Looking Good

Jan 25, 2024

Just got back from the Toronto International Boat Show and I was pleasantly surprised in several ways. First, the boats appeared somehow fresh. An impressive batch of new models and certainly a lot of new colours. Aqua hulls, mulberry with matching colour Mercs on the stern. I think it’s not unkind to say boats have been looking much the same, year after year but this year they looked refreshed and energetic.

Also refreshed was the crowd. The weather, while cold, hadn’t delivered the inevitable blizzard that often bamboozles the January event and although Day 1 was a Friday, there was pep in the step of a reasonable-sized coterie of enthusiasts.  Not to be an amateur trendologist, but it occurs to me that maybe the world is finally getting over a gloom that was deeper than we knew. It was just an initial sample, but I sense a bounce in the show visitors and even the people staffing the booths that hasn’t been there for some time.

Take, for example, our own Canadian Boating team members pictured here. You’ll have to agree they look genuinely tickled to be back at the show with PORTS Guides and magazines stacked for our fans.  I know these people – those smiles wouldn’t be faked.

This is just one show, so I would invite our readers to report (email below) on Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver, and the other shows scattered across the country. Do those venues share the upbeat tone I detected?

We are now off to the biggest international shows in Miami and Dusseldorf. Very often those events are indicators of what’s to come here.  Let’s hope for some inspiring boat innovations and a boating boost for all of us ahead.

Caption: Editor Andy Adams, Publisher Jill Snider, and Associate Editor Allegra Smith-Herriott at the Canadian Boating booth on the weekend. Good times!