Cape Town boat buyers gather for Boating World’s first boating showcase

This April Boating World reported a successful first ever ‘Boating Bonanza’ at the company’s headquarters in Cape Town where invited guests were able to get up close and personal with the latest boats for sale. The event is modelled on earlier marketing initiatives and is likely to become a regular occasion on the Cape Town boating company’s calendar.

The weekend event garnered significant interest from serious boat buyers scouting for Jeanneau sailing yachts, Fountaine Pajot catamarans, co-ownership investments, as well as ongoing interest in the company’s brokerage yachts.

Talking to media at the event, Levy said the boating industry should pay special attention to specific growth areas, and two in particular: marinas and the boating market in Africa which has good potential growth.  He said South Africa’s marina infrastructure was slipping behind, even compared with some of its African neighbours such as Angola: “Our Marina infrastructure requires modernisation. Angola has more leisure boat marinas than us .” He singled out East London as an ideal location for an up-market marina able to compete with the world’s best. “That would attract wealthy people to the Eastern Cape just as a boating destination. There are fantastic locations for marinas in East London,” Levy said.

The Cape Town V&A Waterfront was another potential marina goldmine, particularly for large super-yachts, which it does not cater for as extensively as it could. Said Levy: “The biggest growing field in boating is mega yachts, and the mega-rich need somewhere new to go. Where better than Cape Town.”

He believes the emergence of more African boat owners will be the driving factor to grow the boating market in Southern Africa. “We need to grow interest and increase ownership to create a vibrant African coastline of luxury boating destinations.", Levy said.

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