2023 Raleigh Boat Show

[Joshua Miller]

Coming Feb 3rd, 4th, and 5th. See you there..

 

[Lpennington]

I always look forward to the Raleigh boat show ... it's been awhile!

 

[suke]

I'm going Sat with my boy.

 

[Seadeals]

I just hit the boat show in Greenville SC on Friday. There was not a single Yamaha in the entire convention center except for maybe three VX wave-runners. Allegedly most who put down deposits on a new Yamaha boat at LAST YEAR’s show still don’t have their boat. Oh…but if you happen to have $175,000+ you can get your choice of like 20 different sparkly wake boats with “purdy” LED lights everywhere.

 

[suke]

I just hit the boat show in Greenville SC on Friday. There was not a single Yamaha in the entire convention center except for maybe three VX wave-runners. Allegedly most who put down deposits on a new Yamaha boat at LAST YEAR’s show still don’t have their boat. Oh…but if you happen to have $175,000+ you can get your choice of like 20 different sparkly wake boats with “purdy” LED lights everywhere.

Yamaha posted they would have boats and waverunners at the Raleigh one. Didn't think Yamaha corporate would have boats there at the Raleigh one. Although I'd much rather crawl around in the sparkly wake boats than I would in a Yamaha riddled with QC issues.

 

[bubbasuwannee]

We plan on going to the Raleigh show. I saw the list of dealers and some were going to have Yamahas. Then saw that Yamaha will be there as well. I'm just interested in the FSH series of boats... hopefully it doesn't end up being a waste of time.

 

[Joshua Miller]

Anybody go today? Interested to know what models they have.

 

[bubbasuwannee]

Horrible. Only 2 Yamahas in the entire place. an AR190 and an AR250. I believe Chatlee brought those 2 boats. Kinda sorry we wasted our time. I mean we did look at some other boats in the price range of the boat we have on order, but that was just since we were there.

 

[Michal]

At least there was a couple @bubbasuwannee , we went to the boat show a few months ago in Wilmington. Less than half of what it used to be. There was only 1 or 2 boats in the water, and maybe 30 on the showroom. I hope that next year things come back to what they were before.

 

[Joshua Miller]

Horrible. Only 2 Yamahas in the entire place. an AR190 and an AR250. I believe Chatlee brought those 2 boats. Kinda sorry we wasted our time. I mean we did look at some other boats in the price range of the boat we have on order, but that was just since we were there.

Unfortunate.. I ended up not going due to my boys’ schedules and glad I didn’t.

 

[Jboat_J]

Consider yourself lucky. I inquired about Yamaha boats at the Charlotte boat show, and they said MarineMax is the only dealer listed. I called them and they informed me they won’t be bringing any Yamaha boats this year. This would be a big let down.

Fortunately, I did attend the Atlanta show and there were 19’, 22’, and 25’ boats on display.

 

[bubbasuwannee]

This was our first time hitting a boat show. I kinda expected there to be the manufacturers there with boats, not just dealers. Even Yamaha mentioned the Raleigh show on their FB page.

It is what it is. Was hoping to see atleast 1 FSH present.

 

[suke]

I was surprised not to see yamaha corporate there since they did mention it. However, the boat show was as big as it used to be. Just not many Yamaha's. Which prior to the pandemic they generally only had 2-3 yamaha boats anyways. I had a blast hopping in all the wake boats, which is what I wanted to see anyways. My little boy wanted to see the boats with a "bathroom" in them and he found one of the big center consoles that had it. LOL!

Show was a blast! Picked up some steel shot bags for way cheaper than they would have been online. Lots of deals to be had at the show on just about anything. And of course lots of sales folks pushing hard to do demos. Which I hope to catch them on some demo days. Not going to waste their time to take me out 1:1 since I'm no where near ready to buy. Gonna keep fighting for now to make my boat surf-able. Hope to catch them doing demos at Harris some day this summer.

 

[bubbasuwannee]

I was surprised not to see yamaha corporate there since they did mention it. However, the boat show was as big as it used to be. Just not many Yamaha's. Which prior to the pandemic they generally only had 2-3 yamaha boats anyways. I had a blast hopping in all the wake boats, which is what I wanted to see anyways. My little boy wanted to see the boats with a "bathroom" in them and he found one of the big center consoles that had it. LOL!

Show was a blast! Picked up some steel shot bags for way cheaper than they would have been online. Lots of deals to be had at the show on just about anything. And of course lots of sales folks pushing hard to do demos. Which I hope to catch them on some demo days. Not going to waste their time to take me out 1:1 since I'm no where near ready to buy. Gonna keep fighting for now to make my boat surf-able. Hope to catch them doing demos at Harris some day this summer.

For sure, definitely some discounts off of MSRP on boats there. We looked at all the center console boats in the 20-24' size that weren't skiff like or bay boats. The Yamaha FSH 222 Sport we have on order is still a better deal, even with the discounted prices at the show. The one dealer we were talking to was actually kinda bad mouthing our dealer saying their techs can't fix Yamaha boats, so they're brought over to their shop. of course I took that with a grain of salt...I'm sure there's some Yamaha certification in order to be a Yamaha repair/warranty shop.

Not sure what the deal is with wake boats and pontoon boats....so many of those at the show.

 

[suke]

Not sure what the deal is with wake boats and pontoon boats....so many of those at the show.

In the middle of the state near a bunch of inland lakes you'll see more wake boats and pontoons.

 

[bubbasuwannee]

In the middle of the state near a bunch of inland lakes you'll see more wake boats and pontoons.

Makes sense.