The 2024 Melbourne Boat Show concluded on Sunday, with the organiser, the Boating Industry Association of Victoria, deeming the event a great success.
The Show started with a spectacular site set-up by the 100+ exhibitors, across seven full marinas, and over a kilometre of waterfront exhibits and activations. The weather came good late on Saturday morning, and from then on, the visitors flocked in. The final count was 38,837 visitors, and whilst fewer than 2023, still a great number given the tricky and wet weather on the Thursday and Friday. BIAV CEO Steve Walker paid tribute to the exhibitors, sponsors and supporters, acknowledging the great display delivered, and the fantastic experience provided to current and potential boaters.
Initial exhibitor feedback was especially positive. Bar Crusher’s Sam Holmes commenting, “Great event momentum, crowds were in. Next year we’ll be there”. Rhys Withers at Cranbourne BC was equally enthused stating “Thanks for another great Show. The response from visitors to our brands blew us away”. “We had clients come in from Adelaide to see and buy our yacht. And there’s more sales in the pipeline”, added 38 South’s Rohan Veal.
First time exhibitor, Triple H Marine seemed pleased, stating “We were greeted warmly and couldn’t have asked for more. A magnificent opportunity to showcase our business to the boating Community”. There was also a long list of exhibitors indicating an appetite for additional space in 2025, and numerous ‘we’ll be back’, comments.
Another highly impressed stakeholder was Minister Steve Dimopoulos, who on Saturday, in advance of presenting the KGM SsangYong Apprentice Awards, doubled down on the state government’s financial commitment to the event for 2025. As Minister for Boating (Recreation), Major Events, Tourism, and Environment, the minister is well placed to recognise the Melbourne Boat Show’s value across his various portfolios, and the state. Taking out the key awards were James Heritage from Anchorage Houseboats, as Apprentice of the Year, and Tim’s Phillips at the Wooden Boat Shop, for Apprentice Employer of the Year.
As well as the 100+ world class exhibits, visitors were treated to a suite of great activations. Popular among them were the Honda Marine Main Stage edutainment presentations, the heritage and Wooden Boat Precinct, Cookie’s Supertank, Hooked Up’s Rig Rundown, and the Suzuki Marine Precinct. This featured a kidz zone, fishing simulators and seafood cooking with Step Outside’s Paul Burt.
Of the 100+ exhibits several stood out however congratulations go to the winner of the Best On-water Exhibit, 38 South Boat Sales, and the Best On-land Exhibit, Melbourne Malibu/SeaDoo/Quintrex. Jason Sutherland from 38 South Boat Sales was delighted with the award, commenting that the whole site looked great and they were very proud to take out the prize. Trent Wadrope for Malibu was equally enthused, taking great pride in what he described as a career aspiration to be involved in winning such a great award.
BIAV President Scott O’Hare heaped praise on the exhibitors collective, noting the high quality of all of the displays, and the amount of work going into them all. Scott going on to recognise the efforts of the BIAV team to develop and deliver the event, as well as New Tack for its fantastic operational support role and many of the event’s other contributors.
Plans are afoot for a very significant boat show year in 2025 with a Geelong Boat Show announced for the 15/16 March 2025 period, and a 63rd Melbourne Boat Show for Docklands in mid/late October. BIAV is already fielding enquiries for the Geelong event, and acknowledging additional space requests for October at Docklands.
