Do you miss the London Boat Show

[Snowgoose-1]

I do. Even when it moved from Earls Court. Possibly an Internet casualty and unlikely to ever happen again.

I do miss talking to real people and ordering stuff in a lonely month like January.

Have been to Suthampton, but I'm still in sailing mode and it's a long way away.
.
What about Birmingham ?

 

[st599]

Nope, living in West London, Düsseldorf Messe is easier to get to than Excel. And it's a much, much bigger show. The last Excel show is smaller than the sailing art section at Boot.

 

[colind3782]

I went to Boatlife at the NEC last year, mainly to meet up with a friend who was at the shooting show next door. It was small but I think it has the potential to grow. Obviously Birmingham is limited in its connections to the sea so the number of boats there are small but there was plenty of "stuff".

 

[tillergirl]

Yes I do miss it even though Excel was difficult to like. In our boating lives was to go to Earls Court and it was good just nosing around and seeing what there was. One year I went there to select a new engine. Earls Court was somehow better at finding all the choices in a nice small area. By the time Excel came I really had anything I wanted but it was still good to have a prod around and meet up with people. And I will miss the annual Size 12 boat shoe cabaret:

Hi
How can I help you Sir
What have you got in size 12?
You can select any style you like
Really? Gosh, that's unusual. Can I have pair of those
Long pause afore the assistant returns
Sorry we seem to be out of 12s of that style
Which have you got in 12s?
Pick any other style Sir
Really?
Oh yes.
OK what about that style?
Long pause afore the assistant returns
Sorry we seem to be out of that stock as well
Could you just go and have a look at what you have in stock
Yes Sir, Sorry Sir
Very very long pause afore the assistant returns
Oh dear Sir. We seem to be out of stock of 12s of everything. It isn't a popular size.

 

[Daydream believer]

LIBS at Excel was a disappointment. Easy to get to & a better hall. But i missed boating on a budget on the top floor & all the little stands at one end of the first floor. They were so packed it took ages to get down the aisle. Thomas Foulkes could keep one fascinated for hours. I still have 2 Churchill crowns that they gave me in my change one year. I never did get the point of a fisherman reeling in the diver in the pond. But I still stood & watched & cheered with everyone else at the appropriate moment. The models displaying clothes were worth watching from the balcony. Cannot do that at Excel.
Excel was so small last time I went. However, one year there was a cycling show in the next hall & I really enjoyed that. Watching the bike racing was fun.
In the early days of LIBS I used to get there when it opened with my dad. He used to tell me how my grandad was the chief site agent in charge of building the concrete underground car parks to the entire complex. He was normally employed building bridges & concrete structures by Yorkshire Enibiegh ( spelling, does anyone know correct name?)but was on loan to the company doing it due to his expertise. He also told me how the company doing the arched concrete roof (I think he said it was Holloway, before they added White & Allom, not sure) to the main hall had just finished the concrete pour. The men all went for a tea break & the shuttering collapsed & the lot ended up on the ground. Fortunately, no one was killed as no one was on the roof at the time.
I had to hear that story every time.

I recall one year standing alongside Sceptre, the 12 metre looking up at her mast. It had a chain where the sail was hooked on rather than a groove in the mast. As I sit typing this I can see a picture of her on the wall in front of me.

When we had been round the show we used to get on the underground & go to Wembly for the Model Engineering Exhibition where we stayed until kicking out time. The model yachts( pre RC) with their self steering & automatic tacking - designed by Stollery- fascinated me. I actually built an A class model yacht of his design years later & now have a 1 metre class RC yacht. Perhaps that is why my boat has an Aries

 

[Sandy]

Good Lord no. Even with free tickets the Excel was a difficult to get to location - I am not a fan of London travel - and the place was soulless.

 

[jamie N]

The Guinness Stand.

 

[awol]

Packed my pith helmet and headed to London for some missionary work after the new year (bringing culture and comprehensible pronounciation to the masses) and went to Earl's Court for the BBC Earth Experience (kept grand sprogs and me amused while the Yellow Warning rain pissed down ourside). Passing the derelict site memories came flooding back including decent Guiness and prawn cocktails while meeting long missed acquaintances. The travesty out near the docks never compared.

