Several thousand people were expected to attend the annual four-day Northern Illinois Boat Show in Grayslake, which runs through Sunday with more than 50 manufacturers and 20 exhibitors.
“Having a boat is almost essential for living in Lake County, or even some of the surrounding areas, so it’s a show that we’re super-excited to have back,” said Chey Pribel, director of marketing and events manager for the Lake County Fairgrounds and Event Center.
When the show opened at noon in Expo Hall at the event center on Thursday, Benjamin and Janis Thompson of Round Lake were among the first to come through the doors.
“I usually go out with my friend to go out fishing, so I’m looking to get my own boat,” Benjamin Thompson said. “Last year, we fished for walleye and we had a real good year on the Chain. One day, we got 29 and we thought, ‘We’re never going to beat that record,’ but the next day, we got 67.”
For 16 years, the show has been produced by Warren Moulis and son Neil. Warren Moulis is co-owner of Munson Marine, Fox Lake Harbor and Chain O’Lakes Marina, all of Fox Lake, and Inland Harbor Marina of Antioch. The four properties have a total of 450 boat slips.
Parked outside of the event center was an airboat used for sunken boat and snowmobile recovery, a service offered by the Bruce family and BruceSki’s Marine Construction of McHenry.
“So far this winter, we’ve recovered about 16 sunken vehicles and two ice shanties, Joel Bruce said. “We want to stress that no ice is safe ice. Everybody wants to play on the ice, but you never know when it’s going to be too thin to fall in.”
With area temperatures rising and the start of spring on the horizon, many were ready to shop with visions of a summer on the Chain O’Lakes, Lake Michigan and the rivers and lakes of northeastern Illinois and Wisconsin.
“You have the best selection, best pricing, best financing available and, especially, availability with spring delivery,” Moulis said. “We sell fun.”
He said he senses more people are ready to spend on recreation this year.
“The average person was holding back, holding back, holding back,” Moulis said. “Now we’re starting to sell some of the smaller boats again. The average person is breaking out the money (and) is spending. The confidence is back.”
Fox Waterway Agency executive director Joseph S. Keller said, “Despite a late start with this year’s renewals getting out, sticker sales are pretty much on par with last year as we sold nearly $300,000 worth of them in the month of January.
“My friends in the banking industry have said that the last couple of years had shown record production with loans for boat sales,” he said. “It’s a bit more tempered now with higher interest rates, but the price of boats has also come down from recent-year highs.
“The housing market around the water has shown outstanding resiliency as the availability of housing around it has remained very limited these years and moving into spring,” Keller continued. “So the demand for … boating on the Chain and Fox River has continued to maintain its strength as people have looked to it as a bastion of good old-fashioned family fun, peace and tranquility.
“The secret of the Chain and Fox River is no more, it seems,” he said.
Keller said waterway staff counted 28 Bald eagles fishing last week on Grass Lake, “and I just saw the first flock of the season of our great American pelicans land on the Nippersink earlier today. So it seems like the groundhog and these great American birds smell spring in the air.”
