Bahia Mar BEFORE the boat show - VACANT!

In less than two weeks, Bahia Mar will be transformed into the world's largest boat show. Can you imagine the logistics of bringing several hundred yachts into one marina... over about a 10 day period? Show Management truly deserves a lot of credit!

I'll try to take pictures of Bahia Mar from these same angles the day before the show for comparison. If I remember to do this (and find the time), I'll post them under this thread.

This first picture is from Bahia Mar's north side docks -

This view is looking south along the intracoastal. The pilings are being set in place for the mega & super yachts, which will sit perpendicular to the main dock.

This is the main water taxi arrival/departure platform -

The south side of Bahia Mar's docks -

The first boats to arrive are the beginnings of the Bertram fleet -

It really was weird. There are more boats in that marina with a Category 5 storm approaching... than 10 days before the world's largest boat show????

Anybody remember the video of the girl riding a motorcycle through Chernobyl, about 15 years after the reactor melt-down? THAT'S the feeling you get cruising by Bahia Mar right now.

Yes, Show Management maintains a list. Go to... www.showmanagement.com

But... now might not be a good time to contact... most are pretty busy preparing for FLIBS. Try about 10 days following the show.

Best!

Prior the show, Port Everglades is sometimes used as a staging area for super yachts. Yesterday, I took this picture of Oceanco's "Alpha Four" docked in Port Everglades. The really big boats are the last to be docked at Bahia Mar.

Several marinas are utilized as staging areas too, in addition to the local boat ramps for mortal size boats.

Here's Alpha Four...

I took these pics yesterday as well (October 23). It's still hard to believe the show opens in 4 days, yet more than half the slips are empty. This was taken from the north side of Bahia Mar....

The main dock, which is home to the megayachts and superyachts... only had 3-4 berthed. Over the next few days, the entire dock will be lined with nearly 100 yachts that span a section of the intracoastal that is approximately 1/2 mile long, from the south south of Bahia Mar to the Ft. Laud. City docks north of Las Olas. Side-by-side... that's a lot of yachts!

Essentially... you're evicted for the better part of 3 weeks. In October, Bahia Mar is usually not filled to capacity, so it's not like the entire flotilla is displaced. By November, the snow-birds start flocking down and the docks fill up like the parking lot of Home Depot during a hurricane.

The marinas in South Florida all come together to help ease the burden and the dockmaster at Bahia Mar doubles as a hotel reservation clerk... he generally knows where vacancy is. However, it's becoming a more difficult task. Dockspace in South Florida is already at a premium. This is coupled with the fact that the number of docks at Bahia Mar was reduced to build larger slips during the recent remodel of the marina.