 

[dunedin]

I do. Even when it moved from Earls Court. Possibly an Internet casualty and unlikely to ever happen again.

I do miss talking to real people and ordering stuff in a lonely month like January.

Have been to Suthampton, but I'm still in sailing mode and it's a long way away.
.
What about Birmingham ?

Wow, if London is close enough to attend, how can Southampton be a “long way away”?

 

[johnalison]

I haven't been to a boat show since we had finished equipping our current boat some fifteen years ago, and there seemed no good reason to traipse off to London or Southampton just to look at stuff we didn't want. I had been to Earls Court from time to time since the 1950s when my interest was dinghies, and seagoing boats were very exotic. We actually spent the first evening of our honeymoon at the Boat Show. In those days it didn't close until well after nine, so it was a convenient place to have dinner, which in my case was a steak. I don't remember much about the boats. Excel was grim. Just vast spaces filled with powerboats and hardly any mid-range cruisers to look at. The market is so different now that the times of Earls Court and its delights are now just part of history.

 

[Pye_End]

Yes. Easy to get to, and the time of year - great for making plans for the coming season, and seeing off some of the winter blues.

 

[westernman]

Nope, living in West London, Düsseldorf Messe is easier to get to than Excel. And it's a much, much bigger show. The last Excel show is smaller than the sailing art section at Boot.

And the flight is cheaper than the full fare London -> Birmingham by train.

 

[laika]

I only started going to boat shows in the early excel days and thoroughly enjoyed it. One day was not enough. Detractors of the location seem to mostly want to publicly say they’re the kind of person who hates London: there are few places more accessible to the majority of uk boat owners by bus, rail, road and air and there’s a big river right outside. Boot may have always been bigger but the easiest way for Londoners to get to Düsseldorf is via city airport which is right next to excel, and we can no longer bring stuff back without paying vat / duty.

I miss the excel shows of 15-20 years ago. I don’t miss the pathetic waste of time which was the final years.

What about Birmingham ?

I’m not seeing the water access to the NEC. Plus I suggest that the best location is not that which is closest to the centre of population, but that which provides convenient access to most of the people who want to go to a boat show.

 

[prestomg27]

I remember going to Earls Court with my dad every few years and loved it. The great thing aboit it was the location and the ease of going to the West End afterwards. The pool was a great centre piece.

I exhibited at Excel for a couple of years around 2004 - 2007 ish and thought it souless in comparison. The costs were incredibly high especially given the falling visitor numbers each year.

The sailing market in the UK is just too small and too resistant to new product really.

Nowadays i go to barcelona, la rochelle (my favourite) , and boot. The range of different sailing boats on the continental market is absolutely different to what is available on the uk market. Voile magazine a couple of months ago did a review summary of the top 100 sailing boat manufacturers for sake in France. You would be lucky to scrape much more than a dozen brands properly supported in the uk market.

 

[Pinnacle]

Boot is so much better than either of the London venues. I quite like Southampton, but do wish they would let the public in closer to the marina.

 

[capnsensible]

As an exhibitor I reckon Earls Court was massively better than Excel in so many ways.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Many clubs used to hire a coach and it was a great day out even if you didn't need anything. I think we just need to embrace change more which is not easy when everything is going at 100 mph for the last thirty years.

Life can still be good.

 

[flaming]

As some may recall I worked for the shows (southampton on london) for a few years.

I never understood how people who claimed to be interested in boats could come to an exhibition in January full of boats and boating bits, and a bar, and not be entertained.

Now I don't work there, I find it harder to justify time in September to go to a show than I would in January.

 

[Bobc]

I used to like Earls Court show. Relatively easy for me to get to, very social (the Guiness bar was the place to meet everyone), and a generally good day out.

 

[Greg2]

Reading this thread raised an ironic smile

Every year at LIBS time there would be a thread generally reflecting much of the the commentary here - decrying the move to Excel and expressing dissatisfaction with the diminishing size and content of the show. Oddly, every time we went (once to Earls Court and the rest at Excel) we had a thoroughly enjoyable day, even at the very last one, which was a lot smaller than previous years. A boaty day in January always seemed like a good thing to me and I appreciated what we got even if some things could have been better.

Perhaps my glass was half full
.