Biggest and best show yet wraps up and bosses reflect on “phenomenal” year

The 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show has been described as one of the biggest yet with an “unbelievable” turnout - and some are already looking to go bigger next year.

Organisers say the 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show (SCIBS) has been one of the biggest yet with an “unbelievable” turnout - and are already looking to go bigger next year.

As the four-day event wrapped up on Sunday, Mulpha Events and SCIBS general manager Johan Hasser said they had seen new people come through the gates every day.

“It’s very pleasing as a show organiser to see this absolutely stunning event come together every year,” he said.

“We’ve been seeing some new people coming here looking for boats wanted to get into the boating lifestyle.”

With a record 10,000 people walking through the gates on Thursday alone, Mr Hasser said he expected the final attendance would be “on par” past years’ totals of 40,000 to 50,000 people.

“We have a record show here at Sanctuary Cove - the biggest show we’ve ever had here with over 350 boats on water,” he said.

“What we’ve heard is that [exhibitors] have done extremely well.”

Maritimo marketing manager Simon Stewart said there had been good interest in some of their newer models.

“We had a lot of interest from overseas as we normally do, but we’ve had our dealers from the Dubai, Asia, Japan as well and they’ve had their buyers come over and visit us at our stand,” he said.

Also boasting their biggest exhibit this year was Riviera, with brand and communications director Stephen Milne saying it had been an “exceptional” show.

“We’ve entertained close to 1000 owners at a whole raft of different events, so it’s been a wonderful week of celebration and of course we’ve had the largest record display here that we’ve ever had at Sanctuary Cove,” Mr Milne said.

“This is our only boat show that we attend in Australia, so it gives a great reason for everybody to come from around the country to see what we have and we’re always launching our premieres here and we’ll certainly have a few more surprises next year.”

“We’ve had owners here from America and from New Zealand and from around Australia - we’re very happy.”

Calypso Resort and Swimwear owner Suzy McDonald said she had been in the Sanctuary Cove retail precinct since the first Boat Show, and that while the event had grown since its inception, this year was slightly less busy.

“Last year was phenomenal but I think with the interest rates and the bills... [people] are kind of minding their money a bit, but we haven’t had a big downturn,” she said.

SCIBS attendees Tony and Liz Ward said they were most keen to check out the sailing boats and catamarans.

“I’m going to go look at the sailing boats ... [Liz] likes fishing and I like surfing and paddleboarding and all that stuff,” Mr Ward said.

Mrs Ward said the couple were in boats every day while living on South Stradbroke Island.

“It’s nice to also see the new designs because there are some big changes in boating at the moment,” she said.