Did anyone else think Southampton BS...

I didn’t go this year as I ended my many many years of attendance last year.
It’s a crying shame as no matter what spin (lies) the show official puts out it is in serious decline.
Chatting with many exhibitors from 2014 until last year, all said the crippling costs of exhibiting will endanger their attendance in the future.
The escalating ticket prices for visitors focused my mind on the cost of attending, this coupled to having to travel long distances to the show in my case (and I suspect others) questions whether to go.
I used to go just for the couple of days as a weekend away looking at different kit, general chandlery and dreaming of a future boat.
With a lot of the small exhibitors coupled to some decline from the big boys I don’t think it’s worth going and have voted with my feet.
The golden goose has yet again been killed by the greed of profit.
It’s only going to get worse unless the organisers reduce costs for the exhibitors and ticket pricing accordingly then it will inevitably fall the way London has.
A crying shame!!
 
robertj said:
I didn’t go this year as I ended my many many years of attendance last year.
It’s a crying shame as no matter what spin (lies) the show official puts out it is in serious decline.
Chatting with many exhibitors from 2014 until last year, all said the crippling costs of exhibiting will endanger their attendance in the future.
The escalating ticket prices for visitors focused my mind on the cost of attending, this coupled to having to travel long distances to the show in my case (and I suspect others) questions whether to go.
I used to go just for the couple of days as a weekend away looking at different kit, general chandlery and dreaming of a future boat.
With a lot of the small exhibitors coupled to some decline from the big boys I don’t think it’s worth going and have voted with my feet.
The golden goose has yet again been killed by the greed of profit.
It’s only going to get worse unless the organisers reduce costs for the exhibitors and ticket pricing accordingly then it will inevitably fall the way London has.
A crying shame!!
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I fully agree. The land on which it is staged is public land and could be made available by the council at very little cost - really just the cost of a clean-up before and after. The cost to exhibitors should be based on the cost of providing the additional facilities that are installed on-site for the show - things like the toilets and marquees.
 
We went yesterday (Friday) and for once had a purpose (other than slackly gazing at unaffordable desireable objects! ) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Agreed that the number of stands were down a bit, having said that - I got all the info I needed, like laika above, am considering and will be taking advantage of some pretty keen show discounts after Monday (subject to survey!) for an Evo 40 heater kit, Cruising Chute and possibly a Tohatsu 6hp outboard (which incidentally I decided on after doing as suggested months ago and wandering around and actually picking them up!).

I found the sales folks very helpful and must give a special mention to the chap at Habitent who's just saved me a heap of cash with some pretty damn spiffy (sorry Mads) customer service.

The food however... now thats another story. My wallet needs soothing.
 
maby said:
I fully agree. The land on which it is staged is public land and could be made available by the council at very little cost - really just the cost of a clean-up before and after. The cost to exhibitors should be based on the cost of providing the additional facilities that are installed on-site for the show - things like the toilets and marquees.
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There is an Act of Parliament that says the Mayflower Park must be given over to the Boat show for so many days (around 20 days from memory) every year. It's the only Act of Parliament to decree such an activity!
 
smert said:
There is an Act of Parliament that says the Mayflower Park must be given over to the Boat show for so many days (around 20 days from memory) every year. It's the only Act of Parliament to decree such an activity!
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It's 34 consecutive days - 10 days for the Show itself, and 24 days for the set-up and de-rig.
 
smert said:
There is an Act of Parliament that says the Mayflower Park must be given over to the Boat show for so many days (around 20 days from memory) every year. It's the only Act of Parliament to decree such an activity!
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That’s a lovely idea, but I am afraid it’s not at all true!

There is an Act that allows the city council to close the otherwise public Mayflower Park for the duration of the show (the Hampshire Act 1983 as amended by the Southampton International Boat Show Act 1997)), but nothing that says the Mayflower Park or anywhere else must be given over for the event.

SIBS may be worthwhile, but it’s hardly important enough for Parliament to mandate it!
 
