St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show showcases hundreds of vessels

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - While pirates invade the City of Tampa, boating enthusiasts can take part in a more peaceful boarding of vessels in St. Petersburg.

The St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show boasts more vessels than will be clogging the Tampa Bay harbor during the pirate invasion, and no one at the show will be screaming for beads.

"This year's boat show is one of our largest boat shows in a while," shared Nickolas Pantner. He's the Business Development Manager for Informa Markets. "We have over 280 boats in water, more on land. Probably a total of 400 boats combined."

The largest vessel by far is the Ocean Alexander 27R coming in at 88 feet 3/4 inches long.

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For the pirates seeking bounty about this bayside beauty, the General Manager of Marine Max gave FOX 13 a tour.

"Welcome aboard the Ocean Alexander 27 R," said Collin Heimensen. "[There are] huge windows for lots of ambient light, really a beautiful space."

The yacht is designed to entertain and can be operated by a crew of three.

"It's a four stateroom yacht," explained Heimensen, "[It's] interesting, one of the staterooms is actually on deck, on the main deck, primary state room." He continued. "But this boat is unique because it has two primary staterooms, plus a VIP stateroom, a guest stateroom and another space that can be used for a gym or an office."

The quarters for the crew are below the man deck.

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Another interesting part of this vessel is the amount of entertaining space that is available on the Flybridge.

"The Flybridge is very spacious," pointed out Heimensen. "This is a beautiful entertaining space, a big bar, three bar stools, a nice dining area, electric grill, Jacuzzi and a large sun lounge on the back."

And while pirates are having fun in Tampa, the Ocean Alexander 27R promises fun for the serious buyer, but brings lots of loot.

"This is typically for an experienced yachtsman, a business owner," admitted Heimensen.

It's available to see along with the other boats at the show all weekend long.

"There is from your smallest kayak to the biggest boat we have in the show," said Pantner.

A portion of all of the ticket sales goes to support Tampa Bay Watch and their efforts to maintain and restore Tampa Bay estuaries.

To learn more about the St. Petersburg Boat Show, click here.