LIBS - Never Again!

[ROSSCO]

I went to the Boat Show on Saturday - It was the Nightmare from hell - First of all I had to pay an extortionate £5 for the worst show guide I have ever seen - The map was so unclear that i set off to the East Hall while what I was looking for was in the West Hall where I started. It was so crowded that it took me the best part of an hour to get to the east hall (being shoved and elbowed in the process).
The atmosphere of the show is zilch since you cannot look down on anything(as you could on the central pool at Earls Court) its all at ground level and you can only see what is directly in front of you.
I can understand the attraction from an access point to the venue but as far as I'm concerned that was the only benefit.
I read some reasonably favourable comments on the show last week - I can only conclude that I must have gone to a different show. I have been going to the boat show for the last 15-20 years but I really dont have any desire to go again if it is held in the same place and the same format .Does anyone else share my views?
From now on it will be just the Southampton Boat show.

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[3reefs]

Agreed. London Boat Show disappointing - large diplays from the bigger names, lots of smaller suppliers/retailers couldn't get in.

We got a bit pee-ed (too many 'e's and not enough 's's?) off with "We don't sell to the great unwashed public, only supply to retailers, so just stand there a little longer while I look down my nose, then beat it".

Few yachts to prod and got the treatment from the bouncer at the bottom of the stairs at Dufour. Set off to find a Malo or Najad to prod, but there weren't any.

Will stick to Southampton in future.

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[sailbadthesinner]

you went on a saturday
bad move always more crowded.
but i found it not too bad. the eateries were loads better and there was more variety.
for one thing with less people around the edges picnicing like gypsies and blocking the normally faster flowing edges. i think the space worked. managed to get around without a guide or a map ( agree 5 pounds was a bit much so did not pay)
could not really see the point of the outside bit but i am not into big ferrettis and warships (anymore)
nice to kingfisher but couldn'rt wait for the queue.
the guinness tent was less crowded and the oysters were superb.the staff are definitely less friendly tho
it used to be easy to get an appointment to see moody but now i just cannot be bothered. if they don't want hoardes of people tripsing over the boat don't bloody attend or alternatively just have a stand selling brochures and booking test sails.
it hought excel was a good space and the journey from notting hill was not too bad.
an improvement overall in the product altho the exhibitors have changed the feel somewhat. i did not feel some the exhibitors had done as well as they might.


<hr width=100% size=1>I thought it was the London International Guinness Show with a Boat tent

 

[Ohdrat]

I only went as I had a free ticket and my I was visiting my sister who conveniently lives on the North London Line (what is now Silver Link thingy line) which takes you right to Excel..

Anyway why on earth name an exhibition centre after spreadsheet program anyway???

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[Twister_Ken]

Essex boatshow weekends were hell

I have a friend with a non-boaty stand at the show (she supplied the pool that was used for the windsurfing) and the weekends were, apparently, exceptionally busy. I went on the Monday, and pretty well had the place to myself (plus Chris Robb, JohnM and PeterB). Their presence prevented me seeing very much except Guinness glasses though!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[IanPoole2]

Re: Better but not perfect

I went on the first Saturday - as a friend of mine calls it - RAMMO-
It is probably a victim of its own success (and publicity). DLR seemed to be trying a lot harder than the Earls Court tube staff were.

Generally - though I now live in Essex and not London it is easy to get to, train / DLR as opposed to just the tube.
Crowds and queues disappointing. Took 30 mins of queueing to buy my ticket to get in!!

The queues for the outside boats, especially Prince William, Kingfisher, and the lifeboat were extraordinary.
Overall the outside exhibits were a good idea. I would like to see more yachts on more pontoons as well as just the Gin Palaces.

Disappointed Sadler were n't there with the 290, but liked Hunters Mystery and the Southerly, but I generally agree they seem to be targetting rich b*ggers only.

I did struggle to find the normal cheap and cheerful chandlers, but did in the end, damned if I was going to £5 for a map and adverts.

Highlight - Classic boat stands, superb, active demos, useful advice and lots of experts.



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[sailbadthesinner]

Re: LIBS - another thing

anyway i never believe someone who says never again
as a regular 'never again' myself
next year it might be perfect but you have to go to find out.
i definitely want to see the indoor pool windsurfing next year
the highlights are on a 12 pm ish but donot know which night

<hr width=100% size=1>My wife wanted tender treatment, so i stowed her whilst at sea

 

[Peppermint]

Re:The moral is

don't go on the last weekend.

If the same number of punters had turned up at Earls Court it would have been much more unpleasant.

