Derek Carter, CEO of Fairline, said he was delighted with the professionalism of his Fairline dealer network and reported 48 boats sold worth £31m. "This year's show represents a 63% increase in sales over the previous year, " he commented.

Robert Braithwaite, managing director of Sunseeker Boats reckoned the show was one of the best they'd had, adding they were delighted with their new stand location.

"With 62 boats sold across the range and in excess of £12m in turnover, this has been a record breaking show for Sealine, " said sales director Jason Hudson.

On the sail side, John Coleman of Sadler Boats said:

"Its been a fantastic show and we've sold over a dozen boats." We'll definitely be coming back in 2006, he added.

Adrian Hart, marketing manager for Laser, reported:

"We had good quality buyers to the stand, and sales are up 25% on last year."

The finance houses also had a good show, it seems. Peter Whitehead, director of marine at Bank of Scotland Marine Finance told us: "After a patchy summer, with various stories of retail downturns and housing market uncertainties, I think we, along with many fellow exhibitors, went into this year's show with our fingers crossed."

Whitehead said: "The number of potential boat buyers coming onto our stand to complete proposals was about the same as last year.

The value of those proposals was also about the same."

Ian Braham, head of marine finance at Lombard, was more upbeat after choosing to compare the Southampton results with those from ExCeL, reporting "a 20% increase in the value of applications received at Southampton over the London Boat Show in January".

The average advance was £102,000, with an increasing number of buyers looking to purchase boats for charter, either in the UK or overseas.

"Many of the customers we saw at Southampton expressed an interest in using their boats for charter, which can help offset the cost of boat ownership, " said Braham.

Lombard noted a split of 55% to 45% in favour of power over sail, against Bank of Scotland's 65% to 35%.

Mixed message So what about the retailers?

BB spoke to a few and the message was mixed. We feel sure Pumpkin Marine would have had something to say, but the company had gone bust by the time we were making our calls for this article? As with the property market, everything on the retail side seems to come down to location, location, location.

Those in Solent Hall, The Arena and The Holiday Inn site did OK. Those in Windward Hall and Ocean Hall suffered.

Some reckoned the move of the Sunseeker stand had changed the dynamics of the show for the worse, taking both halls out of the usual regular pathways round the show. And retailers need the footfall.

But the weather didn't help, either. Peter McLuskie of Force Four made the point: "We only had two hours of rain in the whole show - the weather was too good, which is quite important."

Last year, he said, there was about two hours of rain every day and that pulled people into the tents.

But McLuskie also made the point that "They chopped the end of our Windward Hall off, which meant people didn't enter our hall as much as they had in previous years."

We found the show disappointing, he added.

Barry Stone of Lalizas backed McLuskie on the dynamics changing to the detriment of Windward and Ocean Halls. "We were supplying 18 stands around the show and we ended up 30% up, " he told us, "but Windward Hall and Ocean Hall were each down by 20%. The first section of the show, over by Mailspeed, was the best for us - it always is."

Purple Marine was also exhibiting in The Arena and Dan Sanders told us: "It was a good show for us. We were similar, if not a bit better, to last year. And last year was a very good show as well. As far as volume goes, we did pretty well."

But Jimmy Green Marine, in Ocean Hall, didn't have a good show. "It wasn't as good as last year, " said Michael Green. "Our own experience is this year from London onwards retailing has been flat. We do a lot of shows and they're all down."

Glyn Foulkes sounded quite surprised when he told us Aladdin's Cave had done OK.

"It was not a bad show in the end. I was quite pleased with it, " he said. "We were always going to be down on last year and the first Sunday was absolute rubbish. But every other day - including the last Sunday - were good and it was spread across the day. People were buying early and buying late as well."

And where was the Aladdin's Cave stand? In the Holiday Inn site. "Everyone has to pass by my stand when they come in and when they go out, " said Foulkes.

