What happens in Europe may seem far and away to the future of recreational boating in the United States, but the fact is that it is significant and the future is coming fast. Last week in Amsterdam the world’s top marine product manufacturers and industry leaders attended the largest marine trade show in the world. The venue encompasses 11 large halls and has the feeling of the Las Vegas SEMA show. Why Europe?, you may wonder. If you want to look at where the worlds most luxurious and powerful super cars come from, then you’re going to have to look towards Germany or Italy. Guess what! That same technology is happening in the marine industry. While it hasn’t yet quite touched the mass of the performance industry you can rest assure it is in our future.
For Powerboat Nation, we were on assignment at the METS international marine trade show to get a glimpse of just whats happening to our industry on a global scale. What we found was exciting to say the least. This part of the world is all about construction techniques, materials, and efficiency, and they are looking hard at the automotive side for example.
But what this means to us here in the USA is that while the worlds most premier builders such as John Cosker are already using some of this technology. It is just a matter of time before the construction techniques evolve to more and more builders here in the U.S. That means stronger, lighter, and faster to produce with more efficient boats to the general consumer.
We all love race inspired gauges in our dashes but how about complete dashes the likes of your iPad that are interactive and completely configurable to a style you prefer. Take a look at the pictures:
How about trim switches built right into the steering wheel that are wireless, no more phone cord type installs. Carbon fiber everywhere as if its a industry standard.
The show represented numerous new products from hundreds of suppliers. One common theme was found throughout and that is purpose and styling. From flush style cleat offerings to latches, steering wheels, and if you’ve ever wondered if the diesel side of performance engines was near? Well there were some 1000 foot pounds of torque Duramax engines on display and ready for sale.
Lastly there’s the euphoria of walking through the area that services the high end yacht market. If you’ve ever wondered what goes inside a 10 to 50 million dollar yacht well my words can’t begin to paint you a picture as these crafts are now driven in nearly a 3 dimensional world and the opulence of luxury was incredible as they had stone artisans on display hand crafting Italian stone to the designs of the customers.
So back to earth, the best news is there were some US based distributors there cutting deals to import many of the products that are sure to be the standard for the upcoming 2014 season. So place close attention to those PBN supporters as I’m sure you’ll no doubt see some product releases soon, bringing you all the opportunity to get the leading parts first.
