The Boat Show, the first window open to the public of the America's Cup

The three docks of Port Vell in Barcelona (Fusta, Espanya, and Marina Port Vell) will be the setting for the 60th edition of the Boat Show, which returns to Barcelona in October with 40% more surface area and 20% more exhibitors, and will also become the public dissemination point for the actions that the Barcelona Capital Náutica Foundation (FBCN) will carry out in the coming months to ensure that the America's Cup sailing competition, which will be based in the city in 2024, is a resounding success.

Given that the international trade fair, which this year takes place from October 12 to 16, brings together the entire nautical community, the Boat Show is an event of maximum repercussion for the organizers of the America's Cup who, together with Emirates Team New Zealand and the Port of Barcelona, ​​are working to make the event a new opportunity to turn the city into a world reference. "It is an event [the competition] comparable to an Olympic Games," said the president of the Boat Show, Luis Conde.

"We want to make the 37th edition of the America's Cup the best ever," said Ignasi Armengol, director of the FBCN ---formerly Fundación Navegación Oceánica Barcelona (FNOB)---. "Barcelona is a city that knows how to organize large events and the administrations will once again put all the elements we can," he added. He also pointed out that it is necessary to "accompany" the sporting event with "other projects" to enhance it.

The prominence that the America's Cup will acquire will strengthen an expanding Boat Show, with 21,000 square meters of surface area, 221 exhibitors and more than 700 boats, 182 in the water, among which there will be 28 catamarans and 14 candidates for best European boat of the year. However, the event clashes with an international situation full of uncertainties, as its organizers have noted during the presentation of this year's edition. After two years of sustained growth, which allowed the recovery of pre-pandemic levels, the sector has slowed down, they assured. They face a market stabilization given the decrease in registrations. From January to August, a total of 4,925 recreational boats have been registered in Spain compared to the 5,943 registered in the same period of 2021, which represents a decrease of 17%.

However, "there is no crisis effect yet," according to Luis Conde, who pointed to the future of the sector based on innovation and sustainability. For this reason, the Boat Show will concentrate, on the Fusta pier, the Innovation Dock space, where some fifteen startups will show the most disruptive proposals in the field of digitalization and environmentally friendly nautical activities, and several electric, hybrid, and hydrogen boats will be exhibited. This pier will also concentrate the offer of sailboats and a prominent selection of nautical equipment, accessories, and services on land that will shape the Sea Boulevard area.

In Marina Port Vell, a space that the show occupies for the first time, and in Moll d'Espanya, a large floating exhibition with the best selection of motor yachts and catamarans will be presented.

On the more commercial side, within the framework of the show, a VIP Buyers program has been designed with the aim of attracting more than 300 national and international buyers interested in acquiring boats over 15 meters in length.