London Boat Show 2013

[biffer]

And before I get jumped on for only naming scorpion. They were just an example.

[whisper]

If anyone's paying £700 a week I'm changing jobs as it would be my dream job to build ribs!

[Daniel]

John, you missed the Highfield / X-Pro range from Sea Swift.

Unfortunatly I dont have a photo, but they were there tucked in a cornor. Interesting as they are making boats from 4m upwards with ali hulls.

Photo from their website.

PS: No business connection with seaswift

[kerny]

Originally Posted by Daniel

John, you missed the Highfield / X-Pro range from Sea Swift.

Unfortunatly I dont have a photo, but they were there tucked in a cornor. Interesting as they are making boats from 4m upwards with ali hulls.

Photo from their website.

PS: No business connection with seaswift

Made in China I think.

[Daniel]

Yup, made in china but overseen / managed by UK guys & then of course fitted out by SeaSwift (so I was told).

Tubes in PVC, but hypalon as an option. GRP hulls badged X-Pro, Ali hulls badged Highfield.

Very tied to Honda at the show, but available with all the main manufacturers and also keen prices on a bare hull. All their prices seamed keen and they obviously have faith in the product as they have two boats doing the round ireland.

The quality looked very good, a huge leap from previous chinese ribs I've seen. They are not a true deep V hull, but as you can see the price caught my eye and the quality is present.

[C2 RIBS]

Did everyone notice the lack of engine manufacturers present at the show?

[Daniel]

I was actively looking for barrus / mercury and could not find them.

I was there on business spread over 3 days and the attendance seamed very low - great as a visitor but as an organiser or exhibitor thats a bad thing for the shows future.

[Doug Stormforce]

Barrus had a few engines on the corner of their Quicksilver boats stand but nothing like there usual presence.

I think Yamaha was the only actual outboard stand

Although a couple of smaller less known brands were on othe stands

[PeterM]

Been hearing cobra thought it was not as successful as they hoped in generating sales....

But I think in reality it's hard times out there for all builders.

[Silverfox]

Thanks John for the review, liking the photos and now it's got me browsing the classifieds.

Falcon - I think the main issue with boat building, is that you need to sell a lot of boats to get scale on the production of each boat, from materials through to marketing.

This means going global, as a boat is not an impulse purchase.

Even in the motoring world where millions of cars are sold each year you can get it badly wrong. Take Ford, a few years back they lost £1000 on each car sold.

Then there is the issue of how often people change. My boat is 12/13 years old, I can afford to change it but won't as there is nothing wrong with it and I might only use it 20-30 times a year.

Ultimately boating be it sail or power is a niche market, and thus costs will remain high for the product.

So for that reason I won't be investing and I'm out. :0)

[clydeoutboards]

well as you might have noticed with the highfield ribs they had a strange engine make on the back! So here for viewing are a few pictures.

Now if only we were moving into a bigger workshop maybe , just maybe we might want to start selling something like these.

[falcon0310]

Originally Posted by whisper

If anyone's paying £700 a week I'm changing jobs as it would be my dream job to build ribs!

most off the boys that work for sunseeker, fairline earn that before tax, are they cutting courners ?
as said if you have low overheads than you can build boats well
look it this way if tubes for 7/8 m are 4/5 k + vat
fiberglass for the above is max 3 k + vat
labour 3 weeks 2.5 k
overheads /profit 3 k
seats stainless 2/3 k
why charge over 20 k + vat for above size

[falcon0310]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I was actively looking for barrus / mercury and could not find them.

I was there on business spread over 3 days and the attendance seamed very low - great as a visitor but as an organiser or exhibitor thats a bad thing for the shows future.

daniel,
went there in 2010, and thought there no point back in the day pre 2000 i think at earls court used be good used pop up after work 3/4 times in week, but back to my point about cost ribs,boats ect they charge way too much for week to have stand there when most people contact guys over the internet, if you could desplay say 3/4 boats for 1/2 k then they fill the halls, thats why rib x and sea works will do beter now it think
dont get me wrong be nice go back too old days with buzz but the internet changed things
years ago who buy somthing without seeing in it real life now we all do buy now or bid on boat with out looking at it

[gotchiguy]

I went on the Sunday and was a little disappointed. I understand that it was the last day but no one seemed hugely interested in talking to me or discussing their products. There was a very friendly chap on the Ribeye stand who I spoke to for a while, and XS ribs too. Unfortunately Cobra didn't seem interested at all, there were a few people on board the two boats they had but they didn't seem to be prospective customers or reps..

