This weekend a significant portion of the boating industry descended upon Miami for the annual Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show. It’s a warm and sunny venue, perfect for a mid-winter break in the weather, and this year we couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions. The show takes place across multiple campuses, including a gear and electronics hub in the convention center and two boat basins, one for sail and one for power boats.
As tariffs and the high costs continue to pose a problem for manufacturers, some big names were notably absent from the flags flying above the sailboat basin. You could almost mistake the docks for the La Grande-Motte’s International Multihull Show for all the cats present. Only two monohulls were at the show, Dufours parked alongside their Fountaine Pajot siblings.
We’ve seen a marked increase in the number of new cats splashing in recent years, and Miami’s fleet included a couple debuts, notably in the Aquila 50 and the Balance 502.
Historically a manufacturer of power cats, Aquila marked a new era for its business with a 50-foot lux cruiser as the first in a new line of sailboats. You can hear more about the design philosophy and the family-run company’s intentions for moving into the sail market here, where they announced the project in a conversation with SAIL.
The company is also investing in an entire new manufacturing facility for the sailboats and has already committed to two additional models in its line, one bigger and one smaller than the 50. On board you’ll find aesthetic, up market styling and a smart layout including Aquila’s signature bar-and-stools seating area. The boat is likely to be popular with owner-charters.
Balance is a more familiar name to the sailing community, and the 502 had the brand’s signature DNA with sleek, sporty lines and well thought out accommodations. As a semi-custom yacht, each model will be slightly different, but a new approach to the furnishings, a well designed galley, and fitting spacious head and cabin layouts into narrow hulls will be standout features on all of them.
Reviews of both the Aquila 50 and Balance 502 will appear in upcoming issues of SAIL Magazine.
We also heard from The Catana Group (comprising Bali, Catana, YOT, and others) about significant investments being made on their inhouse manufacturing across multiple sites in Europe and in Tunisia, including major upgrades to some of their facilities. The group has shared intentions to bring 14 new models to market in the coming five years, including reviving the performance-oriented Catana line that the group began with. Despite being a favorite with some members of SAIL’s boat review team, we haven’t seen a new Catana in almost 10 years, and the exciting resurrection of this sporty line of cats could be here by the end of the year.
And of course, we’d be remiss not to mention the Boating Writers International annual award presentation in which SAIL was the top magazine both by number of awards and number of first place prizes for a third consecutive year. If you missed the announcement last week, you can read the full results here, but in short we’re incredibly proud to have a jury of our peers once again recognize that we have something special at SAIL. We’re grateful to our contributors for the hard work they do and the readers who continue to support that work.
For more on the Miami International Boat Show, click here.
