Palm Beach—SeaFair, the trouble-plagued showboat built as a venue for art and antiques shows, seems to be afloat once more. Launched with great fanfare last September in Greenwich, Connecticut, the 228-foot Grand Luxe unexpectedly spent the remainder of the winter fair season in dry dock, after fulfilling its schedule during the Miami fairs in December. At the end of the year, Expoships, the company behind SeaFair, headed by longtime fair producers David and Lee Ann Lester, announced that, following dealer complaints (poor cell phone reception, uncomfortable listing, malfunctioning elevators and other bugs) Grand Luxe would check into rehab. The necessary work would indefinitely cancel her winter and spring ports of call, which would have taken her from Florida to Hilton Head, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and on to Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; and Philadelphia.

But midway through the Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antiques Fair (Feb. 1–10), word traveled quickly that the Lesters were on the floor, Grand Luxe was in the water and SeaFair would resume this summer. “We just finished most of our repairs,” says David Lester. “The communications system had to be addressed, and the ship had to be repainted and reballasted, which was a major issue requiring Coast Guard approval.”

Just in time to tempt gallerists into leasing one of Grand Luxe’s 28 booths for $11,000 to $30,000 per week and a two-port minimum, the Lesters were able to park the repaired vessel in Palm Beach harbor during the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show (February 15–19). During this surprise visit, they hosted three parties with champagne and caviar for a total of 300 dealers—some of whom were still in town from the previous fair—on board the $30 million ship. Her next stop is a Georgia dry dock for a final round of repairs, after which she sails north for a June 28 relaunch, once again in Greenwich. SeaFair is expected to resume most of its intended summer and fall schedule, says Lester, but dates might be shifted “to co-locate with major events, like the Annapolis Boat Show.”

The Florida show-and-tell may have been successful in attracting international dealers who have lacked a venue close to the wealth of the Hamptons, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and other American summer resorts where Grand Luxe will call. Paul Simons of Percy’s (Silver) Ltd. (London) says, “I went with the intention of absolutely hating it, but it was sensational. All the dealers spent all last night talking about it.”

SeaFair’s initial six-week run had some winners, such as seven-figure sales at The Silver Fund and a 17th-century marine painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger that John Mitchell Fine Paintings (London) sold for just shy of $2 million. The event attracted a new breed of client that dealers said wouldn’t normally attend an art and antiques fair. However, furniture was one collecting category that didn’t sell well on the ship, says Lester. As a result, the new SeaFair can be expected to focus on paintings, objects, jewelry and contemporary art.

One casualty of a floating fair is seasick dealers. Later this year Michael Cohen of Cohen & Cohen (London) will sail alone with his porcelain, leaving his wife, Eva, who was very ill on the initial six-week run, on terra firma.