Much as powerboat-builders of all stripes would love it, most boat-show attendees don’t come to buy a boat. At least half of them are just looking for something fun to do on a weekend, and strolling around a boat-show to tire-kick—cocktail in hand—with friends fills the bill.
Legitimate, purposeful potential buyers are few and far between at such events. That’s not a dig on boat shows or the people who love them, just reality.
But a lot of current boat owners do come to boat shows, such as the famed Fort Lauderdale version in South Florida that opened today, with hopes of finding something to upgrade or update their existing rides. You know, something that costs a whole lot less than a new boat.
And there’s plenty of that to check out in Fort Lauderdale this week.
To find out what’s hot, I reached out to the folks at CP Performance and Hardin Marine Both are leaders in the aftermarket upgrade segments.
“On the outboard performance side, Mercury Racing’s 450R and 500R engines are fast becoming a new platform for the aftermarket performance products manufacturers,” a Hardin Marine rep explained. “We’ve been working with top outfits such as Belak Marine Products to offer upgrades that include a MoTec ECU, supercharger pulley kits, an upgraded throttle body and a billet blower snout with more products soon to follow.
It’s not just about increasing outboard power, it’s also about offering products that can handle it,” he continued. “We’ve got prop-shafts in development made of 300m material similar to the #6 and #8 prop shafts.
Though outboard engines still dominate the go-fast boating world, CP and Hardin haven’t stop creating upgrades for stern-drive-engine equipped powerboats. Far from it, in fact.
“For the stern drive guys we’re bringing the latest in simplified installations for trim and tab monitoring systems,” the Hardin rep said. “We will offer the brightest , fastest and most- accurate 38-LED indicator panel solution, ever. Our NEMA CAN-BUS-style system integrates to work seamlessly as a stand-alone panel popular in championship catamaran racing application or in sync with a glass panel Simrad or Garmin dash panel.
What makes us even more unique is you used to be limited by your older generation tabs or drive sensors stuck in a world of cables or you had to buy entirely new trim tabs or gimbals,” he added. “We bring the latest technology to previous generation boats bridging the technology gap.”
