MacGregorSailors.com

Boat shows are a business. The people that put them on cater to the larger dealers because that is where they get most of their income.
I've done indoor shows where I was put in a corner, had to be the first one in and the last one out, and almost got blocked in by a home-improvement show setting up for the next week-end. One show had 25' spaces so I had to pay for 2 for a 26' boat.
The last in-water show I did, I put my boat in my assigned slip, got back to my shop and had a message waiting that I had to move it because the mega-dealer next to me wanted one more slip. I had done a large mailing where I had sent out over 100 tickets to potential customers, which I had to pay for wether they were used or not. Many were turned off because I was not where I said I would be and assumed I didn't show up after some had travelled hundreds of miles to the show.
After the show they tried to over-bill me. They said they measured the boats and I owed them several hundred dollars more. I checked the math and aparently the person sending out the bills read 36' instead of 26', and charged me accordingly. It took months to straighten out. A year later they called and asked why I wasn't in their show, which I had done for 5 years.
I did one show with another Mac dealer, where we agreed on our sales territory. I found out later that he had sold a boat to a customer in my territory when he told that customer to come to me with a problem.
MacGregor does not compensate a dealer for doing a show. They can be expensive and time consuming. Insurance alone would now cost 5 times as much, for the same coverage, as when I did shows.
I will do a Boat Show at BOATS 4 SAIL for anyone at any time convenient to them.

Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL wrote:I will do a Boat Show at BOATS 4 SAIL for anyone at any time convenient to them.

I knew that Bill, which is why the manufacturer must build it into their prices, if they think it's important.

Gene Arena (Arena Yacht Sales, Alameda) had done the Alameda/Oakland show for so many years that he had first dibs on the center aisle of the big tent, where the mast could be fully raised. Even Hunter and Catalina couldn't get his center stage, so they battled it out on the end. Recent years, though, Gene's son Dan had manned the show. (Gene was well past 80 years when I bought my boat from him in '99 . . . .Fair winds, Gene!)

Frank C wrote:...Gene Arena (Arena Yacht Sales, Alameda) had done the Alameda/Oakland show for so many years that he had first dibs on the center aisle of the big tent, where the mast could be fully raised. Even Hunter and Catalina couldn't get his center stage, so they battled it out on the end. Recent years, though, Gene's son Dan had manned the show.

I don't know if we are talking about the same show, but I was recently at the Jack London Show in Oakland, and Arena did NOT have a center position. He was actually outside the tent in the overflow area. Olympic Boat Centers had the entire center of the tent.

I bought my boat from Dan, so I had an interest in dropping in to see them while I was there.

--Mark