LONDON BOAT SHOW

...2018

Ditto; not much more to write than in 2015, you might as well read the story below. Fewer visitors, it seemed, despite the end of the recession and a 3.4% growth in this market last year. One or two new brands worth looking at, but other than that very little to shout about. Yachts of wood construction still too expensive for this exhibition - none here except small boats. Far too many visitors seemed to prefer beer to sailing - almost as big a crowd in that enclosure as people in the rest of the show put together.

Elsewhere, lots of little groups sipping champagne. This is not what boats are all about. What is it about alcohol and the brainless? (Don't answer that.) You do not need to go to a boat show to drink, plenty of places outside. The more intelligent seafarer not as visible.

...2015

The 2015 London Boat Show was marked by the absence of Oyster and Spirit. Not that I have any bias towards those brands or any other brand (ALFA only do critical reviews), but one felt the need for something to counterbalance the overall impression of so much overpriced white plastic.

To own a boat means to love the sea, or at least being on the water. Ah for those moments, hours, days, when nobody else exists in the whole wide world. This show, if one could lump it all together, seemed far more designed to impress those who wanted to impress.

It projected the equivalent of selling Mercedes or BMWs not to those demanding superior design and engineering, but status.

And that is a disappointment to those who genuinely love the thrill of sailing in the wind, preferably on warm blue seas, or speeding across a piece of the ocean with only the frothing line of one's motor's backwash, rather than serving party drinks while moored in a port somewhere. You do not need a boat for that, it's better to stay home.

If you love the sea, what you do not want to see at a boat show is so much unsophisticated vulgarity on so many expensive stands, with salesmen determined to talk you into submission - all of that designed to impress the brainless lottery winner who, foolishly, loves attention.

Excel also seemed smaller and poorer than I remember Earls Court, not just in terms of floor area - the show itself seemed smaller and poorer. If that was the result of a few years of recession in the recent past, there was still plenty there to impress those with millions to spare. A lot more substance, class and quality would have been preferable.

USEFUL BITS

For those not there to look at boats, it was useful to have so many accessory and ancillaries providers together under one roof. Shopping on the internet cannot match being able to touch, compare, try things out, or on, and asking questions.

GREECE

There was a lot of competition for taking people sailing around the waters of Greece. When it comes to sailing on the sea for pleasure, there is no place like Greece, not in the Mediterranean or possibly the world. The choice of destinations, the number of islands, the contrast between the Ionian and the Aegean, the food, the culture, the weather for so much of the year, one could go on. Can the market support so many players? One wants to wait and watch.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

Bring on 2016 as soon as possible, with more wind in the sails, quieter motors, with tasteful understated boat interiors, quality materials, a bit more class, oceans more of good taste, a bit more wood, a lot less white plastic, and more of the same pretty girls, the ones who can keep smiling for the whole week and beyond.