Sandy said:
Discovered that "coastal" in insurance terms means less than 12 miles offshore unless you are on passage, looking to have my cover extended to 50 miles, as I've been a very naughty boy. Eire needs special cover
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My GJW policy covers UK and Irish Coastal waters, but I had to ask nicely to be covered for the whole Irish Sea. Which they were happy to do, for no extra charge.
 
robertj said:
With a lot of the small exhibitors coupled to some decline from the big boys I don’t think it’s worth going and have voted with my feet.
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You're right about the smaller exhibitors. Once there were all sorts of one-man bands there, but the only ones I saw this time were the "Le Tonkinois" man ("Remember the smell of your Grandad's workshop?"), someone selling dodgy looking USB leads and an inventor from Shetland with a very elegant way of making a mast into a folding one. Where were all the ways of climbing masts? The innumerable devices for recovering people from the sea?
 
I went on the last day. I hadn’t been to SIBS before. The weather was vile but everyone that I wanted to meet was in the big hall.

I thought it was big, and busy, I spent seven hours, during which I sorted out decisions on a furler, batteries and vane gear, learned about generators and about my new to me Maxprop, and disliked every one of the windlasses!

I rejoined the CA; to my own surprise I didn’t buy any rope, oilskins or lifejackets.

One of the best things about a show is talking to the people whom you might do buy stuff from “face to face”, but an even better one is seeing how they relate to each other - who recommends whom, and so on. This is very useful indeed.

And I met the M.D. of my local Marina and sorted out a berth for next year.

So I had a wonderful time and will be back next year.
 
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JumbleDuck said:
Where were all the ways of climbing masts?
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We weren't there as (previously explained) the organisers offered a 3X3 space in the "eaves". We need 3X4 and mast clearance height. This was despite my sending my application in good time together with a deposit and having had the same well known requirements for the last nine years.

I strongly suspect that the difficulty was contrived due to the ongoing lack of reason by the H&S idiots.
 
It was definitely smaller
BUT
we thought it was really good value
we get in for free as we are retired and live in southampton!
Sorry............. ;-)
Fair winds
 
We loved it, smaller perhaps, but that almost played to its benefit.

We went on the last day expecting everyone to be tired, grumpy and wanting to go home after all the rain. We found everyone cheerful and demob happy all around and it was probably the best boatshow experience we've had for a decade (probably more down to us going straight to the boats first and us not trying to do too much with the kiddies). The lady who showed up around a couple of Beneteaus was delightful and welcoming to our three kids (most grimace and usher us off their boats quickly!), the chap on the Bavaria was equally charming above and beyond a pure sales flannel.

Loved it, its important it survives in this online world we now live in.
 
Went yesterday with my son. We had a spare ticket and found it impossible to give away as everyone seemed to have a ticket already!

We looked at several boats of our sort of size (33 ft) after the rain stopped and were not tempted by any off them. The trends that were noticeable were double doors to the fore-cabin and how much beamier they seem to get every year.

Also looked at several other assorted boats, and the most grumpy exhibitor must go to the guy on the Rustler 37 who was hardly civil; no wonder they have only sold ten! This contrasted to the guys on the large motor yacht moored directly behind the Soton University survey vessel, who were happy to have people looking all over it in spite of what must be a price tag of several million.

Can you get bargains? I think the answer is yes and no. I need a new pair of boots and the savings on the chandlery stands was so small as not to be worth the bother of carrying them. However, we were offered a deal on a B&G Vulcan 12" touch screen plotter, £1700 including a C-Map cartridge worth £350 against a RRP of about £2400 and a real price of about £2000 for the plotter alone. We were tempted but managed to resist!

We had lunch in the RYA Lounge, tea and biscuits on our Marina stand, and rounded off with a very good Chinese at the Imperial Garden in town in the evening. All in all a very enjoyable day out.
 
richardbrennan said:
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We had lunch in the RYA Lounge, tea and biscuits on our Marina stand, and rounded off with a very good Chinese at the Imperial Garden in town in the evening. All in all a very enjoyable day out.
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Where was the RYA Lounge this year? One of my grumbles in the last few years was the fact that they had moved it from the main show area into one of those stupid little areas that required you to climb a bridge. I used to enjoy breaking for lunch in the RYA Lounge but have settled for a bag of chips on the hoof for the last couple of years.
 
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