Who's going to SIBS tomorrow?

I'm sure it will be lovely. But I'm going to the Algarve and South Spain tomorrow for two weeks because the owners of the Sailing Scool I'm gonna be working for are .........at the Boat Show. :cool:
 
SIBS proved to be, for me yesterday/Friday, a most pleasant escape from DIY drudgery. It helped, of course, that there was wall-to-wall cloudless sunshine and almost no breeze. The coffee in the meedja centre was fresh and welcome, as were the little croissants. Milling around purposefully were pretti-girlie gaggles of 'event support' meety-greeters - who were mostly easy on the eye - and also little mixes here and there of redundant boaty journalists and ex-PBO editors not quite so easy on the eye and ear.

Sarah Norbury, David Pugh, Rob Melloti, Roz Jones the lynch-pin of the Poole operation, Andrew Simpson, and a host of other supporting characters. It was some form of gathering or rally, in a sense some sort of 'wake' for what had been. Certainly the sense of community, of being in some way the centre of the country's many boaty interest groups, had evaporated. The PBO/Yachting Monthly/World stand, for many years the meeting place for sailing friends from all over the world to sample Marketing Manager Richard Shead's brimming beer cooler, was deserted. No-one there! Once the jolliest corner in the show, where their brass ship's bell was rung each day at four-thirty to open the bar and summon the faithful, they'd put up galvanised barriers on two sides 'to stop people falling over and hurting themselves'. They certainly did that!

Crushed by corporate 'ccountants......

The RYA were there, of course, in their 'once-a-year' multi-thousand euro gazebo-bookshop outside the hotel foyer. Everything shrinkwrapped - even the 'uniforms' in attendance - and their theme was somehow appropriate..... 'See Boating in Virtual Reality'.

The HM Coastguard stand was cheek-by-jowl with the RNLI frontage, bigger every year. Their joint theme is no longer 'Saving Lives At Sea' but a multi-committee 'Prevention of Accidents Anywhere' amorphous message. I spent some time with the Fareham Centre's Aviation Assets Manager-Controller ( 'Operations Officer' in plainspeak ) who confided that if they can prevent just two helo call-outs per annum by the 'prevent message', they'd have saved the cost of their whole 'prevent' budget.... and, by the way, probably a couple of lives, too. "But how do you prove that?" he asked.

The Guinness Tent remains, a pleasant shady corner out of the sun, but was full of feral children.

There were several product launches, of course, and several of them were interesting - not just for the chi-chi sandwiches and faux champagne that yottie journos seem to have for breakfast and lunch ( thank you, Luscious Liz ). Sadly, the famous Raymarine bacon butties have long gone - "Elfin safeti, innit!" muttered one grizzled e-techie from nearby rivals Garmin. "It's the frying pans in the back of the stand that our millennial safety orifices don't like. They don't understand anything other than microwave ovens. So we send out for ours to that caffe down the road from the show. Cheaper...."

There were stalwarts still to be found. The wizened, mischievous and silver-haired Brian Murkin was in his usual spot, demo'ing and selling his Le Tonkinois varnish which now graces spars on the 'Kaskelot', the 'Cutty Sark' and 'Suhaili'..... His Polish ( unpronouncable ) pal opposite still sells his clever plastic-tube fuel pumps, of which I must now have half-a-dozen..... Chris Jeckells, scion of the utterly reliable Wroxham sailmakers..... The irrepressible top Instructor/Examiner John Goode, fresh from telling the RYA where they can stick their wishy-washy watered-down National Training Scheme ( along with a handful of other 'prominenti' such as Saint Tom Cunliffe and John Hart ), spoke of a new international training and certification body he had joined as Chief Examiner. We watched another top instructor/communicator, Stokey Woodhall, give his Powerpoint presentation of traditional navigation tips and tricks to a bemused bunch of about a dozen ( with their coffee and sandwiches, 'overspill' from an eatery opposite ) on The Foredeck soundstage. The RYA were there, too, twice a day with live presentations of boaty subjects such as RYA Virtual Yachting. Says it all, really.

Did I buy stuff? Of course I did. Stuff I don't really need, natch. Including some fresh 'Tonk' varnish.... ;)
 
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'If you go down to the SIBS today, you're in for a big surprise.....'

