Apparently we are into the season of boat shows.
Now, I have been to a few boat shows during my sailing life, the first being, probably around fifty years ago at Earls Court. I can remember it being a fun day out. Did I buy anything, No! Years later I attended a couple of shows at the Excel Centre in the old Royal Docks, London. Strangely, I did purchase items…
First was a new 2.5 HP outboard (It was so long ago, it is a 2-stroke) which was being offered at a good price from a south coast chandlers. It is still going strong. At another I pushed Whimbrel towards the modern world and purchased a Garmin GPS unit. That too is still working well and ’til recently was still able to update it. I am aware that its days are likely to be numbered…
Whimbrel’s navigational array…
Now, I am sure to have written about this stuff before, but blinking heck: the world is stuffed with boats. Boats laid up in yards, boats sitting on moorings, boats for sale with little chance of a buyer, boats festering at the back of yards and boats abandoned to their fate. Surely, the industry can see this? Surely they could do something about it?
Unused craft…
The types of craft sitting around can range from quite large motor cruisers, admittedly less plush than their modern sisters, to outboard engine driven weekend run-abouts, and sailing vessels in the same sort of range. There are too, sadly, many older (and not so old) wooden craft that have fallen on hard times (owner becoming old) that have not received the care they deserve. But with all these types there is so much scope to rehabilitate and get afloat in something affordable that does not mean a mortgage more expensive than the house one lives in.
Broadly in the article from Marine Industry News, the interviewer clearly spent a lot of time garnering from people within the industry statements supporting the work they are paid to do. This is not unsurprising, but I couldn’t find anything anywhere that stated the obvious to me, a humble boat owner with a pair of seeing eyes and hopefully some common sense, that the market is awash. Marinas are awash. Yards are awash.
Boat shows remain key driver of sales, marketing and resilience
The whole ‘show saga’ – experience if you like – seems to about ‘The Brand’…
A boat is not a Breitling watch of a couture handbag!
Another show that has taken place is the ‘Green Boat Show’ but the article does not talk about how boats displayed are powered. The only info gleaned was about the innovation winners who are marketing Solar Arches – presumably these are like the ;arch’ seen on many modern cruisers which can house the main boom and seem mostly to be used for canopy carriers to close entire cockpits off.
Strong turnout at 2026 South Coast & Green Tech Boat Show
Yes, there are ‘green’ innovations in respect to power drives, outboard drives, batteries, solar panels and the such. Even Whimbrel has a solar panel! I follow what is happening, especially in the small outboard market for one day I will need to renew. Hopefully a suitable electric one that can be recharged aboard rather than ‘at home’ will be on the market.
Perhaps I should have gone, and perhaps be a little wiser!
For me though, there needs to be a radical reduction in the current unused boat situation.