Boat show! You're having a laugh.

doris

doris

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Couldn't believe how little there was there, how quiet it was and how they had padded out what was there. The 'Black and White bar was almost empty all day.

One interesting point was, talking to a sparks mate, the difference between Garmin and Raymarine. He and his top techie were alternating between the two stands and he reckoned there was 10 times more happening on Garmin. Looks like the market is letting Raymarine know what it thinks.

Also the UK Borders Authority was a disgrace. Staffed by people who, in their own admission, knew nothing about E Borders and were just shipped in to press the flesh. Contradicted themselves almost every sentence. Nice chaps but clueless as to the subject.
Mate selling charter hols in Turkey was having a good show but few others claimed the same.
 
Thats strange as we were there on Saturday and it sounds like we were at a different show! it was subdued but had a fair few people in in the afternoon to the extent that some were still having to sit on the floor due to lack of seating while having a break. the 'Black and white' bar was comfortably full from 13.30 on wards to past 17.45 when we left having had a couple! The busiest 'electronics' stand by far was the Raymarine one, indeed it was the only stand were all the staff were engaged, on the several occaisions that i walked past, as on the others there were more staff than visitors down to Furuno that had almost no visitors! (is this more writing on the wall/ nah not really!) anyway had a look at the Garmin gear, it would be nice if it wasn't stuck with Garmin charting and i especially liked their plotters secondary function of been cockpit hand warmers! have you felt the heat from the front of their plotter displays ? beautifuly warm and toasty..............!
 
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Poor Show

Went yesterday evening.

I have never seen so few yachts on display. No Dufour, Elan, Island Packet, Hallberg etc.etc.

Even those manufacturers that were there had small joint displays e.g. Bavaria had only two yachts on display.

It was the first sign of a recession that I have seen.

I was already in London but felt sorry for anyone who had made a special trip.
 
At LIBS yesterday afternoon, around 2:30pm until 6:30pm and we have never seen such a poorly attended event.
On some of the larger motorboat stands there were definitely more staff than "punters". Spoke to one stallholder who said "today is actually quite busy--you should have been here on Monday, it was really quiet"
The champagne bar in the Motorboat hall was completely empty, not a single customer in sight. Perhaps its a sign that we are not coming out of the recession just yet.
We were fortunate enough to have complmentary tickets to the show and to travel for free on our "freedom passes" otherwise we would have been a bit p****d off if we had spent real money to go to the Boat Show this year.
Lack of exhibits and poor attendence does not bode well for next year's event
 
brians said:
Went yesterday evening.

I have never seen so few yachts on display. No Dufour, Elan, Island Packet, Hallberg etc.etc.

Even those manufacturers that were there had small joint displays e.g. Bavaria had only two yachts on display.

It was the first sign of a recession that I have seen.

I was already in London but felt sorry for anyone who had made a special trip.
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Depends why you're there. I am a boat owner, have no interest in changing boats. I found the content of the show useful and interesting, and my trip from East Anglia worthwhile. Came away with some gear, and quite a few ideas for future upgrades. Only looked at one boat stand, and that was mainly so that I could say that I had! Given the prices of new boats, I am unlikely to ever be in the market for a brand new vessel, and given the longevity of respected makes from the past, I doubt I'd feel it was a worth-while investment anyway.

Best thing I did was join the RNLI; something I've been meaning to do for about two years and finally got round to!
 
I thought it was excellent - if you have the money to buy a boat then great customer service...

The Deckgames area was a little bit of fun, won my race and on the other side there was a 40 second test for how far you could row. 237 metres!! :-) but for the try a boat it was only for weekends which I thought was a little poor.

As for the exhibits I really think they should promote ROWING at the boat show because conditions for testing outside were excellent, I had abit of fun at the Andark 'try Scuba' tank aswell

All in All I thought it was a good boat show - Sunsail were packed out most of the time. As for yachts I do agree not many were there, I may have missed them but did not see Oyster or Hinckley although I am not sure the latter historically visits boat shows.

As for getting to the boat show - EASY. allow 60 minutes from Euston and likewise for Waterloo.

What else was good was filling out "your thoughts" of the boatshow, So got a friend in free the next day too.
 
You missed them

Jamesuk said:
I thought it was excellent - if you have the money to buy a boat then great customer service...

The Deckgames area was a little bit of fun, won my race and on the other side there was a 40 second test for how far you could row. 237 metres!! :-) but for the try a boat it was only for weekends which I thought was a little poor.

As for the exhibits I really think they should promote ROWING at the boat show because conditions for testing outside were excellent, I had abit of fun at the Andark 'try Scuba' tank aswell

All in All I thought it was a good boat show - Sunsail were packed out most of the time. As for yachts I do agree not many were there, I may have missed them but did not see Oyster or Hinckley although I am not sure the latter historically visits boat shows.

As for getting to the boat show - EASY. allow 60 minutes from Euston and likewise for Waterloo.

What else was good was filling out "your thoughts" of the boatshow, So got a friend in free the next day too.
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Oyster are very much here (one of the biiggest stands in the North Hall) Hinckley no, they do not exhibit here in fact they were not even at Annapolis this year, Morris took their place.
 
I dont thinks it anything to do with the recession. More to do with Excell. Personally I like the venue,but it does not have the same feel as SIBS. The venue, the weather all take a toll and I think we will continue to see fewer boats at LIBS.

I know through business more than one or two people in the marine industry and whilst new boat sales are not to cleaver, guys selling the stuff we are buying to upgrade our boats are doing very well, at both LIBS AND SIBS last year they reported good results.
 
Jamesuk said:
The Deckgames area was a little bit of fun, won my race and on the other side there was a 40 second test for how far you could row. 237 metres!! :-) but for the try a boat it was only for weekends which I thought was a little poor.

As for the exhibits I really think they should promote ROWING at the boat show because conditions for testing outside were excellent, I had abit of fun at the Andark 'try Scuba' tank aswell
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I had a bit of fun on the stand with rowing machines - a row of rowing machines, hooked up to a display showing how your "boat" was doing alongside others. I was on with two teenage lads - suffice to say that I am more than three times their age. I beat them easily! Made my day, it did, though my wife says I went a bit pale towards the end. However, I rowed for my college when Noah was a nipper, so I know how to use a sliding seat!
 
lydiamight said:
Perhaps its a sign that we are not coming out of the recession just yet.
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Actually we probably are witnessing the end of recession right now, but at the point in time where the recession is declared officially over we will still be enduring a net 6% economic contraction since those queues started forming outside Northern Rock.
 
We went on Friday and can't recognise the "empty" descriptions above. Had a very enjoyable visit looking at a few boats, bought some charts not available on line, talked to some very useful folk and drank some fizz with companions on a fairly busy stand with waitresses with legs up to their armpits. Long may it last!
 
ean_p said:
The busiest 'electronics' stand by far was the Raymarine one, indeed it was the only stand were all the staff were engaged, on the several occaisions that i walked past
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If I wanted posh electronics I would certainly look closely at Raymarine ... with a view to buying the stuff at 50+% discount when they go bust. If they go bust.
 
I had a good day there today, 13 Jan. Was delighted by the fact that it was not too busy and I was able to do some good research into new sails etc. Was rather surprised at the lack of boats on display, nothing compared to Southampton. Very impressed by some of the chandlers stands, but didn't buy anything as there is little I want just now.

So, worth attending but did not have any wow factor (not for me anyway).
 
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