Newport International Boat Show reconfigures its layout

NEWPORT – The upcoming 49th Newport International Boat Show is being displaced from part of its show grounds by the construction of Hammetts Wharf Hotel, but organizers have changed the layout so the show will still cover more than 13 acres of water and land space in downtown Newport.

The show takes place Sept. 12-15, but marine workers have already begun laying out temporary docks for the boats and soon will begin putting in the pilings to anchor them, said Nancy Piffard, the show director for the Newport Exhibition Group, which is a division of the Newport Harbor Corp.

A major relocation on land will move the large Tent C from the Newport Yachting Center grounds where the hotel is going up to the parking lot of the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina. Also, the show office and main entrance will be moved from the yachting center grounds to Market Square, next to Seamen’s Church Institute.

There will continue to be five large show tents along the waterfront with space for about 500 exhibitors, an expansion over previous years, said Piffard.

Tent A will double in size, covering all of the parking lot of The Mooring restaurant instead of about one half the lot, Piffard said. Tent B will stretch from the Smoke House restaurant south to the construction site of Hammetts Wharf Hotel. Safety fencing will surround the hotel construction project.

Tents D and G will remain on Newport Yachting Center grounds, just to the south of the Commercial Wharf condominiums and on the waterfront behind Hammetts Wharf Hotel.

The main attraction of course is the boats and there will be 340 of them on both the water and on land this year, Piffard said.

“All the water space is sold out,” she said. “We have hundreds of boats, power and sail, everything from inflatables to racing boats. All our boats are new and for sale, or can be custom-ordered.”

There are 20 countries represented at the show this year, she said.

The show leases water space for the boats from the Newport Yachting Center, now owned by the Peregrine Group of East Providence, as well as Oldport Marine, Banister's Wharf, Bowen's Wharf and the Aquidneck Lobster Co.

The temporary docks for the display boats will run from the Aquidneck Lobster Co. at the northern edge south to the Perry Mill wharf.

The show has more than $1 million in expenses, most of which goes into the local economy, Piffard said. The expense total can be believed by anyone who has walked in previous years all the docks, which are arranged like avenues and streets in an urban plan. Some of the extended docks have born red carpets in the past.

Besides expenses for the boat show, there is what's spent by all the exhibitors and their staff, the dealers and dealers' representatives who flock to Newport. They stay in the hotels, eat in the restaurants and use a myriad of services such as printing or having last-minute banners made, Piffard said.

The Newport Exhibition Group hires 200 temporary staff to help put on the show that attracts about 40,000 paid ticketed visitors annually. Part of the show is not gated, for example the section on Bowen’s Wharf, so the total number of visitors is greater, Piffard said.

The boat show marketplace results in the sale of millions of dollars in new boats and boat-related products, she said.

“Newport is the most laid back and most productive of all the boat shows,” said one yacht dealer at the 2017 show. “It's more festive. The people who put this on do a phenomenal job.”

The Newport International Boat Show is one of the largest in-water shows in the country. It traditionally opens the boat show season on the East Coast and is followed by shows like the Norwalk Boat Show in Connecticut, the Annapolis Boat Show in Maryland and others down to the Miami International Boat Show in February 2020.

The Newport International Boat Show has a charitable partner each year. This year it is the Rhode Island Leukemia Cup Regatta, which advances the mission of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. The New York Yacht Club has hosted the regatta in Newport since 2008.

For more information on the 49th Annual Newport International Boat Show and to purchase advance tickets, visit newportboatshow.com.