by Dick DeBartolo

About 10 years ago at Comic-Con in San Diego, I approached strangers at the show and asked them assorted questions about MAD Magazine. The answers were as varied as there were comic books at the show. For the 48th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, I decided to take a similar approach, but this time I asked strangers questions about Powerboat magazine. I noticed a big difference in the way people feel about being asked questions from then to now.

In Fort Lauderdale, a small number of people did not want to be asked any questions. But the majority of those who said it was OK, had one stipulation: “Please don’t use my last name.” I guess in these days of identity theft and various scams, people are being extremely cautious. Or maybe they just don’t trust guys with big ’staches asking them questions!

Before I began my “investigative report,” I talked to Dave Sweet at the KAS booth. At all the major boat shows, KAS sells magazine subscriptions for Ehlert Publishing’s marine titles, including Powerboat. Dave said the weekend was the best time to find average boaters at the show. In his experience working the Fort Lauderdale show for years, he had learned that the preview day on Thursday and Friday—the first regular admission day—brought the most serious and financially set boat buyers.

Dave also told me the show attracts a huge number of foreign guests and that during those first two days the attendees seem focused on making big-ticket purchases, including mega yachts. That, too, sets the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show apart from many others. There is probably a mile of multimillion-dollar mega yachts (defined as yachts longer than 80 feet) side by side, in addition to all the traditional boats for sale.

I arrived as the show opened Sunday morning and I was surprised to see a lot of “sold” signs on yachts that must have gone for millions of dollars. But I was there to find the average boater roaming the show in a more relaxed atmosphere.

I asked an attendee named Sara my favorite question: “If you could leave this show with anything you saw here for free, what would you pick?” Sara thought about it for just a second and said, “A fast powerboat, no more than 26 feet in length.” I asked her why she didn’t want anything bigger and Sara replied, “I want to be able to run the boat and dock it all by myself. I want to be the captain!”

The guy with her raised his eyebrows and looked puzzled by her reply. If he was Sara’s boyfriend, I wondered if she was using my question to give him a hint that he wasn’t part of her future plans.

It turned out that asking that one question—“Of all the things at the show, what would you take for free?”—brought the most interesting answers. You’d think everyone would automatically say, “The biggest mega yacht here.”

The answers most people gave were far less greedy. I watched a gentleman, Bill, check out a new Donzi 38 ZFX powered by triple Mercury 275 Verado outboards. As he climbed off the boat, I asked him the question, thinking for sure he would reply, “This $275,000 boat!” But Bill said if he could take anything home for free, it would be a Donzi, but a smaller model … and he just wanted twin Verado outboards.

The most bizarre answer came from another girl, Amy. Of all the things in the show, Amy said she’d like a free Cruzin Cooler. Cruzin Cooler is a strange gizmo I wrote about a couple of years ago. It’s a motorized ice chest you sit on and drive.

I asked Amy how, out of all the expensive things at the show, she zeroed in on that. She explained that a friend of hers had one at a tailgate party and it was a giant hit. So why not a Cruzin Cooler for herself? It seems everyone has their own agenda.

Another strange answer came from Joe Gorfien, a dentist. When I asked him what he would take for free, he said, “All I’d want for free is what I just paid $30 for—two of these Quease EASE inhalers.” Wow! Out of everything in the show, this guy just wished for something that cost $30?

I had to find out more. At the Quease EASE booth, Roy Nichols explained that his device is an aromatic inhaler that was developed for the medical profession. It’s to keep people from getting sick to their stomach. He learned that doctors were taking them when they went boating to relieve seasickness in their passengers.

He said unlike a preventive medicine you had to take before you left the dock, Quease EASE relieves seasickness almost instantly. I asked the dentist, who bought two of the inhalers, what kind of boat he had that so many of his friends got seasick. “I have a 19-foot Bayliner and I like to take my friends out into the ocean with it,” he said.

When I switched the question to “What accessory were you looking for at the show?” the answers were more predictable—a GPS. Chris Catugno was there to see the new Furuno NavNet 3D. This guy was obviously a serious boater. Ray Pichon also was looking for a new GPS, but he wanted one of the new crossover units that go from the car to the boat. He was headed to Garmin and then to the Magellan booth.

As I roamed the show I ran into Dave Sweet from KAS again, but this time at a booth in a different tent. It turns out that KAS has a huge presence at the show and they operate four booths.

Sweet asked if he could answer my “what would you take for free” question. Of course he could!

Sweet’s answer, “I would take home one of the beautiful Budweiser models.” Then he added, “I’m married, but my wife has a sense of humor! If you print this, she’ll laugh.”

We’re printing it, but I’ll have to wait until the Miami Boat Show to see if she laughed.