February. He told us, “Yesterday was a record for visitors to the Hatteras display, so we are seeing encouraging traffic.”

Kevin Marinelli and Ryan Wheeler from Skyline Marina in Ontario, dealers for Sea Ray and Hatteras Yachts, commented that in terms of their customers, it has been a great turnout for Canadians visiting the Fort Lauderdale show.

Ron Hillman of Westerly Yacht Sales in Vancouver was among the most enthusiastic. Ron said, “It’s been great! We have had a ton of people at the Beneteau display and their comments tell us that they really like the boats. Thursday and Friday the people we spoke to were really serious and the crowds were good, but the softness in Saturday’s turnout may be due to the weather. We expect Sunday to be just nuts – the weather is supposed to be excellent. We are certainly happy to be the new Beneteau dealer for the  Pacific North West!”

The Canadian market seems to be holding steady. The results from the Toronto International Boat Show in mid-January are expected to continue to be positive. It’s certainly nice to see Canada’s continued buoyant market receive so much attention from the international marine community.