FLIBS 2026: What the world's largest in-water boat show signals, and where to find us at Las Olas Marina slip 127

The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show puts $1.78 billion of economic activity through the state of Florida in five days. Ten thousand full-time Florida jobs sit downstream of it. Roughly $84 million in state and local tax revenue is generated by it, $25.3 million to Broward County alone. That is not a boat show. That is the anchor event of the entire South Florida marine year.

The 67th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs Wednesday, October 28 through Sunday, November 1, 2026, across six waterfront venues and roughly 90 acres of in-water and land-side exhibit space. Last year's edition drew more than 100,000 attendees - 49 percent of them from outside Florida - with 1,000 exhibitors and more than 1,300 vessels representing 52 countries. Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport runs a 20 to 25 percent flight bump during show week, 500 to 700 movements a day.

FLIBS is where the yacht market prices itself, in real time, for the year ahead. It is also where a large share of the buyers standing on those docks quietly decide they need a Fort Lauderdale address to keep the boat, the crew, and the lifestyle in one zip code. That is why I am spending the week in the middle of it, and why I am writing this before the docks fill up.

I will be aboard M/Y Snack Money at Las Olas Marina, A dock, slip 127, all five days of FLIBS 2026. Walk over. No appointment required.

The show at a glance

Dates and hours. Wednesday, October 28, noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, November 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Six official venues. The show sprawls, on purpose. Each venue plays a different role:

• Broward County Convention Center - 1850 Eisenhower Boulevard. Vessels up to 50 feet, accessories, marine electronics, and 3,000 parking spaces. This is the land-side entry point for most attendees.
• Bahia Mar Yachting Center - 801 Seabreeze Boulevard. Center consoles up to true superyachts. The historic heart of the show.
• Pier Sixty-Six Marina - 2301 SE 17th Street. Brokerage vessels 100 feet and up.
• Superyacht Village at Pier Sixty-Six South - 2150 SE 17th Street. The largest boats at the show, staged together.
• Las Olas Marina - 151 Las Olas Circle. Brokerage yachts in the 60 to 200 foot range. This is where serious pre-owned buying happens. This is where we are.
• Hall of Fame Marina - 1 Hall of Fame Drive. Brokerage plus new-build, home of the Windward VIP Club.

The economic footprint. Marine Industries Association of South Florida commissioned an independent economic impact study on the 2024 edition that pegged the show at $1.78 billion in statewide economic impact, $823.5 million in total exhibitor sales, $694.5 million in Florida-company sales, and $84.1 million in state and local taxes. Broward County alone captured $228.9 million in economic activity and $25.3 million in tax revenue. Ten thousand full-time Florida jobs are supported by the show's ecosystem year-round.

Read those numbers next to each other. A boat show that supports 10,000 jobs is a public works project that happens to sell yachts.

Las Olas Marina and Bahia Mar: start here

Las Olas Marina and Bahia Mar are the two venues you cannot miss and where you should probably start. Bahia Mar is the bigger, more central room and the historic heart of the show. Las Olas is where the 60 to 200 foot brokerage inventory lives, which is where most real transactions in the pre-owned market actually happen. If you are seriously in the market for a yacht - not shopping accessories, not comparing outboards, not there for the party - walk those two docks first. Pier Sixty-Six South has the largest hulls, but it is a purpose-built stop, not the general entry point.

This is also the venue that clears out first when the show ends and the deals get done. If you want a broker who is going to be on the dock every day, in the same slip, with a specific plan for how to compare the boats you are looking at against the ones you are not - Las Olas is the right room.

"The 60 to 130 foot brokerage tier at Las Olas is where the market actually reprices itself each year. The big boats at Pier Sixty-Six get the photographs. Las Olas is where the checks get written." Thomas Daly, The Daly Group

Where to find us: A dock, slip 127, aboard Snack Money

We will be aboard M/Y Snack Money for all five days of the show. She is a 2023 Bluegame BG72, Hull #7, 74 feet 8 inches, with roughly 650 hours on twin Volvo IPS 1350 D13s. Three ensuite staterooms, 27-knot cruise, 30-knot top end. Seakeeper on the Gold Warranty, Release Marine fighting chair, Hookah dive system, two Seabobs, Starlink, Sea Recovery 900 watermaker, Marquipt gangway. She was built by Bluegame, a Sanlorenzo-owned yard, as a crossover flagship that runs like a fast express and entertains like a beach club.

