Tampa Bay's big boat boom abides
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A jacuzzi sits on the deck of superyacht Natita during the Superyacht Miami boat show at Island Gardens Deep Harbour in Biscayne Bay. Photo: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images
You may soon start to see more very big boats around Tampa Bay.
Big, like this one that docked in Tampa during the Super Bowl, or this behemoth moored in St. Pete.
Driving the news: Superyacht builders are entering the new year with more boats on order than ever before, and there are fewer and fewer places to park them.
By the numbers: The 2022 Global Order Book reports 1,024 projects being built or on order, a rise of 24.7% on last year's 821, per Boat International.
- That's ~25 miles of new deep-water boats.
The big picture: Axios' Courtenay Brown reports that the mega-rich (whose wealth has ballooned during the pandemic) sought out giant yachts at record rates for private refuge from the virus — and there are fresh signs the trend isn't letting up, per Boat International's annual report out last week.
- "The lack of travel and the desire to isolate has been universally good for the boat industry," Princess Yachts' Will Green says in the report.
The latest yacht hurdle: Finding parking.
What they're saying: "We have lost sales because people could not find anywhere to keep the boat," Issy Pereira, a Florida-based yacht dealer, told Miami Today this week.
- What to watch: That demand for deep-water docks could send more superyachts our way.
