22nd Sept: Boat Show Visit

The land based part of the Boat Show is noticeably smaller this year being all contained within Mayflower Park.  The small boat/sailing dinghy section has shrunk markedly over the years.  I was disappointed because few of the “Feature Boats” shown on the plan wereon display on the Monday when I attended, however I did have a look around a 70′ Clipper Round the World yacht.  I was told that typically there would be 16 peolpe on board although it is rated for (I think) 28.  Some bits seemed too roomy , for example ,where they eat around the galley I would need longer legs to brace myself in position!  However the navigation area was very cramped with no proper chart table.  They rely of the chartplotter but do carry charts and sextants just in case.

On the NCI stand they said things were very slow. I had a chat with a Coastguard from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Fareham and learnt the story about the sunken yacht in the western Solent.  I also educated him a bit about the difficulty of getting good wind estimates at a coastal location and showed him the Davis app which can be used to view the weather observations at NCI stations.  I hope he remembers the problems when the wind is off the land!

Matt Newland said that the BC26’s were still selling and the BC21’s continue to sell well.  Apparently sales of the BC23 have slowed.

I was pleased to find the Mayflower Park Ice-cream van was back in his rightful position and bought an ice-cream off him to celebrate despite the weather being a bit cold!