Powerboat & Rib Show - Today

[HugoMS]

Just to let you all know that your feedback is appreciated, we also picked up on a problem with the marina entrance, and Gunwharf have kindly agreed to manage the pontoons more discreetly. Despite 20 A-boards throughout GWQ stating marina open and free to public, GWQ have also created some more signage to make it clearer. Today we have beautiful weather, the pontoons are busy, as despite some of the negative comments on here, we do actually have 44 exhibitor craft on the water here, including an array of models from Warsah Marine, Ribquest, Arctic Blue, Parker Ribs, Walton Marine, Suzuki, Ribcraft TT, Hysucat, Solent RIBs, Pro Marine, 3d, Ribeye, Wolf Rock -Brig, Jbt - Ballistic Ribs, Piranha RIBs, Shakespeare Boats, Voodoo, C- fury, Vortec Systems. On the shore, the land exhibits are really busy too with stands from Russell Powerboats, Excel Inflatables, Azure Ribs, SeaSwift, Monarch Ribs, Coastal pro, Powerboat training, Smartboat, Garmin, Navico, Yamaha, Raymarine, Icom, Suzuki, Arctic Blue, Landau Marine, YouBoat Chandlery, --academy of power and sail, Ribquest, jack fm, Laguna Watersports and Vsar. Anyone not coming will genuinely miss a great show and a great opportunity to support the marine industry and all the exhibiting companies who need your support at this time. This show is introducing boating to a new audience, people are out on the water having fun, isn't that what it's all about! So I would encourage you all to come down and support the marine industry with your presence.

[Chris Caton]

sounds like fun

[horacebat]

Well ... it must be said although it was not as big as I'd hoped it was genuinly great to have a wander around and have a gas with a number of stands.

I also met with Andre (nice to meet you Andre!) who was offering free rides out on his mighty impressive beast!, and always nice to put a name to a face.

ICOM and Garmin were both really helpful when it came to taking us through there new toys (some of which are bigger than my small console!).

All in all, anything that promotes Ribs in a positive has got to be encouraged and supported, and for me this did. There were 100's of people all having a nose, most of which didnt even know what a Rib was.

It would benefit from a few more stands that I could spend my hard earned cash on, but all in all I'm glad I made the journey down.

[Crusher]

Does anyone know if you can go by boat and tie up at gwq???
Hope so, would also be a good way to get more boats to look at. If you can might just have to pop in tomorrow ......

[BrAinZ]

My wife and I popped over from the IOW today. After reading some of the negative previous comments, we weren't really expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised with the number of people around. It was good to see that Hugo appeared to have taken on board the feedback, the security chaps were keeping a low profile and there appeared to be some half decent signs throughout the area.
As we live in Cowes, we would obviously have preferred the event to have been there as in previous years, but you certainly couldn't deny that the potential market of "normal" people in GWQ was definitely bigger than the passing trade in Cowes. The trick has got to be how to actually get those people down from the shops and actually taking an interest in the boats.
I also think that it's wrong to charge anyone arriving by boat £10 just to stop off for an hour or so. Make it cheap or even free to get more boats/people there. The more boats/people the more interesting the event appears to potential new buyers.
I would also like to see more "accessory" type stands, everyone likes looking round these, so make it cheap for them to pitch up as well.
Not sure if there were any "on the water displays", but things like RNLI, Zapcat displays, or anything really that gets Jo Pubs attention would be good.
But overall, good to take a look around. The weather definitely helped today, and we have a lovely day with a walk all along Southsea seafront, so we were pleased.
It's all too easy to knock any event, but well done to HMS for at least to trying to generate interest in a hobby/business that we are obviously all passionate about

[horacebat]

Originally Posted by BrAinZ

I would also like to see more "accessory" type stands, everyone likes looking round these, so make it cheap for them to pitch up as well.
<large snip></large snip>
It's all too easy to knock any event, but well done to HMS for at least to trying to generate interest in a hobby/business that we are obviously all passionate about

Completely agree .. well done for organising it .. and definately agree when it comes to a few more "tat stands", every one loves a chandalry and the opportunity to part with their cash .. even if its just for a couple of quid..

[Dry Run]

I think if you rebrand and change venue, you are bound to have a few teething problems - hopefully that's all the negative comments were.

I'm all for the event and I think if you can get GunWharf to "play the game" the venue could be excellent.

I agree that there should be more "varied" exhibitors at the show and hope HMS takes that on board for the next one?

On a personal note HMS, we (KB Dry Stack) would have exhibited at the show, if only someone had phoned, e-mailed, called in, sent us a flyer............etc. OK we could have enquired about a stand, but we are busy people and time slips by!!!! A more pro-active approach to the marketing might help get more exhibitors.

However, I must say thank you to the show. We had several people walk round to our Dry Stack and sign up and sold 2 boats from our brokerage to people who were down for the show. So, please, please do it again next year!!!!!

[horacebat]

How was the show today chaps ? You've had the weather for it!

[Paul Glatzel]

We had a good show and sincerely hope that it runs next year. It is clearly a difficult climate and the demise of various shows and magazines shows how difficult it must be to get the trade to sign up and spend money.

I chatted to quite a few people that found the ability to marry boats to shopping was a real benefit for the family - indeed one (that shall remain nameless) told his partner that he wanted to take her to Gunwharf for the day and she was well chuffed. She only twigged on arrival but seemingly was still happy.

