Southampton Boat Show disappointment

H

Heckler

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went to the show on sunday, had a nice long list of bits needed. small barton blocks amongst them for a single point reefing system, now always thought that the show was the place to buy a bargain, hmm, struggled to find a block supplier and surprise surprise, my local chandelry £3.50 ish, each, suppliers at SIBS £4.85, a cup holder locally (which i thought was quite dear) £10, at the show £12.95
Whats going on?
Stu
 
The boat show is not the place to go for a bargain on small stuff like that. You can expect a deal on a boat or electronics but not on a block.

If you want deals on chandlery go to a boat jumble.
 
On a similar note.. I went on sunday to check out boats in the 25-30 ft range as groundwork to buying my first boat but was disappointed to see that nearly all but bav/ben/jen only brought their largest craft along. Has this always been the case? I would have thought the dealers would have made a larger volume of sales if they had brought along something that the majority of visitors would be capable of buying rather than something for everyone to wish for.
 
It used to be. The first Southampton boat show I went to, I bought an anchor and a few other bits and bobs, and to my mind the little stalls selling chandlery and clothes was its great strength over the great glossy London boat show.
Now at Excel, London is even glossier and Southampton tries to rival it, with bigger boats every year. Time for someone to start another small boat show to fill the gap in the market again?
 
Completely agree,

Went to Earls court in 1999 to buy a sub 25ft sailing cruiser.....yep I only found two on display. Now you would not find any under 30ft. Where do newcomers go if they want to buy new?

Mind you a good second hand boat is far better for newbies..
 
I was under the impression that new builds were mainly in 34' plus range these days supposedly reflecting market demand and that 25- 30' range had been overtaken in popularity. Don't have any evidence other than comments in threads gone by.
 
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I was under the impression that new builds were mainly in 34' plus range these days supposedly reflecting market demand and that 25- 30' range had been overtaken in popularity. Don't have any evidence other than comments in threads gone by.

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Interesting though it is, I have been hearing more and more about people who have oversized and find they sail less because they need more crew or fitter crew to handle heavier gear. I understand that more and more first timers are actualy buying new 34ft plus boats because of the percieved safty and comfort. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next five years or so.
 
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I understand that more and more first timers are actualy buying new 34ft plus boats because of the percieved safty and comfort. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next five years or so.

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They'll be splashed by that ice cold bucket of reality.

They'll either sell or sail, if they sail they get training and embrace the life if they sell it's lots of "as new" second hand boats for the rest of us at greatly reduced prices! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
We were displaying our 24ft cruiser racer and gave out over 300 brochures. The feedback we had was that it was refreshing that someone was displaying one of the smaller boats in their range.
 
Hi Brian,
I can't believe we didn't spot you as thats the sort of boat we were targeting.
Then again, we did do three laps of the marina looking for a 25' Catalina until we finally found it moored opposite the Princess flag ship. Draw your own conclusions as to how we missed it the first couple of attempts.
Will email your sales dept for a brochure.
 
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