What she is not is a boat you see twice. She is the only pre-owned BG72 currently in the United States, so the show is the right week to walk her in person.

If you want to be sure I am there when you come by, text or email ahead and I will hold a window for you. Otherwise walk down A dock, look for slip 127.

The land side of the show: waterfront new construction is where FLIBS week actually clears inventory

Here is the pattern I watch every year. The buyer flies in for the boat, walks the docks for four days, closes on the vessel, and then realizes the yacht needs a home and the current one is 1,400 miles north. Fort Lauderdale's waterfront new-construction market is quietly built to catch that buyer.

A few examples worth walking during show week, if you are on that side of the decision:

2825 NE 27th Street, Coral Ridge. A newly completed 2026 residence on 100 feet of deepwater frontage with no fixed bridges to the Atlantic. Five bedrooms, five and a half baths, 5,740 square feet, private elevator, bonus club room, full concrete dock. Listed at $9,495,000, roughly $1,654 per square foot. This is the archetype of the buyer coming off the show floor - deepwater, ocean access, no-bridge dockage, a boat like the ones on Las Olas fits in front of the house.

515 Lido Drive, Las Olas Isles. A 2026 Bermudian-inspired estate on 110 feet of San Marco Canal deepwater, three lots off the point. Six bedrooms, nine baths, 7,877 square feet, four-car garage. Listed at $16,750,000, or $2,126 per square foot. Las Olas Isles trailing-twelve-month median sold price is $4.73 million at $1,090 per square foot, up five percent year over year.

340 San Marco Drive, Las Olas Isles. A 2026 new-construction closed on July 29 at $9,500,000, or $1,370 per square foot. Five bedrooms, six and a half baths, 6,936 square feet on a quarter acre. This is the comp that matters: a completed spec home in Las Olas Isles clearing at nearly $1,400 a foot inside 113 days on market.

1020 SE 9th Avenue, Rio Vista. A 2026 residence on 106 feet of Tarpon River frontage, listed at $4,285,000 or $994 per square foot. Rio Vista's trailing-twelve-month median is $724 per square foot on 23 closings. The point is not that this is undervalued. The point is that a new-construction waterfront in a top Fort Lauderdale corridor is still available under $5 million, and that window will close.

The Coral Ridge context. Realtor.com's August 2026 dataset shows a Coral Ridge median listing price around $1.81 million and a median sold price around $1.53 million ([Ziegelbaum Group](https://ziegelbaumgroup.com/what-is-my-coral-ridge-home-worth/)). Coral Ridge waterfront sits well above that: a Coral Ridge Country Club subset showed a $3.68 million median at $934 per square foot on eight closings in the twelve months ending July 15 ([Move With Momentum](https://movewithmomentum.com/neighborhoods/coral-ridge-21-50-b)). Waterfront and interior are two different markets sharing one name.

New builds like 2825 NE 27th are selling quickly. The Fort Lauderdale waterfront new-construction pipeline is not deep, and the buyers coming through the show are exactly the buyers these homes were built for. If you are considering a purchase, the day after the show is the right day to walk one in person.

What we are watching this year

A few themes I will be tracking on the dock and in the deal flow through the week:

The late-model brokerage 90 to 130 foot band. This is where I expect the most rational pricing at the show. Owners who bought new in 2022 and 2023 at peak-market pricing are testing whether the market has caught up to what they paid. It has not, in most cases. Buyers with cash and a specific use profile will have leverage in this tier.

The superyacht village. Pier Sixty-Six South is where the trend of larger, more customized, more capable long-range yachts continues to widen. The gap between what a 100-foot brokerage boat costs and what a 130-foot new-build costs is narrower than it has been in years. That has implications for the resale value of what you buy at the show this week.

Crossover platforms. The Bluegame BG72, the Sanlorenzo SD line, the Sirena crossover series - boats that will not sit still in one category are outselling traditional flybridge motor yachts in their length class. That is the direction the buyer is walking. Snack Money sits squarely in that lane.

The land-side conversion. I will be watching how many of the yacht conversations turn into real estate conversations by Friday afternoon. Every year it is more. Fort Lauderdale's dual-license buyer is the buyer FLIBS is quietly built for.