Courtesy of Raymarine The show starts for journalists with a dinner on the Thursday evening, courtesy of Raymarine, where they tell us what they've done and what they're are going to do next.

CEO Malcolm Miller reckoned the industry was stable in general, with the bigger brands performing well and the smaller ones not so good. But retailing was bad, he said.

The company's half year January to June figures were good, he said, noting sales were up from '04's £67.2m to £74.7m, with gross profit for the same period up from £26.2m to £29.8m. "Good numbers, good results, " said Miller.

Following Raymarine's announcement earlier this year that it was to close its UK manufacturing operation in Anchorage Park and outsource everything to Singapore-based Flextronics, Miller said he sympathised with the employee who would lose their jobs, "but this is the way industry is moving".

"We 're about new products and innovation, " he said, "and we have to get our rate of product change down from a six year cycle: we have to get faster."

Design and development director Keiran Breheny agreed. "We launched 16 new products in the last 12 months, " he said, "and we've got a lot more coming along."

Breheny says performance radar will take a new step forward; there will be smaller instruments with more functions and less dials.

Cameras are on the new product list, together with weather instruments. And there will be a new entry-level multi function range.

The future lies in 3D, he said.

"We live in a 3D world, but our customers have to navigate by complex 2D charts. Integrated control and navigation systems of the future are instinctive and enable an instant visualisation of the marine environment and hazards" And to help the company with all this, it is embarking on a R&D recruitment drive. "We have 24 positions open, " said Miller, "and we're looking electronic hardware/software and mechanical designers."

Raymarine's growth relies on new product, he said. And more resource = more products.

Another interesting presentation came from the British Marine Federation (BMF) and the RYA on their joint Green Blue project.

The initiative is described as "an exciting new environmental awareness initiative" to help boaters and boating businesses to be more aware environmentally and take action to limit their impact on the marine environment and has some heavyweight backing from DEFRA, which is part funding it for up to £400,000 over a three year period.

ASAP and Wavestream MDL Marinas and the Crown Estate are also in there, as are companies like ASAP Supplies and Wavestream with filtration systems.

Green Blue will provide advice and information through its website - thegreenblue. org. uk - and a "how to guide". Practical demonstration projects will be run around the country and - perhaps the most interesting part of the project at present - there will be a major research study into The Environmental Interactions Of Recreational Boating, which is due out early next year.

It will be nice to see how this project pans out. It seemed strong at the top, with the BMF, the RYA, DEFRA, Mike Golding and Lady Blake adding their weight, but there seemed to be little actually happening that I can report.

But, as Mike Golding pointed out, a single litre of fuel can contaminate over 1m litres of water, so we have to do something and the industry can easily take a lead here.

2006 Concept Boat The 2006 Concept Boat brief was launched, bringing gasps of astonishment at the brief:

This year's competition is open to designs for both recreational and commercial craft up to 24 metres in length that can be towed behind a mid-size 4x4 (SUV) or large family car.

At first glance a 24m loa boat on a trailer may cause the odd problem on Britain's crowded roads, but a quick check with the BMF Technical Department brought forth the very brief, but entirely succinct, response:

24m is the boat length, not the towed length. Excellent. That should bring some intriguing entries.

Meanwhile the 2005 Concept Boat finalists were also announced with some fascinating designs in the list, such as Richard Dryden's sailing craft designed for families. The arrow shaped boat can carry two adults or a parent with child and there's even room for a dog. Fleche is available in kit form to reduce cost and is easily transportable by car.

Connell Daino's Silvacat brings together the principles of sailing and windsurfing.

Designed with speed junkies in mind, Silvacat allows people to enjoy the adrenalin rush of professional racing without years of training. Daino's design was inspired by RJ Mitchell who designed the famous Spitfire fighter.

Silvacat breaks down into six pieces to fit into a case that can be strapped to the roof of a car.

There's a lot more to come from SBS - see next month for more products and a report on the Speedboat Dating?