According to Dammrich, entry level boaters are not spending.

I haven't heard anyone prophesying doom and gloom for the UK - far from it - but things are quiet. We will know more after the British Marine Federation (BMF) Council meeting on March 25.

Right now, however, things are looking good for us economically.

The pound has - at long last - lost some of its strength, especially against the euro. But it was interesting to hear that Ford - one of the biggest euro supporters in the UK - wants us to go into the euro at 75p.

So if we are going to go into the euro, there's some way to go yet, which can only help our exporting.

In the meantime, we have to hope that Bush and Blair make up their minds about whether they are going to war or not (don't we already know the answer to that one? ).

A cartoon in Private Eye magazine has Dubya saying to Blair: "This is a fight for democracy." Blair replies: "It's you and me against the voters."

I can't see too many parents willing to lash out on a boat while their sons and daughters are off to war.

So if these two "leaders" are going to drag us unwillingly into their personal battle, for goodness sake let's get it over and done with as soon as possible.

On another point, help to get more people into sailing seems set to come from the latest initiative by the BMF and the Royal Yachting Association (RYA).

The Promotion of Sailing Task Force counts the RYA CEO, Rod Carr, and Performance Sailcraft's Tim Coventry among its leaders.

But these two are already tied into UK Sailing: an initiative that's part of the International Sailing Summit that's set up to do precisely the same - get more people into sailing.

Do we have a left hand and right hand waving at each other but not bothering to talk?