The were plenty of small boats so no eliteism or rich bastardism either.

I thought the staff were fine and the were plenty of people keeping the place tidy.

As to the lack of a view from above I suspect that you'll have to live with that.

The layout made the need for a guide almost redundant.

What we have here is a success however you look at it. It was a much better experience than a wet or busy weekend at the Southampton Show.



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[jamesjermain]

Re: LIBS - another thing

The general view of the show, as culled from vox pops with visitors and stands was that it was an excellent show with a few wrinkles to sort out. No one I spoke to wanted to return to Earls Court.

People who visited on the first Saturday complained about the crowds. The visitor total was 28,000 - more than even the best years in the '80s at Earls Court. Then we had the second Saturday when the crowds topped 36,000!

Nor surprisingly ExCel's infrastructure, which was a litle surprised by the numbers anyway, suffered a bit of a melt down. I hate to think what would have happened if that number had tried to get into Earls Court.

For what it's worth, I though the show was great - the venue was clean, easy to get around (though you had to cover a lot more ground), brighter and more cheerful. I found stand staffs more alert and friendly because of the improved conditions. In the background staff were treated much better, with their own canteen etc.

On the down side, I agree that the lack of a balcony was disappointing and there have been various suggestions for an alternative, including a central feature with a viewing platform. I felt the layout of the yachts - blandly lined up against the back wall could have been improved and I suspect some of the larger exhibitors will be doing something a bit more adventuraous next time. Sign posts to the show were awful - blame Ken Livingstone who refuses to offer aid to motorists. Sign posts inside the show were also inadequate and NAtinal Boat Shows will be working on that for next time.

Some people have still to work out the best way to get to the show site. Those who got it right found that even from the far West, the show could be more accessible than Earls Court.


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[brianhumber]

Re: LIBS - A Lot Better

I went on Friday and found it far better than Earls Court :

Access by Public Transport could not have been quicker or easier and I came from the Heathrow area - Waterloo to the show was less than 20 mins
A lot better layout and less oppressive atmosphere.
Found I could get on far more yachts without appointments than last year and exhibitors and stands all said business was super.
Things to improve
Outside exhibits - make it more like a marina
larger stand numbers and better layout plans

Brian



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[sailbadthesinner]

Re: yacht stands

i knew it was busy but it never felt as crowded as earls court could altho there were lots of long queues
agree about the the yachts location and general lay out. at least at earls court you could look down on the oysters et al from the uppewr level if you could not get on the stand.
the stands felt very remote and the added barriers of security or snooty recpetion desks did not help and i frankly could not be bothered pretending. I just walked up and said i would love to see your boat but i cannot afford one yet can i come up?
my honesty was not rewarded.

this is a generla LIBS comment and went on at earls court too
a few of the stands on the afternoon of the saturday night out party were a bit brusque with potential customers along the lines of
we want to get finished soon as we are going out later
and were then too hungover to care the next morning
this was reported to me by a few people and has also been my experience in the past
this has not been my experience at say car shows
or do boaters use everytime they meet up as an opportunity to get slaughtered
finally mrs s would not let me badger the ipc sales staff to see if you were about so did not get to meet you
there is next years mission.


<hr width=100% size=1>My wife wanted tender treatment, so i stowed her whilst at sea

 

[tcm]

Re: Oyster

hm, i agree, i don't think their approach wins lots of friends. And as a result of numerous such knockbacks and fraidnots I confess that even tho i can afford such a boat I am somewhat arsey with them. Their "sailaway" price for the 66 seemed fabulously high at 1.8million, and doesn't include VAT, nor does it incl spare genny, walk-in engine room even on a 60 footer, and certainly not a load of mongrammed towels and all piles of china plates for best and plastic for whilst underway, and definitely not any silver cutlery. All of which the foreign builders (or some foreign builders) DO include. So let's have no more of their salepeeps banging on about them being the very very most top class service during a semi-custom build cos it ain't - it's better than a benny 57 but erm the base price of a o56 is DOUBLE the price of the benny fully loaded and the production stuff of the benny more likely works longer and has oodles of spares rather than the one-offish boats. If you buy an oyster you'd have the wherewithal to buy rather decent houses and cars as well. But the cheapest fridge, radio, tv, etc that you owned would be on that boat. The same applies to larger brit power boats too.



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[billmacfarlane]

Totally agree about the atmosphere. I can't see myself going again unless I want to meet some mates for a drink. Food was either awful or expensive, probably both in some cases. I didn't mind the layout, as after years of Earls Court at last there was space to breathe at the chandlery stands but with the yachts in one corner and no central pool there wasn't really a focus point and the whole thing was like a giant sprawling marquee without a shred of atmosphere. I'll stick to SBS.

