The Ocean City Boat Show is underway and attendance appears to be steady. Vendors have filled all the booths. But are the boat enthusiasts buying? This is the question being asked at delmarvanow.com
“The way the economy is, you’re glad to talk to anybody,” said Mary McCurdy of North Bay Marina in Fenwick Island. “Used to be, people would fall into boats like fish. Now you have to earn the sale.”
The McCurdy’s display of pontoon boats anchors the main exhibit hall of the Roland E. Powell Convention Center for the 26th annual Seaside Boat Show, sponsored by the Ocean City/Berlin Optimist Club. More than 140 exhibitors are on hand, with at least two dozen boat dealers. Last year’s event drew about 17,000 people, and organizers said they expect roughly the same turnout this year.
McCurdy and other vendors said the Ocean City boat show has earned its reputation for having a steady stream of people who come to buy, not just kick the tires. They say the event typically brings as many thousands of people to the resort as they’d see at similar shows in Baltimore or Philadelphia.
“Most people who come here are second homeowners anyway. For most of them, a boat isn’t just an investment, it’s enjoyment. People that are boat buyers are — I hate to say it — in a different class,” she sad.
Ocean City’s boat show is so popular that potential vendors, exhibitors and dealers are put on a waiting list, and depending on what you’re selling — luxury boats versus dockside knick-knacks, for example — there are different waiting lists. McCurdy said she hasn’t seen a new boat dealer on the floor in 15 years.
Paul McWilliams of Oceana Boatworks in Willards said he was wait-listed for four years before getting onto the exhibition floor for the first time this weekend.
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