Oct 3, 2023

I hope there will be many of our Boating Industry Canada News Week readers at IBEX 2023 because this promises to be a blockbuster show.  The Covid pandemic caused problems for many people especially those in the shows and exhibitions business and yet the boat business experienced an historic sales boom because of it. IBEX 2020 was cancelled for the pandemic, went virtual in 2021 and then had to be cancelled again in 2022 for Hurricane Ian.

You can imagine after three years without a regular IBEX Show, we are all excited to get back to normal at IBEX 2023 and to see the wide range of new products finally getting their day in the sun. I feel sure that the delayed gratification will be worth the wait!

I can tell you there are more Innovation Awards product entries than ever before. I’m a judge and I’ve been hours reviewing the award applications. 

Watch Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest for the summary of the IBEX Innovation Award winners as well as an absolute boatload of great new products that have come out in the past three years while things were shut down.

Imagine the advances in marine electronics that have happened in the past three years! That will be amazing, and product advances in composites resins and fabrics, in infusion techniques and materials and far more. I hear that the MASSIVIT 3D system will be there and on display. I’m hoping they will demonstrate laying out a whole boat in multi-layer deposition. 

I have a demo ride booked on the Avikus self-driving boat. I hear it really works, and is very impressive but to small boat cruisers and sailors like us, it seems to take the fun out of boating! We will see what the reality is.

If you happen to see me there, do say hello, but until after the Industry Breakfast and IBEX Innovation Awards presentations on Tuesday morning, I may not be able to stop for long!

Andy Adams – Editor