Last week (September 2017) we battled our way down to Southampton on a beautiful sunny day to make our first visit to the boat show exhibition. The M3 was closed, so after a chaotic drive down and arriving much later than planned, we spent a very enjoyable five hours looking at equipment for our little sail boat and similar nic nacs to the ones we sell on this web site. Once we arrived to the pontoons and the row upon row of fabulous boats, we were blown away by the decadent luxury of some of them, they were simply incredible boats – both motor and sail.
The experience started with a poor value, poor quality burger from the Gourmet burger company, but after that, things improved as we explored the sprawling exhibition. It did strike me as a little peculiar that the exhibition is in at least three areas when they could have put it all together in one place and not have bottle necks on the bridges going over the roads (there was a closed road running alongside the exhibition they could maybe have used instead).
First off we dropped by to see one of our suppliers and their latest range of seaside and nautical gifts. Some of the new items were very eye catching and we are currently going through a list of things to bring in ready for Christmas.
However, the real joy was walking around the motor boats and sailing boats and the sheer luxury inside them. The sailing boats were absolutely gorgeous, well fitted out and in, and a world away from our 1970’s Sabre 27! The boats are so well equipped now with ovens, fridges, flat screens, en suite showers, all well set up for long distance sailing and habitable for weeks at a time (at least!). For sailing the ropes, winches and navigation handling are also much more advanced. There were very few restrictions to where you were allowed to look and nose around, with the exhibitors all chatty and helpful.
The day was spectacular, helped by the weather and we would encourage anyone with an interest to pay it a visit one year, something for most visitors.
[…] We popped down to Barcelona recently and took a wander around the town and ended up at the retail marina to relax and take in the stunning view of all the boats in the marina. We sat and watched as the sailing and motor boats came in and out of both Barcelona Port Vell and One Ocean Port Vell. There was also the Barcelona Boat Show at Port Vell which was an unexpected treat. Unfortunately, we didn’t have quite enough time to stroll round knowing how long we took at the Southampton Boat Show. […]