Scott and I attended the Miami International Boat Show, also known as MIBS last weekend. Luckily for me, I don’t have to actually work this show. This year was totally new in regards to the locations. Since 2016, the main yacht display has been at Herald Plaza off of the causeway and the sailboats were just down the road from there. Back in 2015, the yachts were displayed at Collins Avenue, which ironically is when Scott and I attended the Miami Boat Show. Apparently, the organizers of the show back then, sold the group to the current organizers and this year, they tried something new.
Getting to the Miami International Boat Show
Getting to MIBS is not as easy as you think. First Scott and I took Brightline from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. The boat show, did offer shuttle buses from Brightline, so we took a shuttle to Sailor’s Cove at IGY Marina to start our tour.
At Sailor’s Cove, they had about 30+ yachts, and all, but two of them were catamarans.
Our first tour was a Heysea 50′ sailing cat. They will be making this same model in a power version and we actually loved this yacht. You can watch the full tour in the coming weeks on our YouTube channel.
Then we took a quick peak at their 60′ cat. It was huge and had six staterooms!
In Search of Collins Avenue
Scott looked at one monohull sailing boat and we’ll bring that tour to you on our YouTube. I wasn’t really into jumping on any monohulls, so after about an hour at Sailor’s Cove we headed to Collins Avenue. Once again, there was a shuttle waiting for us and these are nice shuttles! Not school bus shuttles at all. The drive took about 20 minutes and they dropped us off at the halfway point. One thing I noticed right away was there were no food vendors inside the show, nor any portable restrooms. They had only a handful of very small restrooms (still the luxury kind) on the outside of the show.
Our first stop at Collins Avenue at the Miami International Boat Show was Sunseeker. My former employer as they always welcome us. On display they had a gorgeous Sunseeker 80 Enclosed Yacht and only those with brokers were being allowed on. We had the VIP tour all to ourselves and you will want to tune in to that tour! At only 80′ she has the volume of a 100′ yacht.
Looking for a Loop Boat
Well, the Sunseeker 80 certainly is not a Loop Boat, so we were on a mission to find a boat with a flybridge. Low and behold we come upon a brand new boat to the market called Northman 1300 trawler. Shockingly, the price brand new was only $562,000 all in (but without a bimini). These are diesel powered inboards and really perfect for the loop.
Still in Search Of
The sun was getting hotter than we expected and we were in search of another trawler with a flybridge. We did stop at Jeanneau and looked at one model, but at the end of the day, it had gasoline outboards and really steep steps. Not my thing at all.
So we kept on walking in search of something. But Collins Avenue and the Miami International Boat Show is not the place to look for a trawler.
This yacht comes with a side garage for your matching jet ski!
Did We Find a Loop Boat at the Miami International Boat Show?
When we were down at Jeanneau, they recommended we take a second look (we’ve looked many times in the past) at the Swift Trawler. First one we looked at was the 41 Fly which came with twin diesels and a price of $1m new.
But soon the 54 Fly caught my eye! I loved the spacious salon and galley. The staterooms were roomy with lots of storage and the flybridge was easily accessible from the interior with easy to walk up steps.
But unfortunately at $2.3 million this yacht is out of our price range. Maybe we’ll just buy one of these cute tenders and cruise up and down the New River?
Off to the Miami Convention Center
Since we didn’t find anything (yachts, food or restrooms) at Collins Avenue, it was time to head to the Miami Convention Center. Once again, a shuttle took us there in about 25 minutes. Once you arrive, the first thing you come upon is Pride Park with all of the water toys.
It was almost 2pm and we were absolutely starving, so the first thing we did was go straight into the convention center to look for a food vendor. We found a Cuban stand and grabbed a couple of empanadas and croquettes. Time to walk around and see if we might find anything with a fly bridge.
Regal 42 FXO
Low and behold, we actually stumbled upon a 42′ Regal with a fly bridge. It was very narrow and did not look very comfortable. Plus it had gasoline outboards, but it was worth the look.
Looking down on the show from the upper pavilion reminded me so much of the Seattle Boat Show and the Union Marine display.
The upper pavilion has all of your suppliers and vendors. Everything from life rafts to wooden surfboards – you will find what you are looking for here.
The irony of the day, was we noticed a huge sign on the wall that said “Food Court”. So we decided to check it out, and we entered a very large food court. They were selling anything from hamburgers, tacos, salads, pizza, noodles and sandwiches. Who knew!?
That’s a Wrap
After seven long hours, we were done for the day! Gosslings Rum had a nice open air bar (where again you could order more food! LOL) and we sat and enjoyed a cold glass of wine before heading back to the Brightline station. At the end of the day, it was pretty productive. Be sure to tune in and watch our upcoming tours.
As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our channel and on social at @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney.
Cheers, Scott and Ally