You could do worse than position yourself near the RNLI mega-block, as every pretty surf-girl to squeeze into a slinky wetsuit and every honey-blonde to fit into an 'RNLI Lifesaver' uniform is there. Save yourself some leg-work.....
 
zoidberg said:
SIBS proved to be, for me yesterday/Friday, a most pleasant escape from DIY drudgery. It helped, of course, that there was wall-to-wall cloudless sunshine and almost no breeze. The coffee in the meedja centre was fresh and welcome, as were the little croissants. Milling around purposefully were pretti-girlie gaggles of 'event support' meety-greeters - who were mostly easy on the eye - and also little mixes here and there of redundant boaty journalists and ex-PBO editors not quite so easy on the eye and ear.

Sarah Norbury, David Pugh, Rob Melloti, Roz Jones the lynch-pin of the Poole operation, Andrew Simpson, and a host of other supporting characters. It was some form of gathering or rally, in a sense some sort of 'wake' for what had been. Certainly the sense of community, of being in some way the centre of the country's many boaty interest groups, had evaporated. The PBO/Yachting Monthly/World stand, for many years the meeting place for sailing friends from all over the world to sample Marketing Manager Richard Shead's brimming beer cooler, was deserted. No-one there! Once the jolliest corner in the show, where their brass ship's bell was rung each day at four-thirty to open the bar and summon the faithful, they'd put up galvanised barriers on two sides 'to stop people falling over and hurting themselves'. They certainly did that!

Crushed by corporate 'ccountants......

The RYA were there, of course, in their 'once-a-year' multi-thousand euro gazebo-bookshop outside the hotel foyer. Everything shrinkwrapped - even the 'uniforms' in attendance - and their theme was somehow appropriate..... 'See Boating in Virtual Reality'.

The HM Coastguard stand was cheek-by-jowl with the RNLI frontage, bigger every year. Their joint theme is no longer 'Saving Lives At Sea' but a multi-committee 'Prevention of Accidents Anywhere' amorphous message. I spent some time with the Fareham Centre's Aviation Assets Manager-Controller ( 'Operations Officer' in plainspeak ) who confided that if they can prevent just two helo call-outs per annum by the 'prevent message', they'd have saved the cost of their whole 'prevent' budget.... and, by the way, probably a couple of lives, too. "But how do you prove that?" he asked.

The Guinness Tent remains, a pleasant shady corner out of the sun, but was full of feral children.

There were several product launches, of course, and several of them were interesting - not just for the chi-chi sandwiches and faux champagne that yottie journos seem to have for breakfast and lunch ( thank you, Luscious Liz ). Sadly, the famous Raymarine bacon butties have long gone - "Elfin safeti, innit!" muttered one grizzled e-techie from nearby rivals Garmin. "It's the frying pans in the back of the stand that our millennial safety orifices don't like. They don't understand anything other than microwave ovens. So we send out for ours to that caffe down the road from the show. Cheaper...."

There were stalwarts still to be found. The wizened, mischievous and silver-haired Brian Murkin was in his usual spot, demo'ing and selling his Le Tonkinois varnish which now graces spars on the 'Kaskelot', the 'Cutty Sark' and 'Suhaili'..... His Polish ( unpronouncable ) pal opposite still sells his clever plastic-tube fuel pumps, of which I must now have half-a-dozen..... Chris Jeckells, scion of the utterly reliable Wroxham sailmakers..... The irrepressible top Instructor/Examiner John Goode, fresh from telling the RYA where they can stick their wishy-washy watered-down National Training Scheme ( along with a handful of other 'prominenti' such as Saint Tom Cunliffe and John Hart ), spoke of a new international training and certification body he had joined as Chief Examiner. We watched another top instructor/communicator, Stokey Woodhall, give his Powerpoint presentation of traditional navigation tips and tricks to a bemused bunch of about a dozen ( with their coffee and sandwiches, 'overspill' from an eatery opposite ) on The Foredeck soundstage. The RYA were there, too, twice a day with live presentations of boaty subjects such as RYA Virtual Yachting. Says it all, really.

Did I buy stuff? Of course I did. Stuff I don't really need, natch. Including some fresh 'Tonk' varnish.... ;)
Click to expand...

