COMMENT
It’s Showtime... Or not
I
f ever they remake the 1985 movie Back to the Future, the scriptwriters will have to insert a new line where
Doc Brown says to Marty, as he sits in his DeLorean sports car, “For God’s sake Marty, avoid 2020 at all costs, it was a real crappy year and a lot of folk got sick and died.”
I am sure I am not alone in being glad to see the back of 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than a million people and infected many millions more since it was first diagnosed in Europe in January. Over the months that followed, the superyacht industry shuddered as shipyards shut down, countries closed their maritime borders and yacht crews became sick. Owners stopped using yachts and boats shows, superyacht seminars and award dinners where struck from the annual calendar.
Luxury yacht charters melted away like ice cream left in the sunshine and yacht brokers cut back on caviar and opened up cans of beans to eat. Northrop & Johnson, newly acquired by the same US giant conglomerate that had earlier swallowed up Fraser, asked their affluent clients to share their feedback on how COVID-19 was impacting their lifestyle. Most intended to stay away from activities that potentially put themselves at risk like visiting boat shows but 23% declared they would go ahead with charters they had booked with a similar figure cancelling their own bookings. That left 77% in the ‘haven’t got a clue what to do’ category.
Boat show organisers put on a brave face with many declaring bullishly that no matter what, the show must go on, while others quietly bit the bullet and did the decent thing by calling the whole thing off. The yachting industry was left without a single show of international importance. (Note the phraseology there when you suggest
Michael Howorth looks back at 2020 and asks, did we really miss our beloved yacht shows and gala dinners?
to me that FLIBS did in fact go ahead!). The question I now put to you is, did the industry suffer by the lack of a packed boat show agenda? From the down and dirty straw poll I undertook as I sat down to pen these words the answer is an undeniable and irrefutable no! “Best year ever,” said one vendor. Another said, “Expenses down, profits up.” Yacht builders and those involved in selling superyachts stepped up on line marketing activity spending dollars there rather than in having to send teams of people to expensive hotels so they could attend the shows in uncomfortable surroundings. And still the sales went on and contracts were signed. Designers took to Zoom and discussed yacht plans and GAs face to face with clients and business went on as normal.
In Antigua, a colleague confides that the island has definitely missed not having a charter yacht show but questions whether or not the industry was saying, “I don’t believe we will be able to assess that until we have had a Covid free season, but I suspect a boat show will still prove to be necessary for a whole variety of other reasons.”
As Frank Hugelmeyer President of America’s National Marine Manufacture’s Association says, “In a post-COVID world, large consumer events, like industry-owned boat shows, should and must evolve to remain relevant.” He is right! Boat shows do provide an opportunity to excite consumers and allow recreational boating to stand out in a crowded and competitive marketplace. But the fact is that with need and desire to attend boat shows removed, we, the industry got a lot more work done, were able to do things more productively, profitably, proficiently, even perhaps more professionally. But much more importantly, we got to spend more time doing what we wanted to do most, getting back to basics and getting back out on the water!
ONBOARD | WINTER 2021 | 7
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