SIBS: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Koeketiene

Koeketiene

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Le Roussillon (South of France)
www.sailblogs.com
At SIBS today, clutching shopping list: engine, prop, rigging and sails.

I am a terrible shopper, I don't browse. I had downloaded the show floor plan from the YBW site, marked the stands I wanted to visit and that was it. Did not look at any new boats, we have a boat.

The Good
1. Despite it being the first day, no crowds. You could actually stroll at a leisurely place without being rushed of your feet or having to fight your way through.
2. The people manning most stands were very approachable and actually knew what they were talking about (one or two exceptions - more on this later). By and large they knew their product in depth. It was a pleasure not having to deal with some spotty cardboard cut-out from a temping agency.
3. There were actual deals to be done: Beta, Nanni, Harken and Maxprop very keen to do business at very competitive prices. (Fox's will need to come up with a improved quote ;):p ) Less so Barrus.
4. The YBW stand: don't miss Richard :D 'Claim' your cold one. Free beer's like free sex - whenever it's offered, accept it. Because you never know when it will be offered again.
5. Bought a very nice 'trolley in a bag' for our tender. Nice, simple and for next to no money. Trevor can sleep soundly :p
6. The Kelvin Hughes stand: Sam Llewellyn was there (I am a fan) signing books. Chatted a while - charming man. Tom Cunliffe was there too (chair collapsed and he spilt his beer). Was able to laugh it off. I might even begin to like the man :o

The Bad
1. If you're after swindlery bargains - don't bother. Everything at RRP price - cheaper to buy online. To maintain the 'bargain' illusion, most products offered where from the bottom end of the range.
2. Food - still a right royal rip off. Anticipating this, we brought sandwiches. Suggest you do the same.
3. Quite a few sail loft stands seemed uninterested and did not go beyond offering a hastily thrown together leaflet. One was even manned by someone's granny - she was terrible sweet, but no help at all.

The Ugly
1. The M3. If you're coming that way, allow ample time to get there. Wall to wall roadworks (with the odd accident thrown in). Dunstable - Southampton took us just under 3 hours.
2. eBorders. They're at the show - make a point to stop by and let them know how you feel. Use words like 'police state', 'East Germany' and 'unenforceable'. By the time I had finished with them, they had that cornered rat look in their eyes. Don't leave without your box of mints.
Les seuls hommes vraiment libre sont le marins - Voltaire (The only truly free men are the sailors).

To sum up: I'm glad I went. Today may well have saved me a couple of thousands. If you're a serious customer, don't miss out; there are deals to be done.
If you're just looking for a fun way to spend an afternoon - don't bother. Go sailing instead - the weather was lovely.
The Guinness tent was at the back of beyond between hot-dog and hamburger stands. Almost added as an afterthought.
 
Agree on your review of the Guiness stand, Dad and me were looking for it as soon as it struck midday, didn't find it til 6pm per chance!

Have a look at my post on SBS reference the sailmakers. We weren't impressed at all with thier attitude.

Glad you enjoyed your day because we most certainly did.
 
Yes I noted every thing was at RRP. However I was rather cheeky on a few occasion's and insisted if they wanted my business they would have to give discount. I got £30 of a pair of dubarry ultima boots for just been cheeky :D It seemed alot smaller this year and all the stands were spead out. not many saily boats out on the water.

rather nice swan 66 down there too....
 
Oh, dear!
I'm going there on Thursday and Friday-must be 20 years since we last went! I was all excited about my shopping list, but now think I may be disappointed.
BTW-I don't drink Guinness, so perhaps I shouln't go at all!
 
Agree with you although we didnt shop for any big items.

Food was stupidly expensive - 2 hamburgers, one fries and two bottles of water ... less than a pound change out of 20 quid.

Boat show offers were no different to in the shops - SWMBO pointed this out to a FitFlop seller, who replied "Goodbye then" !

seemed to be a few stands missing this time, although the whole thing takes up the same area.

Best thing we did was, based on previous advice from Full Circle, was to order some pocket sprung mattresses for our aft cabin.
 
