FLIBS and FISH Update

5th November, 2010. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) closed on Monday. It appears to have been a succesful show with a widespread air of cautious optimism in the super yacht tents and along the super yacht dock.  Everyone I spoke with was eager to see an end to the recession and do whatever was necessary to encourage recovery.

The super yacht and electronics tents had been re organised, which I think was a success, even though the stand numbers seem to be missing and the show plan in the directory didn't bear much resemblance to the "as built" layout!

I only spent a couple of days rapidly scanning the show for new technology and catching up with our suppliers and business colleagues. I was dissappointed not to find anything very exciting on the technology front.  Our colleagues from MTN and Jetstream were showing live TV from all around the world on a screen on the booth using an MTN VSAT live through the roof of the tent.

A few previous exhibitors in the communications arena, such as Marlink, were notable by their absence. 

There were a massive proliferation of domes in the electronics tent, most of which were KVH antennas. Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine and Navico had very impressive booths with lots of nice, new integrated kit.  I was very pleased to see that the Simrad components that are part of the B&G package now have all been badged B&G. Thus there is a great new B&G plotter based on the Simrad software but with the B&G sailing features incorporated.

Everywhere I went iPads were in use as part of product offerings, expecially in the monitoring and AV product areas.  Also every one was using them as sales tools to display their products.

In the security field I came across a very neat pair of low light night vision binoculars from OceanView at a very modest price which were very easy to use.  These would be a great addition on the bridge of any yacht of any size.  We will be adding these binoculars to our website shortly and hope to have a pair at the Antigua Charter Show.

Finally we went out to test some latest fishing technology that uses a kite, a technology first developed 2,000 years ago in China, to fish for sail fish.  

 As you can see it was a success. Please note the fabulous sail fish was returned to the sea after the photo.

 

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