London boat show

The London Boat Show has gone downhill these last few years. There are less and less sailing boats and more and more stands for garden furniture, picnic hampers, shoe polish and the like. (Hot tubs already mentioned!) I look back in nostalgia at the shows in Earls Court. There was a good atmosphere, you knew where to look for things instead of needing a rip-off show guide.Time was when PBO published a map. The food at Excel is a bit of a rip-off as well. The best thing it does is fill in a dead spot in the sailing calendar and get you thinking about the year ahead.
 
Hmmm, but Earls Court was the most unpleasant dump on the face of the planet - long overdue for bulldozing!
 
If you want to see boats, you obviously go to Southampton, which has a big marina full of them. The London thing is really a boat accessory show, as it has no water (other than the paddle pool). Which is fine, good deals can be had a boatshows (I bought most of my rope there and have gotten prices you can't find online).

As for the hot tubs and garden sheds, think of them as the advertising that fills your magazines and pays for them. Their big stands help pay for the show, because your free tickets sure aren't ;-) Much like the advertising in your magazine, you mentally adblock them and quickly skip over those pages/stands.
 
Yngmar said:
If you want to see boats, you obviously go to Southampton, which has a big marina full of them. The London thing is really a boat accessory show, as it has no water (other than the paddle pool).
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Apart from the Royal Docks just outside that is :p

Last time I went there was a small marina there mostly with large mobos but it was cold and dark!
 
So, as someone who has never been to the boat show, and this coming year was thinking of it, am I sensing the feeling that it's not woth the effort? We were just going out of curiosity, and for nothing in particular. We ALWAYS take our own food to any show anywhere.
 
Capt. Clueless said:
So, as someone who has never been to the boat show, and this coming year was thinking of it, am I sensing the feeling that it's not woth the effort? We were just going out of curiosity, and for nothing in particular. We ALWAYS take our own food to any show anywhere.
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Just go and make your own mind up

It's an annual event that the grumblies on here always complain about EXcel and act nostalgic about the "good old days" of Earls Court (which of course was moaned about when it was there).
Particularly amusing is the southern locals complaining it is sooooooo far and sooooooo difficult to travel to the docklands from Surbiton :-)
 
Capt. Clueless said:
So, as someone who has never been to the boat show, and this coming year was thinking of it, am I sensing the feeling that it's not woth the effort? We were just going out of curiosity, and for nothing in particular. We ALWAYS take our own food to any show anywhere.
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As I keep banging on about...look at going to Boot , Düsseldorf instead. It's about 17 Excel sized halls of everything afloat you could think of, cheap to get to with budget airlines and your ticket gives you free public transport. It will take 2 days to give the whole show a good look over...
 
dunedin said:
Just go and make your own mind up

It's an annual event that the grumblies on here always complain about EXcel and act nostalgic about the "good old days" of Earls Court (which of course was moaned about when it was there).
Particularly amusing is the southern locals complaining it is sooooooo far and sooooooo difficult to travel to the docklands from Surbiton :-)
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Agree 100%

I am completely lost as to what planet the people are on who say Excel is difficult to get to. It's a short ride on the DLR that drops you immediately outside.

I met the woman responsible for running the team who book exhibitors a couple of years ago. She said they had taken to severely restricting the jacuzzi/knife sharpening etc stands as their research showed how much these stands annoy people.

My feeling is Southampton is the better show for sailboats and London is now more for power and accessories. Fewer sailboats but a much nicer temperature than Earls Court.
 
The road links to Excel via the A1 and M11 are , for me , very good . On a Sundays the roads are virtually empty. Parking under cover at the venue at £15 is bearable . Free tickets for entry to the show are not too hard to come by. The food is no more expensive than motorway service station prices but avoidable if you take a sandwich. The Guinness is very expensive , perhaps to discourage over consumption. Non boating stands? - just walk past things that are not of interest.
On the whole a day of boating interest in mid winter - but then I am interested in all things to do with boating which clearly is not for everyone.
 
Heard that the NCI are not having a presence at Excel this year. Whether it's down to the cost of the stand or the costs to the stand-manning volunteers to get there I don't know.
 
john_morris_uk said:
Agree 100%

I am completely lost as to what planet the people are on who say Excel is difficult to get to. It's a short ride on the DLR that drops you immediately outside.

I met the woman responsible for running the team who book exhibitors a couple of years ago. She said they had taken to severely restricting the jacuzzi/knife sharpening etc stands as their research showed how much these stands annoy people.

My feeling is Southampton is the better show for sailboats and London is now more for power and accessories. Fewer sailboats but a much nicer temperature than Earls Court.
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Also as I mentioned last year in the identical thread......

Only 2 years until crossrail opens at which point it will be far easier to get there from central and west London.
 
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