Brian Conner hasn't attended the Baltimore Boat Show as a dealer since the Great Recession hobbled the industry, but he's back now, sensing opportunity in a recovering economy and a niche he might fill in the Chesapeake Bay: pontoon boats.
"This is our debut," said Conner, owner of Rhode River Boat Sales and Rhode River Marina in Edgewater. He hopes the powerboat show scheduled at the convention center from Thursday to Sunday will launch him once again into the boat sales business, which he has shifted in and out of more than once in the last 30 years with rising and falling economic tides.
He's bringing 10 boats — eight Bennington pontoons and two Sundance skiffs — to be displayed with about 260 others. Baltimore's show, one of the region's largest pleasure boat shows, has added 20 percent more space and exhibitors, reflecting overall growth in the boat business.
"This is the largest the show has been since 2008," said show manager Tara Davis, who works for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, the recreational boating industry's largest trade group. "There was a lot of demand with some new exhibitors that wanted space in the show."
She said the 185,000 square feet of space will accommodate 50 boat exhibitors and 100 other companies offering an array of nautical gear and services: engines, electronics, kayaks, sunglasses, lifts, insurance and loans.
The trade association is marking a third straight year of growth, estimating that new powerboat sales rose 5 percent to 7 percent in 2014, and will jump an additional 5 percent this year.
Thom Dammrich, president of the association, said in a prepared statement that a number of developments, including job growth, higher consumer confidence and lower gas prices have "bolstered people's financial outlook, which bodes well for new boat sales."
According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, nearly 227,000 boats were registered in the state at the end of 2014, and more than 153,000 Maryland residents owned a boat or a share of one.
Davis hopes the show will draw as many as 15,000 people over the four days. Along with the commercial exhibitors, the show sponsored by Progressive Insurance also features a boating school, a paddle board pool, a women's-only seamanship workshop, and an appearance by Capt. Dave Carraro of the National Geographic Channel's Wicked Tuna.
Rick Boulay Sr., owner of Chesapeake Whalertowne, a Boston whaler dealer in Grasonville and Annapolis, is looking forward to making some sales at the show. He said Baltimore remains the most important show for sales of the five events where he exhibits, starting in the fall in Annapolis and ending in the spring in Kent Island.
His family's dealerships have been regulars at the Baltimore show since the 1970s, through several economic downturns that have sunk many local dealers. He said 2011 and 2012 were very slow years, but things have picked up steadily since then. He's anticipating a good year and said his 2014 sales in Baltimore nearly doubled over the previous year.
Boulay is counting on the 2015 Baltimore show for about a quarter of his annual sales of 90 to 100 boats. He'll be displaying a dozen Boston whalers: 13- to 37-footers selling for $14,000 to $550,000.
To entice buyers, he's got a couple of gizmos to unveil on all 2015 models of 25 feet and longer. There's "joystick piloting," designed to make docking the boat easier, Boulay said. The larger models also are equipped with a feature that uses global positioning system technology to keep the boat in place without dropping an anchor — very handy, he said, for fishing and watching fireworks shows.
Conner said he hasn't tried to sell a boat at the Baltimore show since 2008 or 2009. He last had a booth there two years ago, but it was for the marina, which has kept income flowing through lean years for boat sales.
In recent years, he's noticed that the local stock of used boats is drying up, and the vacancy rate for his 100 slips and 175 boat rack spaces has dropped from 20 percent in the depths of the recession to about 5 percent now. The time seemed right to jump back in.
"I'm an entrepreneur: I see an opportunity, I react," said Conner. He sees a gap in the local boating scene that he hopes to fill, as pontoon boats are rarely seen on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Baltimore Boat Show website shows five dealers, including Conner, who will be showing pontoon boats.
Conner said pontoons are well suited to shallow Chesapeake Bay tributaries, and new designs have improved their handling. The boats are roomy, as the decks are rectangular, but they're known to be hard to handle in wind, strong currents and heavy waves.
He'll be displaying eight pontoon boats ranging from 20 to 25 feet long, and priced from $19,000 to $100,000.
Conner started moving his boats to Baltimore on Sunday, and Boulay got going on Monday before sunrise, as winter weather bore down on the city.
"If it didn't snow, it wouldn't be a boat show," said Boulay, suggesting that the foul weather could boost attendance.
"It fosters a little cabin fever," he said. "People like to go out and dream about boats."