If you start in the morning with the Miami Convention Center and tackle Venetian Park Marina and Pride Park that afternoon, you can be done with the Miami International Boat Show in one day. It can be done. You just have to stay focused and put in the work.
But the February 11-16 event runs for six freaking days. Even if you take things at a glacial pace, you’re guaranteed to come up with time on your hands.
Years back, I filled at least one day of my Miami-show time at the Yacht Brokerage event on Collins Avenue. With the exception of a few freelance stories I wrote for a long-called magazine called Voyaging, I’ve never covered the yacht market.
So my visits to the Yacht Brokerage affair, which ran concurrently with the Miami Boat Show but was independent of it, were purely self-indulgent. I couldn’t afford a yacht and still can’t—the same can be said for performance boats but I still cover the breed—but I could dream and fantasize about them. Year in and year out, the hardware on display was the stuff of dreams.
Plus, some of the yacht brokers served upscale food and drink gratis, yet two more fine reasons to to escape the convention center and other standard Miami show venues.
And then in 2019 the yacht event was gone. Which sucked. At least for me.
Now, it’s back—or will be in 2026. Set again to run concurrently with the Miami event and back on Collins Avenue, what once was called the Yacht Brokerage Show will be reborn the Miami Beach Yacht Collection. Yachts from the Azimut, Absolute, Aquila, Cruisers, Ferretti, Galeon, HCB, Mangusta, Pardo, Prestige, Princess, Riviera, Sanlorenzo, Schaefer, Solaris, Sunreef, Sunseeker, Tiara, Vanquish, Viking and other brands will be displayed.
Of course, the goal of the organizers is to “attract serious buyers,” according to a joint press release from Discover Boating and the Miami International Boat Show, and who could blame? Regardless boat-category, the goal of any boat exhibit is to—go figure—sell boats.
But you never know. You might just see something you like. And then your high-performance center console becomes your super-yacht tender.
So why not take make a dry-trip to Collins Avenue during the Miami show and take a gander? At the very least, it will get you into the sun and out of the convention center.