goochie
Well-Known Member
OK. So went to Excel on Friday and here are the results of the Croydon jury:
Definitely a much smaller show than the first one 5 (?) years ago. They used to have a third hall on the car park which was the home for all the canoe / windsurfer / waterski stuff. They now have a token presence in the sailing hall, but mostly gone.
Mobo hall pretty much the same as it's always been - lovely displays by all the big manufacturers, with a few notable absences - No Galion or Vikki ferinstance. Generally quite busy, but all stands very welcoming and willing to show around.
Had a good look at the new generation of Nav gear from Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno etc. All terribly impressive and very expensive. It's good to know that for 200 quid you can still gat a small device that will tell you exactly where you are, hold all your waypoints and courses and work out things like SOG and COG!
Saily hall was full of lots of very big yachts. Some small stuff, but not as much as Southampton. Also found Mainship trawlers in with the saily boats. Lovely solid boats, tardis like inside and very good VFM. Worth a second look methinks.
Biggest change from 5 years ago were the chandlers, or lack of. I guess internet has now reduced the need for show presence, and particularly somewhere like Excel, anything heavy is a pain to get home. Also, as pointed out before, few 'courses' stands. Probably same reason as chandlers.
Definitely a strong emphasis on big 'city' money. Big boats, expensive holiday / charter companies etc.
Big Irish presence on the Friday. Apparently the CI mob tend to come later in run.
Had a 'square pie' for lunch. £4.50 but actually kept me going all day - very nice meaty pie and a generous size.
More bars than before - easy to find a quiet drinking place - even on with seating.
Mainstage / Fashion show thing quite interesting.
Only got outside briefly (it was raining quite hard most of the day) but looked like some nice boats there.
The inland waterways section they had a few years ago was much better.
Live near London, so easy to get to. Seven quid for a cheap day railcard and about 45 minutes each way. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
In summary - it seems that they have stopped trying to be all things to all men, and concentrate on their strengths, which is selling big shhiny boats to people with lots of money. For inland waterways go to Birmingham, for windsurfing / skiing etc, go to Alexandra Palace, for saily boats and everything else, go to Southampton. If you want everything, go to Dusseldorf!
All in all a fun day out, but mostly window shopping.
Definitely a much smaller show than the first one 5 (?) years ago. They used to have a third hall on the car park which was the home for all the canoe / windsurfer / waterski stuff. They now have a token presence in the sailing hall, but mostly gone.
Mobo hall pretty much the same as it's always been - lovely displays by all the big manufacturers, with a few notable absences - No Galion or Vikki ferinstance. Generally quite busy, but all stands very welcoming and willing to show around.
Had a good look at the new generation of Nav gear from Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno etc. All terribly impressive and very expensive. It's good to know that for 200 quid you can still gat a small device that will tell you exactly where you are, hold all your waypoints and courses and work out things like SOG and COG!
Saily hall was full of lots of very big yachts. Some small stuff, but not as much as Southampton. Also found Mainship trawlers in with the saily boats. Lovely solid boats, tardis like inside and very good VFM. Worth a second look methinks.
Biggest change from 5 years ago were the chandlers, or lack of. I guess internet has now reduced the need for show presence, and particularly somewhere like Excel, anything heavy is a pain to get home. Also, as pointed out before, few 'courses' stands. Probably same reason as chandlers.
Definitely a strong emphasis on big 'city' money. Big boats, expensive holiday / charter companies etc.
Big Irish presence on the Friday. Apparently the CI mob tend to come later in run.
Had a 'square pie' for lunch. £4.50 but actually kept me going all day - very nice meaty pie and a generous size.
More bars than before - easy to find a quiet drinking place - even on with seating.
Mainstage / Fashion show thing quite interesting.
Only got outside briefly (it was raining quite hard most of the day) but looked like some nice boats there.
The inland waterways section they had a few years ago was much better.
Live near London, so easy to get to. Seven quid for a cheap day railcard and about 45 minutes each way. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
In summary - it seems that they have stopped trying to be all things to all men, and concentrate on their strengths, which is selling big shhiny boats to people with lots of money. For inland waterways go to Birmingham, for windsurfing / skiing etc, go to Alexandra Palace, for saily boats and everything else, go to Southampton. If you want everything, go to Dusseldorf!
All in all a fun day out, but mostly window shopping.