Fort Lauderdale

25-29 October 2012

The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is one of the largest on-water shows in the world featuring over 3 billion dollars worth of yachts, equipment and services for the large yachting industry.  Superyacht UK organise a pavilion in the Yacht Builders and Designers Tent to showcase the best of British products and services to the affluent American market.

If you are interested in exhibiting please contact Amanda Simpson asimpson@britishmarine.co.uk 01784 223 628

2011 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and Design Award round ups

Fort Lauderdale Boat Show is over for another year and the back end of a hurricane, although more welcome than a real hurricane, made the show into a bit of a damp squib for those with stands.  The Superyacht UK pavilion companies all used the show to network, create new leads and follow up on ongoing projects.  There are a few new projects around and the equipment suppliers need to be seen and available to bring the business in.  The same is true for the yards who pick up leads to follow up and have multiple meetings to bring the next new build or refit project to a conclusion.  The show provides a focus and impetus to bring the business “home to roost”.

The two different design awards timed around the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show have again highlighted the extraordinary dominance of the UK design sector within our industry.  Out of a possible 27 design awards across the two gala evenings UK companies won in 17 of the categories.

Here is the list of companies involved:

• Michael Leach Design – 5 wins in total
• Redman Whitely Dixon
• Dubois
• Rodney Black
• Simon Rogers
• Eidsgaard
• Owen Clarke

I can also add Silverlining to the list because they made the furniture that won an award for Michael Leach Design.

I’ve asked several people how come design is so strong in the UK?  Art colleges, specific yacht design college in Southampton, automotive, product design and architectural college crossovers are some of the answers.  Success also breeds success as “students become the masters” – employees from big name designers have spun off and created their own design studios.  That is the constant evolution of design companies outside of the yacht industry and no different within our industry.  Tim Heywood  worked for John Bannenberg, Bill Dixon for Angus Primrose, Mark Tucker Design Unlimited for Ken Freivokh, Frers for Sparkman Stephens and so on....

Superyacht UK supports the design sector via the Superyacht UK Technical Committee which provides a forum for cross industry issues such as the MLC, and NOX emissions.  We support new designers by promoting the industry to key industrial and product design colleges in the UK and enabling entry to an industry competition in Italy.

Well done to all the winners from the Showboats and ISS awards and well done to the Superyacht UK pavilion companies for enduring what must be the wettest FLIBS on record.

Tom Chant