Bermuda Triangle Bid
A hoax bid launched by Neil Rest, Joni Stopa and others at L.A.Con II for the 1988 Worldcon. The Bermuda Triangle Bid is also referred to as The Boat or The Boat Bid. It would set out from Miami on the SS Norway cruise ship for a week's wandering of the Caribbean. It was sponsored by the 49th Ward Regular Science Fiction Organization, Inc. which had been created for the purpose.
Many fans found the hoax amusing enough to work out details of the proposed Worldcon: ship, itinerary, costs, etc., and to produce bid literature. Apparently more than a few voters believed it to be real.
The ship had 875 cabins and so would be limited to 1750 passengers, max. The cruise line wanted $1,800,000 to rent the entire ship, so for a full house, the average fare would have been $1028, though the committee floated a number of $800. (Air fare to Miami would have been extra.) The going rate for a double room then was about $75, so this is a would be about quadruple the usual rate. In slight compensation, this did include meals.
At the time, many fans concluded that there simply weren't 1750 fans who would pay the price of a full ship, so that the convention would be trapped in a viscous cycle of membership shortfalls increase the price per room which further decreased membership.
The support the bid received as Rest was thinking about it caused John Guidry to launch his own Worldcon bid for New Orleans the same night.
Nolacon II won the vote with the Bermuda Triangle coming in second in a field of four. (This was as much a measure how lackluster the bids were that year as anything else.) By the end of the con where voting was conducted, Rest was begging people to vote against the Bermuda Triangle. See 1988 Worldcon Site Selection for details.
Bidders: New Orleans in '88, Cincinnati in '88, St. Louis in '88. See 1988 Worldcon Site Selection.
Articles:
- File 770 54, p. 21 (a moderately amusing statement by the committee)
- File 770 57, p. 11 (long article by Rick Foss with commentary by Neil Rest and Robert Sacks)
| 1988 Site Selection | 1988 |
| This is a page about a convention bid. Please extend it by adding information about who was bidding, officers, committee list, what they were bidding for, who their opponents were, and who won. |
