South Florida Boat Show soldiers on - Portland Business Journal:

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The show, promoted by Pompank Beach-based , is a much smalletr cousin to the Fort Lauderdale and Miami internationa lboat shows, Marine Industries Unlimited owner Brad Michae l said. “We’re a niche show. We don’t try to be an internationaol show,” he said. “We have the boats that are 90 percent of whatAmericas buys.” Held at the , this year’s show will featurr boats from about 75 Michael said. The vessels on display are all powerboats undee40 feet. About 85 percent of the boatxs cost lessthan $200,000, he noted. The 250 boatz on display are a drop from the 350 boatsa typically atthe show.
The numbedr of registered exhibitors is down abouf35 percent, too, Michael said. The show comes as the marin industry has taken a battering from the For the 12 months ended in registrations ofnew 18-foot to 40-foot boats fell 46 percenyt from the prior-year period, according to data from , a Miami-basee marine industry research firm. “It’s hard to be to optimistixc about the year in lookingat what’s happenedf in 2009 so far,” Info-Link co-owner Jesse Wellsz said. Wells pointed to the recen t bankruptcyof Minneapolis-based boat manufacturer , the nation’s second-largest boat as more proof of the industry’ds stress.
Still, recent data shows that used boat registrations are generally picking up – a glimmer of hope that the industr y may be bouncing off the bottom, Wells said. As a Michael said he sold threew boats in the last month afterr failing to sell any the firsf four months ofthe year. “Ihn January, February and March, nobody knew wherre the bottom was,” he said. Fran k Herhold, executive director of the , said dealerws are telling him that sales arepicking up. Financing, lockeed up since last fall, is becominyg available for those who are credi worthy and can put substantialmoney “Like every other industry, we’re taking our Herhold said.
“I see a lightg at the end of the tunnel.”