OK, so there were events outside the control of NBS - the M25 closure and the Jubilee Line maintenance work certainly didn't help the cause - but as we don't know the audience figures, we have no idea how harmful that first weekend was.

But this is not really all about the attendance. There seem to be an awful lot of niggling things - large and small - that are upsetting exhibitors.

For example, the industry relies on NBS to provide the means to promote its goods. The industry assumes NBS is acting in its best interests. But is it?

NBS decided the first day - Press and Preview Day - was going to be a late night. The exhibitors weren't asked their opinion.

Many exhibitors had built stands over the Christmas/New Year break and faced the prospect of a very early start on the opening day and a finish at 21.00.

But hey! If NBS was spending this £2m on promotion, it was going to be busy and business would be good on that all-important first day.

But the place was nowhere near crowded. Us hard working hacks found it easy to get around - far cry from last year when getting from A to B was a long and crowded trip.

Don't worry! The late night would liven things up - yes?

No.

From around 18.00 the aisles were all but deserted. I walked onto the Guinness stand at 19.45 and I've never seen it more sparsely populated.

The visitors were almost outnumbered by exhibitors and ExCeL staff. An inauspicious start to an 11-day show. Perhaps charging £24 for a few hours at the show put people off when late nights are traditionally £6?

Lots of exhibitors told me they were far from happy.

Even though people were trading about level with last year, most had been expecting far more visitors; more from the show.

They had spent thousands on their stands. They had spent lots more on staff training. And I had lots of exhibitors telling me they simply could not afford to keep investing at those levels when the audience isn't there.

NBS has probably got away with it this year because the industry has sold product. But that's hardly a sound and commercial foundation for the future of the show.

So let's ask NBS a few questions.

1. How about the timing of the show? Is it right to stage it so close to Christmas and the New Year? Forget all those traditional replies about the skiing season and the Harrods sale. Give us some well-researched answers on modern audience behaviour.

2. Why not hold the show at ExCeL around Easter using all that beautiful safe water?

3. The UK trade spends three weeks every year at two major boat shows. Do we actually need two shows?

Why not have one 10 (or even eight) day show and make it the best show in the world? Make it a boating experience.

4. Would we be better off with an 8 - 10 day show with different opening times - a lot of exhibitors talked about 09.00 - 18.30? How about late nights at weekends?

5. Many exhibitors complain they have no say in the future of their show. So why is there no Exhibitor Committee?

6. Why is entry to ExCeL £14 when Dusseldorf is ?13?

7. It's no longer the London Boat Show. It's the London Boat Exhibition. It's a collection of boats in a big shed in Docklands.

8. Do we leave at it is? Or is it time to do something about it?

Exhibition costs are rising inexorably. The audience worldwide is falling equally as inexorably: Dusseldorf recently closed on 283,000 (some suggest the audited figure may be a lot less). They blame "cautious consumer spending" for being around 26,000 down on 2004 The British marine industry has so much to offer the world and we should be leading the world, not trotting (or limping) in its wake.

So what do you say? What other questions would you like to ask NBS? How about why there's no traffic flow around the East Hall? How about why do visitors have to walk so far from the DLR station before they see the boats (not just one Sunseeker parked outside).

How about why do we have the opening ceremony of what's meant to be a prestige show all crammed in the boulevard?

As always: answers to me by email or snail mail.

The email address is pnash@boatingbusiness.co.uk The snail mail address is Peter Nash, Mercator Media, The Old Mill, Lower Quay, Fareham, Hants PO16 0RA.

Correspondence can be confidential or for publication - you tell me.