The 2024 Taiwan International Boat Show featured a strong lineup of local and international brands as it adopted an all-outdoor format.

This year’s Taiwan International Boat Show in the yacht-building hub of Kaohsiung featured 77 boats as the event featured an all-outdoor format for the first time. Returning after a six-year break, the four-day show concluded on December 1 and overlapped with the Hong Kong International Boat Show.

The Taiwan show was spread across four marina areas in Kaohsiung, situated on the island’s southwest coast. The Argo Marina focused on European brands, Kha Shing Pier 22 Marina and Horizon City Marina showcased Taiwanese builders, and Basin No. 3 featured sub-40ft boats for sale.

Local builder Kha Shing Enterprise showed three Monte Fino models – the 125 Trideck (125ft), F76 Flybridge (76ft) and 66 Voyager (70ft) – while Horizon’s CC105 Explorer (105ft) and Ocean Alexander’s 28L (95ft) were also among leading local builds.

Azimut Yachts had an impressive four-model display comprising the Fly 68, Fly 53, Magellano 60 and Magellano 53 (pictured above), and had a celebratory event for the launch of the new dealership for Azimut in Taiwan: Supreme Yachts. Absolute showed a Navetta 58, also among yachts from Italian builders.

Simpson Marine displayed a Sanlorenzo SX88 (pictured above, left) superyacht and a Bluegame BGX73, the flagship of Sanlorenzo’s sister brand.

British builder Princess was well represented by its S66, V50 and V40. Amal Yachting, one of Taiwan’s leading yacht dealerships, exhibited a Ferretti Yachts 500, Beneteau Antares 9 and Axopar 28 Cabin. Yacht PinAn showed a Galeon 500 Fly, Cranchi E30 Endurance and Quarken 27 Cabin.

A Beneteau Oceanis Yacht 54 and four Elan sailing boats were shown by Warhawk Sailing, Taiwan Marine exhibited two Dufour sailing yachts, while Lohas Ocean displayed five sail and motor boats from the Bavaria and Hanse brands.

The show remains both an exhibition of overseas builds for the domestic market, and a showcase of local builders, which have been supplying yachts to international markets – especially the US – since the 1960s. Ocean Alexander and Horizon were founded in 1977 and 1987 respectively.

Jack Chen, longtime Chairman of the Taiwan Yacht Industry Association – which includes 59 local shipyard members, said the show is set to continue its original biennial scheduling, with the next edition slated for 2026.

Chen revealed that Taiwan exported up to US$450 million worth of yachts each year and was well established as one of the world’s leading yacht builders, but that there was much to do to develop the local yachting market.  

He explained that while Taiwan shipyards had a reputation for full-custom projects on smaller-scale yachts than elsewhere, some are now enlarging their facilities to be able to build larger hulls.

“Taiwan is planning to start building more marinas,” Chen added. “There’s a lot of interest in waterfront properties, so the goal is to develop hotels and residences with marinas.”

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