Exhibitors Report Strong Strictly Sail Pacific Show

Strictly Sail Pacific returned to Oakland’s Jack London Square from Wednesday, April 16 to Sunday, April 20. The 12th running of this five-day sailing event, the largest sail-only boat show on the West Coast, attracted over 13,000 attendees, over 200 exhibitors, and a fleet of over 70 boats.

This year, with Jack London Square in the throes of a major expansion, it was necessary to modify the floorplan of the show to include two large tents and a number of smaller tents located throughout Jack London Square. The layout for the in-water section of the show stayed the same as previous years and featured boats ranging from the Ultimate 20 to the Tayana 54.

“Both exhibitors and attendees really liked the new layout,” said Kevin Murphy, Sail America’s national show manager. “The outside tents created a festival atmosphere and attendees liked the proximity of the exhibit space to the local restaurants and shops. Attendance was down slightly for the show, which was to be expected given current market conditions, but exhibitors seemed to be happy with the quality of the attendees and reported strong sales.”

Sail America implemented a multi-faceted media and promotional campaign to promote the Strictly Sail Pacific show that included radio advertising, national and local magazine advertising, a public relations campaign targeted to national sailing media as well as local newspaper, radio and TV outlets, direct mail to sailboat owners, a pre-show planner mailing, and a detailed PR campaign. In addition, an Internet campaign included 20,000 email invites to the show, banner ads on several related websites, and exhibitor partnerships to sell discounted tickets from their websites. A detailed post-event press release will be distributed to the trade press within the next few days.

Strictly Sail Pacific will be located at Jack London Square for the foreseeable future. Sail America will work with Jack London Square and the Port of Oakland to create additional exhibit space for next year’s show. Sail America will continue to look for a new location for the long term.

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