Great Start to Toronto International Boat Show Bodes Well for 2012 Sales
Saturday, January 14 was opening day for the 2012 Toronto International Boat Show and the crowds poured in and stayed till closing with busy aisles and painfully long line ups to go aboard many of the more “aspirational” boats.
The weather was cooperative and that continued through Sunday with lower crowd levels but not by much. More importantly, several dealers told us that they were writing sales contracts. When we asked one exhibitor how his first weekend was, he answered, “Smokin! We have deals on five of our new express cruisers!”
The CASBA boating safety awards dinner was Sunday night and well attended with 8 interesting and worthy awards being presented.
Monday morning was the NMMA Canada Annual General Meeting where a new research statistical abstract was introduced and also, the annual Hall of Fame Award was presented.
This year’s winner is Ross Jardine who in partnership with Gordon Elliott founded Campion boats. Although his health prevented Ross from being at the show in person, his son Rex Jardine flew in from BC to accept the award which was presented by NMMA Board Member Chris Goulder of Volvo Penta. Brock Elliott who now operates Campion was also present for the Hall of Fame presentation.
Caption: Brock Elliott, General Manager of Campion Boats (left) joins Ross Jardine's son Rex in accepting the NMMA Hall of Fame Award from Volvo Penta's Chris Goulder.
