A Schooner Is a Sailboat, Stupidhead

This year’s incarnation of the esteemed Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show promises to be bigger and, um, boatier than ever, with what flacks call “two billion dollars’ worth of runabouts, sportfishers, high-performance boats, cabin cruisers, express cruisers, sailing yachts, motor yachts, bowriders, catamarans, trawlers, inflatables, canoes, and extraordinary superyachts.” That’s quite a list, but we’ve got a bone to pick with you boat show boys: What is there to see for the fervent dinghy enthusiast? Are dinghies to be left out, as always, in the damp cold while these so-called superyachts (80-foot-plus behemoths of the seas) steal all the glory? Typical.

Dinghies aside, the 48th version of the show, happening Thursday through Monday, will be spread across six locations full of freshly waxed floating goodness. Bahia Mar will host the Superyacht Showcase. The Hall of Fame Marina will put on a brokerage show and Exotic Car Showcase, while Las Olas Marina shows off a collection of sleek catamarans. The Broward Convention Center will display a huge assortment of watercraft and nautical goods, and the Fort Lauderdale Grand and Hyatt Pier 66 will alternate showings of the “Queen of the Show,” the 223-foot superyacht Kismet. Tickets run from $5 to $30, and transportation between sites is available for $10 per day.
Oct. 25-29, 2007