PBIBS20: New May dates picked for Palm Beach boat show

Just five days after postponing the 35th edition of the Palm Beach International Boat Show, organizers have rescheduled the four-day show for May 14-17 in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to the show website.

“We remain optimistic that this event happens in May,” said Alyssa Freeman, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, the show’s owner. “The show is a huge economic driver and a lot of businesses depend on it. We hope the boats and the people who are here will be extending their stays and that by that time, the CDC will have eased restrictions. We’re just taking this day by day.”  

Superyacht Show Palm Beach, which was slated to run concurrently with the Palm Beach show, was cancelled. That smaller, large yacht show will debut on March 25-28, 2021, at the Flagler Museum across the Intracoastal Waterway.

The inaugural Superyacht Experience, a third gathering of large yachts slated for the same time frame, also remains canceled, according to Patrick Coote with the show’s marketing company. The show was to be held in conjunction with the Superyacht Builders Association (SYBAss) at Rybovich.

“Unfortunately, it will not be feasible to reschedule The Superyacht Experience in Palm Beach again in 2020,” he wrote in an email to The Triton. “The event has been created by LYBRA and SYBAss as a unique display of the largest and very best quality yachts for sale and charter. Yachts of this calibre will often plan their global itineraries, charters and shipyard maintenance periods up to two years in advance. For this reason, postponing to a date later in 2020 would clash with the owners’ other pre-planned commitments around the world. Weather patterns and the hurricane season are also factors that need to be taken into consideration.”

Plans to launch The Superyacht Experience in 2021 are underway, Coote said. 

ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 12, 2:29 pm

The 35th edition of the Palm Beach International Boat Show has been “postponed until further notice” due to “global health concerns” in reference to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The show was scheduled to run March 26-29 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The information was shared on the show website, www.pbboatshow.com, as of mid-afternoon today. It includes no information about a new date.

The inaugural Superyacht Experience 2020, scheduled to be held concurrently with the Palm Beach International Boat Show, has been cancelled, according to LYBRA. The show was to be held in conjunction with the Superyacht Builders Association (SYBAss) at Rybovich.

“We regrettably have no option but to cancel the inaugural edition of The Superyacht Experience at Rybovich Marina,” Raphael Sauleau, LYBRA president, said. “We had an incredible line-up of superyachts confirmed for the show, overwhelming industry support and strong interest from buyers but health and safety is of course the top priority.”

“The current restrictions affecting Italian citizens as well as flights from Europe unfortunately means that many of our members are now unable to travel to the U.S.,” Theo Hooning, Secretary General of SYBAss, said. “These limitations, along with our overriding concern for public welfare, mean that we are left with no option but to cancel the 2020 event.”

Several of the exhibiting yachts are already in Rybovich.

The virus was first called the coronavirus and reported to the World Health Organization in December. The new disease was declared a pandemic, an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population, on March 11.

Palm Beach show producer Informa U.S. Boat Shows and the show’s owner, the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, have referred website users to World Health Organization Resources for information and travel advice.