2009 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show

Coverage Begins Thursday, Oct. 29th.

Daily coverage of the 2009 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show begins
Thursday, October 29th with news, debuts, pictures and commentary
from YF's dock walkin', yacht talkin', boat boardin' bandits.


This year, the Bahia Mar Resort is hosting the YF Crew, supplying 'round-the-clock coffee and a place to crash while we put FLIBS on your desktop. Come tag along as we rip on rogues and guess the credit scores of posers.

As a prelude to the show, we took a cruise Sunday, October 25th to capture the chaos of yachts battling for berths. Our daily coverage of FLIBS will commence within 24 hours, so please check back. Until then, enjoy this peak at superyachts playing bumper boats at Bahia Mar...


FLIBS Pre-Show Cruise

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If you have any concerns about buying a boat this year, don't worry...

Wednesday Night, October 28th...

Breaking News! Ft. Lauderdale sets record high tide, eclipsing the highest full moon tide ever recorded, as dozens of near 200-foot long superyachts displace so much water that seawalls cave under pressure, leaving mere 100-footers feeling like welfare recipients. In this picture, Feadship's poor little 168' "Enterprize V' is dwarfed like a genetically challenged, blue-hulled step child desperately in need of growth hormone.

Only one slip was left vacant, between Enterprize V and Sea Bowld. Hey, when a boat looks like a battle ship, best to give her a wide berth.

At 151-feet, Burger's beautiful fantail cruiser "Sycara IV" had to extend her sprit to get noticed.

Sycara stands in stark contrast to today's superyachts, while standing for yesteryear's values.

Trinity had five superyachts over 150-feet, lined-up like production built boats coming off an assembly line...

As if five yachts from one builder wasn't enough to tilt the docks in their favor, lest we forget the 60-meter "Bacarella", the 6th yacht in Trinity's 2009 FLIBS line-up. Once you get over the sheer magnitude of this monster, a closer look reveals this is one of Trinity's most significant splashes. It's truly an "international" yacht. A full YF review will follow...

As we reflect on our day, we'll wave good-bye for now and hit it hard in the AM...

Rise and shine yacht watchers! Talk about a million dollar view, this is our backyard this morning, looking southwest from the 4th floor of Bahia Mar.

Thursday, October 29th - Opening Day

We spent most of premiere day in the builders tent, meeting with OEM and aftermarket manufacturers, looking at the latest products and launches.

Our first stop was to meet Becky White from Caterpillar who informed us a C-9 ACERT has been developed that is compatible with the Zeus Pod-Drive System, giving consumers the reliability and world-wide support of Caterpillar's engines, coupled with the maneuverability and simplicity of joystick docking in a complete propulsion package.

Steven Vidakovic (on right) from Naiad Dynamics, unveiled a scale model of their new patent pending, extendable stabilizer fin that increases in length to produce more effective anti-roll control while holding a stationary position.

SeaVision debuted their largest, brightest underwater light to date. No product images were available at the time.

VriPack displayed a 3-D model of their virtual engineering work, showing a cut-away of an engine room and hull form.

Here's a close-up of VriPack's scale model cross-section...