Flamingo 42

Well it happened, the Detroit Boat Show hit a all time low. This years show was so pathetic that I'm giving up on any thought of ever going again. I have come to terms with the exclusion of any performance boats but now it hardly has any fiberglass boats. To add insult to the whole thing, the show is a third the size and the had the ka'hones to raise the price of admission

low_psi

I stopped going many, many yeas ago. That being said, it doesn't surprise me the show was small especially here in Michigan. Given the Unemployment rate, you will probably see a larger selection of boats at the repo houses this year, than at a "boat show".

NKissau

It's been declining for years. So we just started going to Miami for the boat show. Just got back and had a great time. And probably 1/3 of the show is big dollar offshore stuff

Flamingo 42

Miami is on for next year, we went 4 years ago and it was great

AB From Windsor

I worked yesterday as a volunteer at the APBA Gold-Cup Display at Cobo Hall for the day. It was the last day of the show and it was slow. The only performance boat display was the Unlimited Hydros, Miss U-13, the Red Gold-Cup display Unlimited Hydro, Miss U.S. 1 which is being restored and a Formula 1 Tunnel boat for their driving school. It was dead and I wouldn't have gone except I was asked if I could come and volunteer for the day and I am always happy to try and help out to promote performance boating. The show is nothing like it use to be and that seems to be the story at many boat shows, except for Miami.

wjb21ndtown

I stopped going about 4-6 years ago. It had gotten progressively worse since 2003. Smaller exhibits, fewer boats, fewer performance boats, etc. We use to be friends with one of the bigger Donzi exhibits. It was fun just to go down there and talk to Billy, but after he stopped going and the other exhibits started scaling back we stopped going too... I heard the Chicago Boat Show wasn't much better.