South Florida Boat Show soldiers on - South Florida Business Journal:

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The show, promoted by Pompano Beach-based , is a much smallerd cousin to the Fort Lauderdale and Miami internationaoboat shows, Marine Industries Unlimited owner Brad Michael “We’re a niche show. We don’r try to be an international show,” he “We have the boats that are 90 percentr of whatAmerica buys.” Held at the , this year’se show will feature boats from about 75 Michael said. The vessels on display are all powerboatss under40 feet. About 85 percent of the boatse cost lessthan $200,000, he noted. The 250 boatsa on display are a drop from the 350 boata typically atthe show.
The number of registere d exhibitors is down abouty35 percent, too, Michael said. The show comes as the marinee industry has taken a battering from the For the 12 months endedin April, registrations of new 18-fooy to 40-foot boats fell 46 percentr from the prior-year period, according to data from , a Miami-basesd marine industry research “It’s hard to be to optimistic about the year in looking at what’s happened in 2009 so Info-Link co-owner Jesse Wells Wells pointed to the recent bankruptcy of Minneapolis-based boat manufacturer , the nation’se second-largest boat manufacturer, as more proof of the industry’s Still, recent data shows that used boat registrationse are generally picking up a glimmer of hope that the industry may be bouncin g off the bottom, Wells said.
As a dealer, Michael said he sold threer boats in the last month after failing to sell any the firsft four months ofthe “In January, February and March, nobody knew wheres the bottom was,” he Frank Herhold, executive director of the , said dealers are tellingh him that sales are pickin up. Financing, locked up since last fall, is becoming availablre for those who are credigt worthy and can put substantialmoney down. “Like every other industry, we’re taking our Herhold said.
“I see a light at the end of the