I last went to the Boat Show about five or six years ago, and must admit that I had a thoroughly good time. It’s full of large vessels for which you must earn millions to even think about owning. But there’s more to it than that. I suppose it comes of being an island race – we love the water and the sea, and if it’s nautical, it’s in.
Some of the stands I saw at the Boat Show today included a couple of stands selling mattresses (they have to be especially thin, and quite likely need to taper at the bottom as they face into the bow of the boat. Then there were the manufacturers of rope, windsurfs, radars, sonars, charts, sinks, fleeces, deck shoes and many many more things.
The real reason I was there today was that Virgin Radio was sponsoring the indoor windsurfing. Now that may seem a little strange. Windsurfing indoors? Well they’d built a 70m indoor pool about 3 ft deep. Along one side and down one end were 24 massive fans blasting out air on which surfers practised their tricks. Of course given the newness of the set up, there weren’t all that many who were able to wow the audience, but it was still entertaining fare.
The organisors probably didn’t realise the interest levels that’d be stoked by this side attraction because the whole thing was over-run, and only astute use of my exhibitors’ pass got me through the worst of it.
Outside were more vessels including that car that turns into a boat. Very good. Then there was HMS Northumberland with a massive queue to get on board. I did have a look at the exhibors’ lounge, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on.
Sadly I wasn’t able to justify the purchase of a GPS or Sonar system but I had a good time.
But tell me, do inkjet injection kits show up at every show imaginable?