Newport Boat Shows Settle Their Differences

A lengthy court battle between dueling Newport Beach boat shows has ended, with the Southern California Marine Assn. agreeing to drop its upstart event, held on the same weekend as a publisher’s long-running spring show.

Officials with the association confirmed Thursday that a confidential settlement was reached with Duncan McIntosh in late August.

McIntosh sued the marine association in February 2004, alleging that its planned Newport Beach Boat Show at the Dunes constituted trademark infringement against his Newport Boat Show.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the new show’s promoters in March 2004, but the name was changed to the SCMA’s 2004 Boat Show at the Dunes in Newport Beach and allowed to be staged for two years.

The Dunes, an RV park and marina, is three miles from Lido Marina Village, where McIntosh has held a show for more than 30 years. This year, the shows overlapped during the weekend. Between them, more than 600 yachts worth more than $400 million were on display.

Dave Geoffrey, executive director of the nonprofit Orange-based marine association, said he couldn’t comment on details of the settlement.

“The marine association felt that it was in the best interest of the boating community and the marine industry who we represent to settle the lawsuit,” he said.

“We felt that it would be the best thing all the way around for those entities to have this behind us.”

The association will continue to hold its five other shows in the state, including the West Coast’s largest show at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“We’re certainly not getting out of the business,” Geoffrey said. “We just won’t be having a show in Newport Beach.”

McIntosh is a Newport Beach resident who publishes two boating magazines, Sea and Go Boating, and two newspapers, the Log and FishRap.

He helped pioneer in-the-water boat shows and held his first in 1973 in Newport Beach, where he had a boat dealership. In addition to the spring show, he also produces the fall Lido Yacht Expo at Lido Marina Village, which starts Thursday.

McIntosh and his attorney didn’t return calls for comment.