After watching Miami and New York City stage their own boat shows in the first half of the 20th century, Fort Lauderdale’s Downtown Kiwanis Club decided to have one too, with an added emphasis on fishing.
And so, the first Boat and Sports Show was held from Feb. 5 to 7, 1954, at the National Guard Armory, with proceeds benefiting the Downtown Kiwanis Club’s underprivileged children’s fund, according to an account in the Fort Lauderdale News, the predecessor to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
From those humble beginnings evolved the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, a massive citywide celebration of all things boating — and some things not — that opened Wednesday throughout seven locations in the city.
Repeat attendees may not notice much difference compared with last year. The scene is centered around big, mostly bright white boats, from the priciest yachts to the smallest inflatable skiffs, jammed hull-to-hull at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center and six marinas lining the Intracoastal Waterway.
Stand just about anywhere amid the exhibit tents, pop-up restaurants and bars, watercraft lineups, and parts and accessories displays, and you can easily forget where you are. The show is huge: 3 million square feet of exhibit space, 6 miles of floating docks, 1,200 exhibitors and 1,500 boats, according to estimates from the show’s owner, Marine Industries Association of South Florida, and its promoter, Informa U.S. Boat Shows.
While this year’s event is expected to attract more than 110,000 visitors from at least 52 countries — generating $857 million in economic activity — that first show in 1954 attracted just 5,000 to 10,000 visitors. Still, that must have been enough to convince organizers they were on to a good idea.
The first show exhibited “cabin cruisers, sport fishing craft, outboard motors, fishing gear and a variety of other marine equipment,” according to a 1954 story in the Fort Lauderdale News.
The show moved to the War Memorial Auditorium the following year and became known as the Kiwanis Boat Show.
In 1960, owners of the Pier 66 Yacht Club created their own two-day show in July, featuring in-water displays. It proved popular, and the Marine Industries Association of Broward County took over ownership of it in 1963. The final Kiwanis-sponsored show takes place in February 1961.
In 1968, the largest boat on display was 53 feet, according to a timeline created by the boat show’s promoters.
In 1970, the boat show moved inside the Port Everglades Passenger Terminal complex for three years, which would be logistically difficult if not impossible today amid the post-Sept. 11 security requirements at the port.
In 1974, the show debuted at a new site in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It occupied more than 2,800 feet of dockage areas on both sides of the New River, as well as a six-block section of South New River Drive East. Because the event was staged over July 4 weekend, attendees were allowed to park at city and county buildings downtown. The show returned to the downtown site the following year and in 1976.
But later that year, the Bahia Mar Yachting Center hosted what for the first time was called “Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show” on Oct. 28-31, promoted by a company called Yachting Promotions, which was sold to current promoter Informa in 2017. The summer version of the boat show was discontinued after 1976.
By 1988, Bahia Mar began accommodating larger vessels. Expansion to the then-newly built convention center took place in 1991, and 200-foot yachts were docking by 1996.
Hector Medina’s association with the show goes back almost that far. Medina, a senior account executive for The Loomis Co., a Fort Lauderdale-based property and casualty insurance agency, said he’s been coming to the show with the company for 23 years.
The company doesn’t sell many policies during the show, but the contacts it makes lead to 20 to 30 new policies a year, making attendance well worthwhile, he said.
Medina said the most notable changes through the years has been a broadening of exhibits beyond strictly marine-related goods and services.
“Today, you’ve got T-shirts and magazines, food, music, things for families to do. And it’s a lot bigger,” he said.
In the exhibit tents, vendors promote sunglasses and knife sets, and business owner Clara Syphrit sells sheer lacy cover-up dresses meant for women to wear over their swimwear.
Syphrit said she began designing and manufacturing the dresses three years ago specifically to sell at the boat show because her husband was already selling boating hats at the show.
A few feet away, marine artist and conservationist Guy Harvey stood at his booth, greeting customers and promoting his iconic line of marine-themed apparel. “We started with fish art on T-shirts at the show in 1986,” and he has exhibited for 33 straight years since, he said. “I’m here all five days. I like to meet the people.”
This year marks his return as the show’s featured artist — he created the program cover and official promotional poster — after a 10-year absence from the gig. Prior to the absence, he was the official artist for 17 years.
The boat show has been critical to his success, he said, in boosting the visibility of his apparel line through the years, not only to retail customers but to distributors, licensees and manufacturers.
In the past several years, the show has also become a meeting hub for marine researchers from South Florida’s major universities — Nova Southeastern, University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic and University of Miami — which Harvey cares deeply about.
He said he’s enjoyed watching the show grow in number and range of vessels and exhibits, “whether you’re a boat manufacturer or accessories guy — I’m definitely an accessories guy.”
The boat show is a perfect fit for the Guy Harvey line, he said: “Our brand’s home is Fort Lauderdale. And this is like our home show. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
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