Bargaining? Haggling? Doing deals? It's an ancient art form and, by the sounds of things, youse guys ain't no good at it. Let's see...

Purchased 2 tickets-vouchers @ £7.50 equivalent in Tesco vouchers
Used one. Exchanged t'other outside the entrance for a 10 'Beer Token'. Win-win! Used one entrance ticket to 'blag' another two free entries - three in total, and £6.25 'positive margin'.

Bargain clothing - O85 - Ivor. Do your own bargaining; we got BOGOFs.

Nav equipment - Garmin launching new products - lotsa orange juice, dainty little 'petit fours' and 3 flutes of cold cava with Lori, a refurb'ed GPSMAP76 in lieu of my still-working old GPS12 which needed checking. "Not worth our bother, sir. Have this with our compliments...." ( Really nice people! )

Marine Electronics? MES and the 'Luscious Lisa'! Mmmmm... and the bacon butties with more cold cava. Yus! All the YBW consultant editors were there.... Bargains to be bargained for.

RYA Stand - they tell me they've really changed since last I paid for membership. At the launch of Big Hairy Biker TB's new book on Astro Nav at £399, one had thrown in a new Astra sextant, a free copy of the book, a slice of the 'launch cake' and a glass of real champers - not cava. Needless to say, the Bagginses got 3 slices of TB's cake, some fizz, and a free signed booklet. I've already got a fine Astra sextant from their Patron. The RYA do know how to push the boat out.....!

Oh, and on the RYA bookshelf shelf alongside Big Tim's new 'how-to-do-it' was Cdr Harry Baker's 60-page booklet 'Heavenly Bodies' with all the ephemerides data you need to work your sights, for 2009. Full price, of course, in mid-September. Of course.

Then there was the Lovely Morwena. Cheap-as-chips charters, on a traditional-but-brand-new pilot cutter built in Bristol. Get your name down quick. Star of the show, IMHO.

I did visit the UK Borders Agency and had a pleasant chat with the two young ladies with broad smiles. They insisted I take away a dozen UKBA ballpoints for the kids in Lady Baggins' class of disabled and disadvantaged kids. They don't get many prezzies, and boat show freebiees lighten up the week fro 'em. Oh! ....and a years' supply of little mints.

Then there was the tense discussion of the role of the UKBA, with it's 'Agent Smith' heavy. I've looked into the gimlet eyes of security police in quite a few repressive states, and now - for the first time - I recognise we've got 'em here. At SIBS.

Wouldn't be a complete account without the visit to the E001 Stand , and the Richard Shead 'Cold Cider Competition'. What a pleasant revelation! He's not nearly as fierce as he's made out to be. So, many thanks to RS and his team, dispensing largesse, bonhomie and beer to almost all and sundry. It's regrettable that he and his work-hardened colleagues are constrained, due to the global economy being in tatters, to be taking only 5 days working in Antigua this year, on our behalf, instead of the customary 14 while organising the 'deckchair-in-the-ocean' parties at Yachting World's 'Antigua Week'.

Quote of the week from SIBS - "You only ever have ONE rum hangover.....!" :)

The best bargain, however, was the book of RNLI 'rescue vouchers' we bought. That permits, so we were given to understand, up to 6 services by an All-Weather Lifeboat, or 12 by an Inshore Boat, and they're valid in Scotland, Eire and Wales, too. After those are used up, the rep advised us, we could 'top up', so to speak, at any Lifeboat Shed around the country. At just £9.17 per month, that was probably the best bargain at the show....

:)
 
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bilbobaggins said:
...........MES and the 'Luscious Lisa'! Mmmmm... and the bacon butties with more cold cava. Yus! All the YBW consultant editors were there............
Click to expand...
I must learn to recognise Bilbo as I was there too on Friday slurping (very tasty) Cava and munching bacon butties, having just spent a meaningful sum on the stand (and got something off the price, too, always worth asking). There seemed to be this combined gang from all the mags making their increasingly unsteady way from one reception to the next!
Re the comments above about food prices, it has always been thus. We always take our own lunch to the show, can't understand how anyone would expect the food at any show of any sort to be 'cheap'. Mind you we got humungous ice-creams for a quid each at 6:45pm when they were about to start cleaning out the Whippy machine...
 