I only had a brief chance to wander the pontoons after the show closed yesterday and there was very little space for additional craft so I wonder if the fact that versus many shows the boats go out on demo made the pontoons look less populated with boats than perhaps they were. More boats will always be good, a clash of dates with the Sandbanks Boat Show doesn't help.

Thanks to Hugo & family for making it happen - even if it did cost me a fortune in Quba, Crew, Jack Wills, etc etc etc etc

Paul

[horacebat]

so Paul ... i should have come and said hello to you too ! .. apologies .. that is quite rude!

Glad you had a good show .. and these shows are all about getting together with like minded people, whether its for commercial use or not .. pretty much all of the people I met were in it because they were passionate about Ribbing, money appeared (!!) to be a secondary affair! (which I fully commend!)

[HugoMS]

Just a quick note to thank all those who came to the show this weekend. Your comments are much appreciated. The general consensus from exhibitors and the GWQ is that the location works well and the show has great potential to develop and expand. Obviously, the extent and variety of show exhibits depends upon those companies willing to exhibit, and as organisers we can only create a show around those companies who chose to support it. (NB: YouBoat Chandlery had a large marquee in the Central Square and were selling a range of smaller items!, I hope they were well supported.) Apologies KB Dry Stack, we have an extensive trade target list and we're not sure why you were missed, but we'll make sure you're on the list for future years! Please drop me an email with your preferred contact details. With thanks, HMS

[Nasher]

I’m really pleased things picked up and others enjoyed the show more than I did.

Fair play to you HMS for taking on board what everyone said, especially about the ramp to the pontoons.
I wish you all the best with making sure it continues to develop next year and beyond.

Next year can we have more trade stands please, so those of us not buying a new boat, engine, or other major expense like refitting electronics can spend our pocket money and support the stallholders.

I’ve learnt my lesson, and now know that in future I should stop skiving off work for the afternoon on a Friday and go on Saturday like everyone else.

Nasher.

[HugoMS]

Thanks Nasher. All noted, but as I said, the show's exhibits constitute the extent of support we as show organisors of this event manage to gain. We are only able to work with what we are given in the way of support from the industry. It takes a massive amount of work to get even the number of trade stands and exhibits we had at this year's show and I of course would love the show to be as big as Southampton Boat Show, but everything takes time. We had all the main electronics companies present at the show plus You Boat Chandlery - so I really hope people supported these guys well. If you would like to see more exhibitors at the event please don't hold back in helping to persuade as many in the trade as possible to attend. It would be much appreciated! Thanks for your support.

[Andre]

Not to hijack the thread i thought this would be the best place to introduce to a wider audience my current demo rib. Some of you would have seen her at the show.

You may see her a lot on the water this year as Navico UK will be using her for radio and navigation demos. Unless sold.There are lots of interesting stuff on board including the Simrad touch screen NSS12 and the Structure scan not forgeting the Simrad4 G broadband radar and of course the Sonic Hub. I will now have to get an iphone

The rib is a Parker 750 Baltic with a MCM 4.2 ES (270HP) diesel engine and Bravo 1 drive. Max speed she reached during the run yesterday from Portsmouth to Southampton was 38knots.

The rib was unloaded from our truck on Thursday by Trafalgar Wharf and she stayed there overnight and was put on the water the next day. When I turned up on Friday to my suprise Luke the Drystack manager said that for the exhibitors they were offering a Free of Charge service. I was quite taken be that so well done Trafalgar Wharf - you do offer a good service.

It was also great to see my old Seahawk 3 and Paul she looked great. I mostly regret I did not take any photos of you especially of your little one. She must have fallen asleep and did not care one little bit that it was choppy. .
I am sure there will be more opportunities in the future.

[Hysucat]

I am pretty sure that next year will be bigger and better than before. We certainly had a very good show with lot's of interest in our new 8.5m we got to demo. Even with all the bad luck it all turned out good.

The new 8.5m Elan got lumbered with a single 300 Suzuki and was dragging it's ass as we could not get the motor high enough as there is no 20" drive lenght for 300 Suzi.

The 8.0m Extreme was running on a single engine as we could not find another counter rotating surface piercing prop to fit on the 200 Merc's. So the max speed was only around 40knots. We still feel this boat can do 80 knots with a few more changes.

We will be back next year unless we get distracted.

Next year we will bring our own 50' to sleep in.

[Hysucat]

Andre, this must be the photo's you wish you had taken .....

[Andre]

Originally Posted by Hysucat

Andre, this must be the photo's you wish you had taken .....

No no I should have taken a photo when they were on route to Southampton and it was choppy and the little one looked as if was sound asleep in its mother's arms.

[The Slug]

We really enjoyed our day at the rib show and hope it continues for years to come. Was great to catch up with Chris, Andre and nice to meet your better half Andre, you've done well for youself there. Tis no secret that we're really pleased with our parker 6.3 and I'm really lucky that wife and daughter enjoy being out and about too (as long as the weather is ok). If I take it steady I have to say Lucy normally falls asleep if tired but she was wide awake on the way back to Southampton wanting to go faster to "catch boat!" as Andre was a short distance in front. Hope to see the new demo boat out and about soon

[Hysucat]

In South Africa we start them small