A Central Florida tradition, on the water since the 1960s.
How the Central Florida Boat Show grew into an institution — and how the tradition carries on today.
For decades, the biggest weekend on Central Florida’s boating calendar happened indoors. The Central Florida Boat Show filled the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando with hundreds of boats and, in its own words, was “the largest and longest running boat show in Central Florida, and one of the premiere boat shows in the entire Southeast.” That tradition is the reason this site exists — and the reason it looks forward as much as back.
How far back does it go?
The show numbered its editions rather than dating them: it advertised the 34th Annual show in 2001 and the 39th Annual in 2006. Read backward at one show a year, that places the first show around 1968 — an estimate drawn from the sequence rather than a documented founding date, but one that makes the Central Florida Boat Show a rare, decades-deep institution.
The 34th, in 2001
One of the best-documented editions is the 34th Annual Central Florida Boat Show, March 1–4, 2001, at the Orange County Convention Center — then addressed at 9800 International Drive — across “a booming 300,000 square feet of exhibit space.” Admission was $7 for adults, free for children 12 and under, and the family bill included the show’s own mascot, a dog named “Saul T. Dog,” along with bumper boats and clowns. Questions went to Shelly Jones at (407) 298-1167.
The 39th, in 2006
By the 39th Annual show (March 2–5, 2006) the event had grown into the “new” Orange County Convention Center at 9400 Universal Boulevard. Adults paid $8, children 15 and under free, with an “Early Boater” half-price window. The floor showed “cruisers, runabouts, fishing boats, deckboats, pontoons, wakeboard boats, personal watercraft and more,” and a Kids Zone and fishing clinics kept families busy.
Two shows a year
By the end of the 2000s the organizers ran two shows a year at the convention center: the winter Central Florida Boat Show (February 3–6 in 2011) and the summer Hot Summer Boat Show each August, both “presented by the Central Florida Marine Trades Association.”
The tradition today
Here’s the part that matters most: Central Florida still has its boat show. The Orange County Convention Center hosts a major boat show every year — today the Orlando Boat Show, run by the Marine Industry Association of Central Florida — and across the state the calendar runs from Miami to Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, busier than it has ever been. The names and organizers have changed over the years, and we don’t claim today’s show is the very same organization as the old one; what we can say is that the tradition of a great Central-Florida boat show is thriving, and this guide is here to keep you on top of it.
That’s the whole idea behind boatshowflorida.com: honor the heritage, and point you straight to the shows worth attending this season.