Wow I feel privileged to have been mentioned! (I am RS)

I may well go and take a look but I have not been there for nearly four years now and a lot has changed.

I am still stuck in Cannes, last day tomorrow and a very, very strong sail boat sector there now with its own port. Yes port ...

Long since left media but very happy doing what I am doing with a few more zeros on the end and the boats measured in metres ;)
 
Very good to hear from you, RS. You know you kept that circus spinning.... and so do we!

And I'm also glad your decision to have a look on t'other side of the horizon is working well for you.

For all the manufactured 'razmatazz', there was an air of the metaphoric tumbleweed blowing down the roadways at West Quay.

Via con dios, or summat....
 
An enjoyable day yesterday (14th) the sun was shining.

A tad busier than last year, perhaps the sun brought out the crowds, but I had time to speak to potential suppliers at lenght.

Found, eventually I do wish all stands were clearly marked, all the stalls I wanted to speak to and expect a flurry of emails to start the process of the upgrades I am planning.

Fasinating conversation with the UK importers of Rolls Batteries which got me thinking as my plans are for long offshore passages.
 
zoidberg said:
Very good to hear from you, RS. You know you kept that circus spinning.... and so do we!

And I'm also glad your decision to have a look on t'other side of the horizon is working well for you.

For all the manufactured 'razmatazz', there was an air of the metaphoric tumbleweed blowing down the roadways at West Quay.

Via con dios, or summat....
Click to expand...

Yes I remember RS with fond memories last time I was at SIBS wow 10 years ago now.

He helped SWMBO and I a lot I wandered what happened to him.

Thanks RS for all your help .
 
I'm on the train back now. Quite a nice day out; I bought 20m of polyprop rope at an acceptable but probably not unbeatable price, and nearly bought a new pair of oilskin trousers... I fear I'm not going to be helping the sales figures too much.

Also nice to wander round the pontoons, as ever. For the fourth or fifth year running of my attendance, I didn't buy a boat, but it is always nice to poke around! Rather disappointingly, it appeared that the RYA members' complimentary coffee has been discontinued. I might feel a letter coming on...
 
Time Out said:
Wow I feel privileged to have been mentioned! (I am RS)

I may well go and take a look but I have not been there for nearly four years now and a lot has changed.

I am still stuck in Cannes, last day tomorrow and a very, very strong sail boat sector there now with its own port. Yes port ...

Long since left media but very happy doing what I am doing with a few more zeros on the end and the boats measured in metres ;)
Click to expand...

As a (albeit small) shareholder in your current employer I hope you are doing as well there. I was at SIBS today and there was a lot of talk about Pip Hare doing the Vendee Globe, mixed feelings there.
 
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Elecglitch said:
As a (albeit small) shareholder in your current employer I hope you are doing as well there. I was at SIBS today and there was a lot of talk about Pip Hare doing the Vendee Globe, mixed feelings there.
Click to expand...
Why mixed feelings? We all set ourselves challenges; mine is full membership of the Ocean Cruising Club in the next three years and I did put money where my mouth was; I joined as an associate member.

I visited Pip's boat and spent about 20 minutes aboard and was impressed with the build. She was busy speaking to others so I did not have the chance to say hello and fair winds. Trying to visualize the size of the main left me with the feeling it would be bigger than anything I would want to handle on my own.
 
zoidberg said:
'If you go down to the SIBS today, you're in for a big surprise.....'

You could do worse than position yourself near the RNLI mega-block, as every pretty surf-girl to squeeze into a slinky wetsuit and every honey-blonde to fit into an 'RNLI Lifesaver' uniform is there. Save yourself some leg-work.....
Click to expand...

Sadly, this says it all about boating. Partner (non boaty) and I went today. I sold my boat (elderly Med-based Princess) earlier in the year and may be in the market for something smaller to use in the UK. Virtually every stand/boat we stopped at the staff, regardless of gender, engaged my OH in conversation and he was forced to point out that I was the one with the experience/money. He found it hilarious. (In case you haven't guessed, I'm of the female persuasion.)

Nevertheless, the organisation seemed as good as ever, the catering seemed a bit better, but attendance seemed down even for a Monday - staff seemed to talk to each other more than to potential punters and you could get onto any boat.
 
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