| April30, May1 & 2, 2010
As appearing in the Press of Atlantic City on 2/14/10: Mark Allen thought it was pretty bad luck when it rained all three days of his first Strictly Jersey boat show in Cape May last year. |
| Then he saw a blizzard cut the recent Atlantic City International Power Boat Show’s traffic in half. Rain is looking a lot better now. |
| ”Boaters aren’t afraid of the water, and it meant they weren’t out at the beach,” he said. |
| Allen announced that South Jersey Marina, where he works, will hold its second Strictly Jersey boat show April 30 to May 2. |
| Strictly Jersey is small for a boat show and, as the name suggests, strictly regional. Last year’s debut featured 50 boats in the water – the number of slips at the marina – and another 20 or so on land. |
| But the show he manages has some advantages, Allen said. |
| For one, it’s mainly an in-water boat show. That makes it possible to show big boats without hoisting them from the water. Last year’s show featured a 72-foot Buddy Davis from Egg Harbor Yacht Co. – more than 20 feet bigger than anything at the Atlantic City show. |
| Better still, with boats already in the water, test drives are possible for serious potential buyers. |
| ”You can’t come and go for a boat ride, but if you’re a serious buyer and the dealer ascertains that you’re a qualified buyer, that can happen,” Allen said. |
| The show’s limited hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in fact, are arranged to encourage such sea trials for two hours before and after the show, he said. |
| Another advantage is that the show targets boat buyers instead of the general public by giving them free admission. Anyone with a N.J. Safe Boating certificate or membership with marine-assistance company Sea Tow, a show sponsor, gets in free. Participating dealers also have tickets to give away, he said. |
| Strictly Jersey is open to the public, but the cost at the gate is $15. |
| Last year’s show offered boats from 23 dealers and manufacturers, including big regional builders such as Luhrs Marine Group in Millville, Viking Yacht in the New Gretna section of Bass River Township, Burlington County, and Ocean Yacht in Egg Harbor City, he said. |
| The “strictly” New Jersey of the title is applied loosely, so any state-based retailer can exhibit marine products from anywhere. Albemarle Boats of North Carolina, for example, were exhibited by its dealer in the area. |
| New Jersey is a fairly robust boating market, a coastal state with many inlets, rivers and back bays for marina locations. |
| In 2008, 5,394 new power boats were sold in the state, according to data gathered by the National Marine Manufacturers Association. |
| Total N.J. boat registrations peaked in 2000 at 243,000 and have declined slowly since to 183,000 in 2008. |
| Of 50 boats in the water at Strictly Jersey last year, 30 were new and 20 were what the boating industry calls brokerage boats and what the rest of us call used or previously owned boats. |
| Allen said the show makes money for South Jersey Marina through exhibitor fees – “a small fraction of what they’d pay for a big boat show” – and through selling boats it exhibits at the show. How much, though, he wouldn’t say. |
| Competing boat dealers also make money at the show, which makes it like many small trade shows organized by one participant in a specialized market for the convenience and efficiency of all in that market locally. |
| ”We’d love to see Strictly Jersey become a fixture, but we’ll stay focused on the yacht sales business,” Allen said. |
