Plenty of good—and a little bad—to report from the new venue of the world’s greatest boat show. Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Far from perfect and in definite need of tweaking for 2017, the 2016 Miami International Boat Show at Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key Feb. 11-15 was not the disaster of Biblical proportions that so many cynics predicted it would be. True, getting a water taxi anywhere at the end of each day was a 60- to 90-minute exercise in patience, and getting a land taxi wasn’t much better. Restrooms never seemed to be close by when needed and the food prices, which reportedly skyrocketed from stupid during show setup to absurd once the show opened, were insulting.
While the main tents housing engines, accessories and smaller powerboats were immaculate and attractive, the smaller tent areas that wound their way along the shore were anything but and required a significant hike to access, as did the public parking area. Once the show got crowded, walking the docks—large groups that stop in their tracks and are oblivious to the pedestrian traffic they’re blocking never cease to amaze me—without getting knocked into the water became a challenge.
That’s it. That’s all I’ve got for complaints about the 2016 Miami International Boat Show.
and then