Sailfree
Well-Known Member
Talking at thr YC yesterday and many mentioned items others had missed. Many would like to go back again but ticket price puts them off. Wife wants to go back and buy a few items she liked and was considering but we ran out of time.
Even though it is raining today we would go back if entry was free or entry cost was refundable against purchases. Apart from buying 5 new boats(or at least deciding on them) we usually spend between £100 to £2000 at most shows.
I go because I get free tickets but frankly would not go and pay £40 for both of us except if I was deciding on a new boat.
From other posts it appears that the organisers are doing things to get numbers up but so many visitors are tyre kickers.
Surely the solution to turn tyre kickers into spenders is to enable the ticket price to be refunded against purchases (even 50% might make a big difference to sales for a number of exhibitors and say 100% if spending over ascertain amount).
To me the reality is that lib is dying and sib attracts less real spenders with the advent of internet prices so if the organisers don't do anything the number and variety of exhibitors will decline.
Last point we would not have run out of time if we could have planned our visit with a map and exhibitors list. I just won't pay £8 for the guide. I am sad for the exhibitors as I think for most sales are impulse buys as if you know what you want beforehand you can get it cheaper on the Internet. In our case I bought £150 on I phone/pad waterproof cases I did not know existed or that I needed them! And swmbo bought a jacket for £300. The reality is that both of us would spend at least another £2-400 on items that we did not know we needed if we returned.
Anyone got any better ideas.
Even though it is raining today we would go back if entry was free or entry cost was refundable against purchases. Apart from buying 5 new boats(or at least deciding on them) we usually spend between £100 to £2000 at most shows.
I go because I get free tickets but frankly would not go and pay £40 for both of us except if I was deciding on a new boat.
From other posts it appears that the organisers are doing things to get numbers up but so many visitors are tyre kickers.
Surely the solution to turn tyre kickers into spenders is to enable the ticket price to be refunded against purchases (even 50% might make a big difference to sales for a number of exhibitors and say 100% if spending over ascertain amount).
To me the reality is that lib is dying and sib attracts less real spenders with the advent of internet prices so if the organisers don't do anything the number and variety of exhibitors will decline.
Last point we would not have run out of time if we could have planned our visit with a map and exhibitors list. I just won't pay £8 for the guide. I am sad for the exhibitors as I think for most sales are impulse buys as if you know what you want beforehand you can get it cheaper on the Internet. In our case I bought £150 on I phone/pad waterproof cases I did not know existed or that I needed them! And swmbo bought a jacket for £300. The reality is that both of us would spend at least another £2-400 on items that we did not know we needed if we returned.
Anyone got any better ideas.
Last edited:
) was lack of map prior to our visit so we could have planned it a bit better, and as we could not afford most of the boats on show the above suggested used boat area would have been a big bonus and we may even have bought one 