Piranha were completely disinterested, I stood for about ten minutes looking at the three boats they had, obviously looking interested and with brochures in my hands and they didn't want to know. Which is a real shame because I wanted to speak to them. Looks as if the quality of their products has rocketed in the past couple of years.

RC absent and no one else really exciting. Saw the Scorpion and the Technohull, really liked the Technohull, twin 300 Yams and a nice sized cabin.

The bike show next door seemed a lot more busy than the boat show itself

Still, I went on the cable car too which was fun

[clydeoutboards]

I agree with the above. We were treated well as we had branded polo shirts on but other people were ignored and one manufacturers opening line on a 13k boat was are you sure you can afford it!

[Tim M]

Originally Posted by falcon0310

most off the boys that work for sunseeker, fairline earn that before tax, are they cutting courners ?

The big boat market seems to be doing pretty well at the moment. I have a friend who's working out in Italy at the moment on a 90 meter that's being refitted. He's taking home about £5k a month.

The budget end of the market also seems to be doing pretty well, sub £5k. It seems to me the £5k - £2m that's suffering at the moment. I've spoken to quite a few people that seem to back this theory up.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by falcon0310

most off the boys that work for sunseeker, fairline earn that before tax, are they cutting courners ?
as said if you have low overheads than you can build boats well
look it this way if tubes for 7/8 m are 4/5 k + vat
fiberglass for the above is max 3 k + vat
labour 3 weeks 2.5 k
overheads /profit 3 k
seats stainless 2/3 k
why charge over 20 k + vat for above size

Many a business has failed based on those type of crazy assumptions! I like the way you are paying the guy doing the work £700 / wk but the "overheads/profit" which have to cover all the building, plus the sales/marketing comes to less - the owner would be going home with nothing! And you have forgotten the design / build / development / ce marking costs etc, especially since a credible builder needs a range of boats, a demo boat etc.

Do you know how much a boat show stand costs? Or a full page magazine ad every issue of RIBmag?

And the 'cost of money' (whether it is your own or borrowed) is pretty significant - so you need to factor in the start up capital and its interest.

The reason there are unsuccessful rib builders is not high prices, but lack of basic business understanding from people who get a notion to build ribs.

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

I went on the Sunday and was a little disappointed. I understand that it was the last day but no one seemed hugely interested in talking to me or discussing their products.
The bike show next door seemed a lot more busy than the boat show itself

But to be fair you probably don't appear to be the obvious boat buying demographic... ...you probably look more likely to have got bored looking at bikes and gone for a nosey... it may not be right to ignore customers but I've walked a lot of trade shows and if you are seriously interested (i.e. going to spend money) I've never had an issue getting attention or taken seriously.

Originally Posted by clydeoutboards

opening line on a 13k boat was are you sure you can afford it!

not the best way of qualifying customers - but I bet he gets rid of a lot of tyre kickers with it!

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Poly

But to be fair you probably don't appear to be the obvious boat buying demographic... ...you probably look more likely to have got bored looking at bikes and gone for a nosey... it may not be right to ignore customers but I've walked a lot of trade shows and if you are seriously interested (i.e. going to spend money) I've never had an issue getting attention or taken seriously.
!

Pfft I wore my best suit!

Out of interest how much is it to exhibit?

[Poly]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Pfft I wore my best suit!

that would be your mistake... young guy looking out of place in a suit... probably thought your Exhibition "Security" Staff!

Out of interest how much is it to exhibit?

I don't know, but based on trade shows I've been to in other worlds, I would expect a stand big enough to fit a 6m boat and the associated crap you get around it is probably not going to leave you much change from £20k. The very smallest, cheapest stands are probably still around £4k. BUT that is all speculation.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Poly

I don't know, but based on trade shows I've been to in other worlds, I would expect a stand big enough to fit a 6m boat and the associated crap you get around it is probably not going to leave you much change from £20k. The very smallest, cheapest stands are probably still around £4k. BUT that is all speculation.

Wow I didn't realise it was quite that much. Pretty big investment for the little firms that is.