London Boat Show

[lurob]

I'm planning to put a few bits of extra kit on my boat for her return from Athens to Scotland in Summer '04....radar/chartplotter, wheelpilot, VHF/DSC, instruments, EPIRB....and have shopped around for best prices so far. Is it worth making a trip south for the Boat Show in Jan? Having never been before, I'd welcome advice as to whether I will get equipment cheaper on sale at the show. Apart from VHF & EPIRB, I will be going for Raymarine kit.

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[tillergirl]

Well yes and no. there are undoubtedly discounts available at the show; the issue is whether the discounts are on the gear you want. It does have the advantage though that you can go to each manufacturers stand and ask some questions about the gear. Many of the electronic stands generally have reps of the main dealers on them so you can at least have a go at bargaining one against the other. I got a good discount on RayMarine stuff a couple of years ago buying through Greenham Regis who were very helpful with answering repeated queries. I'm not convinced that I couldn't have got the same discount going direct to Greenham Regis but I'll never know now. If you're buying a lot and what to make up your mind on which to go for, probably worth your bother.

Remember that it's no longer at Earls Court but rather at Excel Exhibition and Conference Centre in Docklands, East London. A bleak windswept sort of a place in the winter outside but massive halls inside. Very convenience for London City Airport if you're arriving that way (a short taxi ride - might even be a courtesy bus service for all I know), otherwise Docklands Light Railway or tube from Central London. Also convenient by road ( well relatively it is London after all, follow the North Circular Road to the East until it almost hits the River Thames and then follow the signs.

There again you could just telephone the major retailers if you know what you want and ask for the show deals.

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[pvb]

Let your fingers do the walking...

If you've decided already that most of the kit you're going to buy will be Raymarine, there's little point in subjecting yourself to the horrors of tramping around a boat show. Instead, probably the best approach would be to draw up a detailed list of the items you want, with the Raymarine part numbers, and send it to a selection of Raymarine dealers asking for their best price by (date). Then phone the best 2 or 3 and get them to improve their prices. You should get at least 20% off list prices. Be sure to include MES, Nauticalia who took over the MMS operation. If you're still not happy with the prices, you could then decide to go to the show and negotiate face-to-face.

Be very careful about specifying exactly what you want, because I get the feeling there's a fair amount of old-spec equipment lying around awaiting unsuspecting buyers. For example, if you are thinking of the RL70CRC colour radar/plotter, you should be getting the new brighter colour screen (product code E52034HB) rather than the previous version (E52034 - without the HB for "High Brightness") which is inferior.

The sort of order value you're contemplating is attractive to the box-shifters, so you should get a good price.

As an afterthought, it might also be worth approaching some of the bigger French and Dutch chandlers.

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