LBS Sucks!

I was going to write that I was jealous of anyone who could drive to the LBS in 55 minutes. It took me 30 minutes to drive to the station. 3 hours 40 minutes to Paddington. £140 for the hotel (ok we stayed two nights) and then unmeasured time on the tube and DLR to get to the LBS. Despite that we enjoyed most of the show. We took our own food, saw what we wanted to see and that didn't include the boats outside (who else said that they were too expensive). It didn't help that the train was delayed coming back to the Westcountry (neary five hours sitting on the train doesn't make anyone happy?)

What I was most disappointed to discover was that some of the boats we wanted to see weren't there. The representitives of the company concerned said the LIBS was the most expensive boat sho in thw world to exhibit at and if we wanted to see their boats we should travel to Germany where they were all on show!

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Re: Victim of it\'s own success

If you interviewed visitors, which I did, it was hard to find anyone with even a slight moan. No one was militating for a return to Earls Court. The only moans were about the price of food. Thats a general moan at almost any event.

If you interviewed exhibitors, which I did, they were in clover. Visitor numbers were up and sales were typicaly up 30%.

The show was more expensive for exhibitors which might have put off some of the smaller stands but over towards the Guinness Stand had it's share of small retailers.

I think you were unlucky with the day you chose. Excel swallowed most days crowds effortlessly and rarely felt crowded or stuffy.

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Totally agree!!!

Went on Saturday and it was a disaster being so overcrowded that it was impossible to get to some of the stands. The location of the chandlery stands in the vicinity of the guinness stand was really stupid. A huge overspill from the guinness stand blocked the access to chandlery and when you finally made it to those stands they were filled with non boaties who had succumbed to the advertising and had gone along for some winter entertainment and a 10 quid fleece.

I thought the boat show was about boats but I guess the 'people' now want a themed day out and a day of entertainment. I must be getting bloody old!!!

Gave up with only a tiny bit of what I wanted and didn't return on Sunday as I had intended.

As a yachtie and a motorboater I expect to go to the boat show and get ideas, information and have access to new boats and products and specialists who know the products. There was no way this was available on Saturday.

I will stick with Southampton.

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Interesting points

Let me assure you the BMF and the European Harbourmasters' Association are not on the same planet. The former is against compulsory licencing and registration; the latter is for and has now been joined by Trinity House in same, a new worry.

RCD was first and foremost formulated to prevent the increase in problems of selling new boats across Europe. Localised legislation had begun to bite in places like Spain (and also in fairness here in the UK with the stupid Boat Safety Scheme in its first incarnation) and for a manufacturer to sell a boat anywhere on the near continent was becoming increasingly complex. By definition new boats outside the EEA would soon have faced several different standards, instead of one, had not the RCD come into place. We would have copped the bill anyway.

I'm not sure how the situation arose in the midst of all of that that prevented the free movement of secondhand imports from outside the EEA but I am more than happy to find out for you.

Don't get me wrong...there is plenty of issues one can raise about the RCD but it was going to happen whatever the BMF wanted and I'm glad it is not more draconian than it actually is.

As for marina bills...well, you are right...BMF is not going to tell its members to drop its prices, in much the same way that it is not in a position to tell any of its members what to charge. However, a 2003 survey based on a 60 per cent return from all marinas, harbours and havens, concludes there is just under three per cent availability of moorings of all types around the coast of Britain now and I also heard that just 2,500 new coastal berths are in planning, of which just 150 have currently got consent. That creates a seller's market.

The BMF not only has marina and harbour interests to protect; it also has many boat builder and seller members who want more berthing provision, winter storage and slipways at sensible prices for their clients. It therefore has every incentive to lobby for greater government assistance with berth provision which in turn ought, if not to reduce, at least to keep prices stable and prevent another 1980s big boom that saw so many actually leave boating.

No-one ever seems to have effectively put the case for the positive economic impact of a leisure haven on its locality in the UK (unlike many other countries); I for one would welcome that because it ought to in turn raise the question of incentives to get people to visit and stay by water.

Incidentally BMF is also doing work on the environmental legislation that has pushed the cost of dredging up, or made dredging impossible. That, if successful, should also help. Britain, as always, has embraced a Euopean Directive with vigour (in this case the Habitats Directive) and the case for boating needs to be more strongly represented.

As I understand it quite a lot of this is being done through joint BMF/RYA initiatives. At one level it seems an unholy alliance but the key exponents concerned see more strength than weakness in the relationship and seem to have worked out where to agree to differ.



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Re: Each to their own

We enjoyed it too, thought it generally much improved on Earls Court. Bit concerned at the comment about the cost to exhibitors, though, we don't want to lose the chance to see the small business wares on display.
We're lucky enough to be able to visit on a weekday, but I can imagine what the weekend was like. And we take our own food and eat it in the RYA lounge, which is at least a peaceful haven with comfy chairs.
One grumble I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere - why oh why aren't there groups of chairs provided, distributed around the show so that we can take the weight off for a few minutes every now and then?

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I went last Thursday late afternoon. I wasn't impressed as I thought I'd be. Yes it was bigger but full of more things I didn't want to see. There seemed to be less sailing boats at the show, being confined to one row of a hall. The food prices were extortionate and I ate at the pub grub bit and the food was cheap and awful. I think I might give it a miss in future and stick to Southampton.

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Re: LBS 2004 licks Earls Court!!

Having been to some overseas shows I have to say the move to Docklands was greatly overdue. Now the LBS is up with the best. There are larger shows but that mostly means more hamburgers and wine tasting.

One niggle - the cost of entry has got ahead of itself. The same effect is seen with London's theatres most of which now no longer sell out through over-pricing. This year there's a lot of new interest in the Show, but steadily jerking up the price will produce the same after market in discount tickets as with the theatres. Oh well, that's modern marketing I suppose - it doesn't optimise revenue (just look at the high street stores!) but the marketing teams always think it does.

PWG

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