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bilbobaggins said:
I did visit the UK Borders Agency and had a pleasant chat with the two young ladies with broad smiles. They insisted I take away a dozen UKBA ballpoints for the kids in Lady Baggins' class of disabled and disadvantaged kids. They don't get many prezzies, and boat show freebiees lighten up the week fro 'em. Oh! ....and a years' supply of little mints.

Then there was the tense discussion of the role of the UKBA, with it's 'Agent Smith' heavy. I've looked into the gimlet eyes of security police in quite a few repressive states, and now - for the first time - I recognise we've got 'em here. At SIBS.
Click to expand...

I went to the e-borders stand as well. The lady wasn't smiling when I left! She did tell me that they found it hard to know how to communicate with the boaty types, and had done pretty much everything through the RYA. I pointed out that very few people actually pay much attention to the RYA, so they really could do better, eg have they tried ybw forums. Never heard of ybw, so I popped along to the ybw stand, got one of Richards business cards (after drinking one of his beers first) and went back and gave it to her.

So maybe they'll stick their head above parapet on here in the future? :D
 
SWMBO and I were there on Saturday.

Serious bargain bought and ticked off the wish list. Reconditoned Katdyn watermaker from Mactra at about a third of the cost of a new one. They have a couple more so hurry up...

Long chat with Peter Kay of Quantum Sails about a new furling genoa.

A pair of Sealskinz socks for SWMBO. She'll never have cold tootsies again.

Only looked at one boat on behalf of a friend. Swedish deck saloon. Buttplug ugly, poor deck ergonomics, interior divided up like a honeycomb. Saloon grab handles are an extra!! FFS. Very expensive weekend caravan.

Good day, though lots of driving. London, Southampton, Woolverstone.
 
we also went on saturday and having been for last few years our impression was that the show was much smaller - less of the usual stands and less yachts -having said that enjoyed our stroll round and found stand staff welcoming and relaxed (possible the advantage of going early in the show) - for us realistic boat of the show (by which we mean one we could see ourselves sailing and owning rather than 100% fantasy land) was the Ovni 395.

Had an interesting chat with chap on poole haven stand - mentioned to him that when we visited last year we had found them to be the most expensive marina we had been to that year - he claimed they had done a recent survey on their pricing and that they were mid range - we queried that and he then explained that "their charges" were one part of the total cost and the remainder was harbour dues that were for us £8+ - he did accept that they were owned by poole harbour commisioners and for us the distinction between the total charge to us as visitors and internal accounting split of such a charge was academic - asked him if we are still allowed to go onto town quay - yes - if not reserved for large vessel - overnight charge £24 for our 34' (including harbour dues of course) - whilst pricey compared to say lymington or yarmouth we will give it a try next time and certainly can vouch for his enthusiasm to encourage us to try poole haven again
 
We're going on Saturday, but re. the food, some local knowledge: The Terrace Sandwich bar on Queen's Terrace, the one way system by dock gate 4, has their busiest ten days of the year supplying rolls, baguettes and sandwiches for the exhibitors. I use them most weeks myself and can thoroughly recommend them.
 
Don't know about no bargains, we got a very good deal on a new boat. (???)

What I did notice was:

1. The lack of free give aways, in particular the carrier bags which were almost non existant (or has the marine industry gone green?).
2. The very reduced size of the 'on the water' exhibits.
3. Several holes where exhibition stands used to be, I heard that Momentum sails went just before SIBS, that left another unplaned green space.

I did like the new layout though. We were talking on the way to Southampton, working out how many years we have been visiting, lots was the answer. Over the last few years the layout has not changed, this year we had to search to find people.

And for anyone who visited the MDL lounge, wow what a great position.
 
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