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[shamrock]

Re: LIBS - A Lot Better

I'd second those who liked it. This LIBS was a new experience for me - the first time at a show with a 2-year old kid in tow. We thought it would be a fun day out and it really was.

We took a tip from someone else on this board (thanks whoever you are) and went from Waterloo to the Savoy Pier for the ferry / bus link to Excel. Probably not as fast as the tube / DLR but with a kid and pushchair it was much easier, and my daughter loved the experience. London by river is such a great trip anyway.

At the show, I saw a lot less than I have in years before because, well, you just move slower with a toddler. She wanted to climb all over everything, run under all the yachts, try and jump in Sunsail's model boat pool ("Daddy - swimming") and everywhere I got nothing but nice comments and polite treatment. I was pleasantly surprised.

Granted, we were there on a Friday, and we didn't try to have a look around the Oyster or Moody (why do they bother, really?) but the nice people from Opel were very happy to let us climb (literally climb, in her case) all over their Island Packet 485, which isn't exactly bargin basement stuff. The folks at Waquiez were also really nice about her playing under their boat and at Beneteau she climbed all the way up the stairs and onto the boats without anyone telling us off.

And yes, it is better than Earl's court. Plenty of space, reasonable food places, decent information. I didn't buy the 5 quid book, but asked at the info stand and they'd give you a single page map and happily tell you where anyone was - although the layout made it easy to find folks anyway.

We'll go again.



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[oldgit]

Re: Expensive food ..Total Tosh..

The tapas bar in the middle of the place was offering excellent food and a decent white.Our order of one of everything on the menu(plus er 2 x the meat balls) 2 x bottles of wine and some fizzy water, n beers fed six and cost us around 75 quid all in.
If you call that expensive no wonder you raggies cannot will not buy a proper boat./forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>If it aint broke fix it till it is.

 

[Shanty]

Re: LIBS - another thing

I went to the show on the first Friday. It seemed busy, but not overcrowded. No problems with finding someone to talk to on the stands I visited.

Would be interested to see a day-by-day breakdown of the attendance. This would help to put some of the comments made here into perspective.

A small thing that might improve the maps for next year: the central boulevard had large signs labelling each of the entrances to the North and South Halls. These labels didn't appear on any of the maps I saw. This would have made locating particular stands much easier.


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[Robin]

Re: LIBS - another thing

James

As one who did NOT go, for the first time in over 20 years, I was interested to see all the various postings on the forums. I have not yet seen anything which will make me consider going next year and for us it will be 'Long Live Southampton'.

We are Poole based, one of the biggest concentration of boats in the country and second probably only to the Solent. OK many boat owners in this neck of the woods may well live elsewhere, many even in London, but that is still a high proportion who now face a horrible journey to ExCel as opposed to Earl's Court. Obviously what is worse for us though is better for East Coast sailors.

As to the big increase in visitor numbers, unless there has been a huge overnight surge in interest in boating, these are not true boaties but people simply looking for a nice day out. This is all fine and dandy for ExCel who want maximum bums through turnstiles but not necessarily so for the exhibitor who wants to meet the genuine article with money to spend on his products. I am sure though that they will still claim increased interest and sales just as they did each and every year at Earl's Court, despite the falling visitor numbers there!

Robin







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[davidfox]

Re: LIBS - another thing

I went on 2nd wednesday with 3 kids - 3yrs, 20mts and 6 mths and wife (quite a lot of months) and found it easy to get to via M11, went early about 10.30 and got in and around very easily, it would have been a nightmare at Earls Court, food was good, but not enough chairs. Didnt come across any of those nasty snobby people who seem to be offending so many people though.

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[kds]

Re: LIBS - another thing

I'm a little suprised to hear of the "horrible" journey to excel from someone who didn't even go - plus a lot of other negatives.
I found the travel from Somerset no worse that to Earls Court, parking was a doddle, there was room to actually walk down the corridors and the place was clean.
Mind you, Boat Shows have not been the same since Fairey Marine stopped showing their 3 bare wooden laminated yacht hulls on end at the end of Olympia Hall !
I did miss the smaller stands and my wife is going to take a lot of persuading if Foxes' don't turn up next year.
I agree that the lack of a major, open feature removed something from the atmosphere of previous years.
I also enjoy Southampton - but it isn't in the middle of the Winter, when I need a lift.

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[sailorman]

be more room next year then

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