Attendance at the Hutchwilco NZ Boat Show rose by more than 5% over last year’s 35,000+ visitors, with exhibitors reporting near-record or record sales over the four days.

The happiest visitor to the show was Christchurch’s Eden Waddington – his was the lucky name drawn for the $250,000 Surtees/Yamaha Grand Prize. This was his first-ever visit to the show – after a trip to the Marlborough Sounds with his partner over summer, he decided he needed a bigger boat and came to the show to see what was available.

As always, the boat awards were a hotly-contested component of the show, and Whakatane’s Extreme 745 Walk Around was judged the Supreme Winner at this year’s event.