Palm Beach International Boat Show

Charter a Private Jet to the Palm Beach International Boat Show

For more than 30 years, the Palm Beach International Boat Show has been drawing boating enthusiasts to the beautiful downtown Palm Beach waterfront to see the most luxurious of the luxury mega yachts.

One of the Top 5 boat shows in the country, the Palm Beach boat show has billions of dollars’ worth of watercraft and marine supplies on display.

Flying Private to the Palm Beach International Boat Show

If you want to be one of the tens of thousands of visitors to the southeast Florida four-day event, Paramount Business Jets can arrange a charter for you into any nearby airport, including:

• Palm Beach International Airport, KPBI, PBI, West Palm Beach, United States (3 miles)
• Palm Beach County Park Airport, KLNA, LNA, West Palm Beach, United States (8 miles)
• N County/General Aviation Airport, KF45, F45, West Palm Beach, United States (14 miles)
• Wellington Aero Club Airport, FD38, FD38, West Palm Beach, United States (15 miles)
• Antiquers Aerodrome Airport, FD08, FD08, Delray Beach, United States (18 miles)
• William P Gwinn Airport, 06FA, 06FA, Jupiter, United States (22 miles)
• Boca Raton Airport, KBCT, BCT, Boca Raton, United States (23 miles)
• Pompano Beach Airpark Airport, KPMP, PMP, Pompano Beach, United States (32 miles)
• Indiantown Airport, X58, X58, Indiantown, United States (33 miles)
• Witham Field Airport, KSUA, SUA, Stuart, United States (34 miles)

About the Show

It’s not as big as the shows in neighboring Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but that can be a good thing for visitors.

The Palm Beach International Boat Show is considered more user friendly in many ways.

There is no dearth of things to see. There are still more than 1,000 boats – from 8-foot inflatables to 200-foot superyachts – on display in the water and on land.

And getting to Palm Beach’s Intracoastal Waterway to see them is easier than getting to the boats at some bigger shows. There is ample parking within walking distance and there are docks for seafaring visitors.

The event gets bigger every year. In 2015, 40,000 visitors came to see $1.4 billion worth of boats.

Relatively new at the show is the AquaZone, a 60- by 30-foot pool where visitors can check out water toys and small watercraft such as paddleboards, kayaks, and hovercraft. Seminars on topics like paddleboard yoga and kayak fishing are crowd-pleasers.

Whether you just want to look at boats, buy one or get training for the one you have, you’ll find something of interest at the show. An on-the water training workshop offered by the U.S. Coast Guard has garnered plenty of interest for those who want to get better at things such as maneuvering in close quarters, anchoring the boat or on how to be a first-class first-mate.

There are also sport fishing seminars and workshops for kids.

Did You Know?

Here are some fascinating facts about yachts:

• A 320-foot superyacht costs about $275 million but buying it is just the start of its expense.
• The yearly cost of operating a boat is about 10 percent of its selling price. That $275 million yacht costs about $27.5 million a year in upkeep, including crew, port, and fuel charges. Yacht owners can expect to pay annual dockage fees of $350,000 and $240,000 for insurance. Maintenance, repairs, and crew salaries can be in the millions. Filling a tank on a large yacht can be as much as $250,000.

  
  

• Most superyachts are built in the Netherlands, Italy, or New Zealand, but they are manufactured – sometimes over years – in places as unlikely as Maine.

  
  

• If you don’t want to buy a superyacht, you can always charter one. In fact, leasing out the yachts is the way in which brokers make their money while waiting for a boat to sell. The cost? To charter a yacht for a week, expect to pay at least $150,000 with a 25 percent add-on for food, alcohol, fuel and port charges.

  
  

• Eight companies make 80 percent of the megayachts on the world charter market.

  
  

• What is believed to be the world’s biggest – 468 feet – and most expensive – $376 million – sailing yacht is owned by a Russian billionaire who made his money in fertilizer, coal, power, and pipes.

Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko is 43 years old with a net worth of some $9 billion and a wife who is a former model (surprise, surprise). His yacht, “Sailing Yacht A,” has eight decks and 300-foot tall masts. It also has one of the largest pieces of curved glass ever made (it’s 193 sq. ft. and weighs 1.8 tons) and an underwater observation room.

Besides Middle East royalty, other billionaire yacht owners are Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Dreamworks’ David Geffen.