Düsseldorf 2026, there is one thing that struck me more than the rest.

It wasn’t the shipyards that were missing, the new entries that appeared (increasingly shifting towards large sizes), nor, as someone pointed out to me, the increasingly wide corridors, indicating a widespread trend of moving away from the main dry boat show of the Old World.

You can find all of this in the numerous articles and posts that have appeared in magazines and various social media feeds these days.

It wasn’t even the alternatives to boats or RIBs, which in a multifaceted show like the Boot appear more than in the fancy Cannes and Genoa shows, such as the inflatable trimarans by Portless (which you deflate and put away at the end of the season) or the SUPs with central electric motors bySipaboard (also co-branded with BMW), or the increasingly numerous electric vehicles presented by Chinese brands (from 2-meter small boats to dozens of jet skis).

What struck me was the dedication to the cause of some shipyard owners who dot the firmament of the pleasure boating fleet.

Two in particular: Frauscher and Axopar.

On the morning of the fourth day of the show, before opening time, I saw the two brothers, Michael and Stefan Frauscher, busy cleaning boats and the stand.

Respectively, the former was polishing the boats on display and the latter was vacuuming the carpet of the stand.

In the next hall, Jan Erik Viitala, co-founder and currently Creative and Innovation Director of the brand with the X, which has had unstoppable growth in the last 12 years, was flying a drone to film his display of models from above.

Of course, there are also examples of smaller shipyards, such as the Tunisian Wama.

The General Manager Zied Ben Omrane, without knowing who I was (assuming that an industry insider should receive more attention than a normal curious person), told me about his boat in excellent Italian and with a profound willingness to dedicate his time—which one assumes is already scarce—to just any curious person passing in front of his open boat on display.

But, without slighting anyone, I will limit myself to the magnitude of the two big brands mentioned above to highlight how the devotion to caring for every aspect of “building boats” is perhaps what contributes more than anything else to the success of the initiative.

There is no job too humble that cannot be done by those who care about the positive result of their enterprise.

And this has a lot of added value. Just to cite two beneficial side effects.

One, it spreads a corporate culture in which everyone participates in the cause: there is no “you guys go ahead and fight.”

Second, it conveys care and attention towards those you are about to host in your home: and this, even if not read rationally, emotionally strikes the client very much.

Of course, polishing a cleat, having a clean space, or creating another post for social media are some of the aspects that an entrepreneur must have; if, however, a development strategy is missing, if one limits oneself to waiting for clients at the boat show, if one does not have a positioning that makes your proposal alternative to all your competitors, results will hardly arrive, but only because you do not give clients the chance to notice how much you care about them by presenting your boats in the best possible way.

Regarding your dedication to the cause, we know you lack neither the will nor the ability. For everything regarding marketing and communication, if you want, we can talk about it and understand together how to support you.

Just send an email to: info@lliquida.com