A show with gawking power

June Casagrande

As recently as five years ago, “big” at the Lido Yacht Expo meant

boats averaging about 40 feet long. Try pondering that as you’re

staring agape at the leviathan of this year’s show, a 127-foot,

$13.5-million megayacht named Dakota that local boat dealer Crow’s

News will have on display.

“They just get bigger and bigger every year,” said Duncan

McIntosh, presenter of the annual show, now in its 25th year.

The show, which touts itself as “The Ultimate Big Boat Show,”

features larger vessels for one simple reason: It can.

“There aren’t many other places where you can get boats this big

in the water,” McIntosh said. “The only reason we can do it is

because we build all these extra docks to make room for them.”

This year, a total of about 150 small floating docks will be

strung together in Lido Marina to make way for the nearly 200 boats

that will be on display. Though none can outsize the Dakota, the

largest and most expensive vessel in the show’s history, a number of

other show-stoppers scheduled to weigh anchor.

The Baia 63 Azzura is a high-performance yacht that boasts “sports

car agility and performance in pure Italian style.” The 82-foot

Horizon Cockpit Motor Yacht, custom built in Taiwan, will sport a

$2.7-million price tag. And the new 59-foot Nomad Long Range Cruising

Sportfisher will be on hand to show off its three staterooms,

split-level salon and raised Lanai deck.

But despite the show’s pure gawking value, a lot of the people who

attend are serious boat buyers and many of them go home with a

contract in hand.

“The first day of the show is when most of the serious buyers turn

out because they don’t want to show up the next day and find out that

someone else bought their dream boat,” McIntosh said. “But by Sunday,

there are a lot of people who come out just to see the boats and have

a good time.”