Following several years of declines during the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance at this year’s Portland Boat Show was roughly equivalent to last year’s expo, while sales figures were reportedly on the rise, according to show coordinators.
“In a nutshell, the show was outstanding,” said Trey Carskadon from the Portland Boat Show’s media relations department. “Attendance was flat but buying at the show was strong and has continued strong following the show.”
While final numbers were unavailable at press time, Carskadon said preliminary attendance figures of 14,800 visitors were very similar to the estimated 15,000 attendees at the 2025 event.
The 66th annual show, held January 7–11, 2026, at the Portland Expo Center, featured nearly 100 brands of boats on display, said show manager Peter O’Loughlin, including dozens of new, never-before-seen models. Along with yachts, the show included new selections of wake boats, fishing boats, cruisers, pontoons, personal watercraft, drift boats, pleasure boats, river boats and sleds, sailboats, and offshore models.
Carskadon also noted that six different dealers at the show offered wake boats, which did “exceptionally well” in terms of sales. “We saw a big uptick in interest in smaller, trailerable boats this year,” he said. “There was a surprisingly good balance of interest in wake boats and fishing boats. Offshore boat sales in the 28’ to 34’ range also did remarkably well.”
The Portland show has been traditionally focused on boaters in the Pacific Northwest, but Carskadon said the breadth of the attendance has grown in 2026, with a higher numbers of visitors coming from places such as Alaska, Northern California, and the Great Lakes region.
Another popular attraction this year was the show’s expanded used boat section, measuring 60,000 square feet. “This was a trend that started during COVID and has grown in size ever since,” Carskadon said. The Portland Boat Show, in existence since the early 1960s, is now one of the largest marine equipment shows in the country to be held indoors, with 250,000 square feet of covered expo space.
