He added they had an increased number of enquiries and have been busy converting them into orders since the show.

And Southgate was one of those who decided to forgo the hotels and try staying on a boat, as did Messrs Webster and Nash from BB . While Southgate was in St Katharine's Dock, we were in the Royal Victoria Dock 100m from the East entrance. And we can confirm his comment that staying on a boat in January is a) cheap, but b) *! #"! cold!

Chris Murdoch at Nauticalia said the Sunday evening breakdown was chaos and worse than Earls Court, although as the average spend per customer was the same as Earls Court, Nauticalia benefited rather nicely from the increased attendance and saw the additional 15% in costs nicely overcome.

Murdoch's plus points include great organisation by NBS, friendly and helpful ExCeL staff and sensible car parking.

Against was Nauticalia's struggle to get more stand space when non-marine companies are allowed into the show, restaurants closing early on the late night and the nonexistent road signs.

"Out customers comments were overwhelmingly positive, " he told us.

Jeremy Harrison at Simrad reckoned the extra investment was worth it, but says the real story won't unfold until later in the year. He added the confidence from SLIBS led him to apply to increase his stand space by 100% at Southampton.

Derek Carter at Fairline says costs for them - apart from taking more stand space - were the same as Earls Court the previous year. Like many companies, Fairline chose to stay away from the ExCeL area.

"We stayed at a hotel on The Embankment, " Carter told BB ."We used our own shuttle service and the journey in and out took 20 minutes, traffic permitting." Fairline sold 31 boats at the show, which was, says Carter, slightly ahead of expectations.

A long email from visitor Mike Newbury on the narrowboat Eclipse set out good, bad and ugly points, with the ExCeL facilities - the space, the loos, eating and seating areas - given the thumbs up.

But Newbury told us: "All of my 'hate' is directed towards the lack of detailed information, in advance or on site."

We have to agree with his complaints: the website could have been a lot better. As a visitor, Newbury found the lack of stand numbers annoying.

We were roaming the show constantly and - in spite of the simple grid layout - found finding stands frustrating.

He also found the road signs particularly unacceptable and says the Park and Ride was also difficult to find, but directs the majority of his ire at the communications - or lack thereof.