The RAI says 1,137 exhibitors from 39 countries promoted thousands of marine products to a visitor total of 19,764, a good few thousand up on last year’s 16,805.

‘Feedback from attendees so far has been extremely positive and we are delighted that so many companies have already signed up for METS 2008,’ said Dros.

Interestingly, this year saw exhibitors being scanned on entry to the show, giving a new statistic of more than 4,000 stand personnel entering the show on an average day.

But it wasn’t all sweetness and light and a couple of things that upset some. The Breakfast Briefing and the DAME Awards came in for some criticism this year.

The keynote speech at the briefing was given this year by Randy Repass, founder and chairman of West Marine, the largest boating accessories retailer in the world.

While the official release says he ‘kept the focus firmly on marine leisure products’, I saw a few beginning to nod off (you see the elbow slip off the armrest and snap the person awake, to look around guiltily).

While attempting – laudably – to draw attention to the need to raise the quality level of marine products, he meandered a little too much and began losing the audience as he regaled them with tales of travels in his own boat. The basis was sound – he talks a lot to people around the world on his travels and picks up a lot of good information on what works and what doesn’t. ‘We need to increase the ratio of fun to hassle,’ he said.

He finished by assuring the industry that it also needs to up its game on the environment. ‘Climate change will affect every one of us,’ he insisted, adding the leisure marine industry should take the lead on the environment before it’s forced on us.

We then came to the Design Award METS (DAME) Awards.

Bit of a stink
There was a bit of a stink about these awards from the start, after RAI Exhibitions decided to charge everyone for entering a product for the awards. The object of this exercise was to raise funds to build a replica of a Dutch ship.

All companies entering products paid a ‘registration fee’ per product. All money collected was donated to the Batavian Yard museum in Lelystad to help fund the building of a replica of The 7 Provinces, a 17th century Dutch warship.

A director of Batavian Yard accepted a handsome cheque for €20,850 from RAI Exhibitions managing director, Ids Boersma, on behalf of the competition entrants.

Now this is entirely wrong. Donating to charity should be a positive decision for the donor. If the RAI wants this boat to be built from funds raised from METS exhbitors, it should ask for donations and not make donating a function of entry to the DAME Awards.

How much is RAI Exhibitions prepared to donate towards the restoration of the Cutty Sark, I wonder?

And I know one UK company decided not to enter a product because of this levy.

And just think what that €20,850 could have done in the UK. It could have gone a long way to funding an apprentice for a year. Maybe two.

As for the DAME Award presentations, Kim Hollamby stood down as chairman of the DAME judging panel and presenter of the awards to a crowded room. This year saw yacht designer Bill Dixon assume his role.

And Dixon didn’t do a good job. It wasn’t his fault: he’s a softly spoken man.

Public speaking - we’ve all been there. Some of us get away with it. Some of us don’t...

Dixon belonged, unfortunately, to the latter group.

Mind you, he had a very hard act to follow. Hollamby is a natural. Often overshadowed by his own microphone, he held the audience with a mixture of amusing observations and serious comment about the products and the industry. It takes a special kind of talent.

Perhaps Dixon should hand over the awards for the smiling pictures and leave the talk to one who is more at ease with the ordeal.

The UK generally does OK at the DAME Awards. This year was not a good year for us. In a year that saw the judges decide against making awards in three categories, UK companies came up with one category winner - Secure Yacht - and had to content themselves with some special mentions instead.

Special mentions
Sea Sure collected a special mention for its 420 Genesis rudder stock, Gill received one for its Compressor buoyancy aid and Henri-Lloyd took one for its Atmosphere jacket.

Our DAME winner was Alton-based Secure Yacht in the Marine Electronics category. Dealing with the luxury yacht market, director Dean La-Vey told BB there was no other company offering marine grade access control systems.

So, along with Paxton Access, which manufactures electronic access control systems, he set about producing a marine version and presenting Net 2 Marine in the Superyacht Pavilion.

La-Vey says he was very surprised to win against the competition lined up and he has high hopes for the product in the Superyacht, cruise ship and ferry markets.

I’m afraid worse was to come after the event when people began to remark on the overall DAME Award winner, the Teaky Beach stern platform chaise longue from Opacmare S.p.A. of Italy.

Described as ‘elegant, beautiful and easy to use. Easily hidden in the deck when not in use, Teaky Beach can be transformed using hydraulics and a simple handheld electronic control into a comfortable and stylish lounge chair’.

So what, said many, has this got to do with an award that recognises innovation in the marine world?

This is a hydraulically-operated sun lounger. It belongs on a Superyacht. Or on any billionaire’s sun deck around his west-facing little hideaway on Malibu. Press the button as Jeeves brings the Pimms to elevate one’s self to a more drinkable position.

But to give it a marine award? No.

I think Yachting World’s features editor, Elaine Bunting, described it best in her blog: ‘I'm sure the Teaky Beach chaise longue is beautiful and clever, but it's irrelevant. It's trivial. It's not a proper piece of marine equipment at all. On that basis alone, it should never have got a look in for a top award.’

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Ms Bunting.

We use METS to get around the UK Pavilion and check out what’s happening in the industry those few non-advertisers so BB’s ad manager Lorraine Curtis can work her magic on them. And we didn’t get one bad opinion of METS (apart from those already mentioned above).

David Barrow’s Barrow International stand was crowded every time I walked past. He told me later he’d spent a long time inviting all his customers along and it paid off. He’s a very happy man now.

From elsewhere, the RAI tells me Piero Gai, general manager for Uflex Group of Italy described METS as ‘a show that every industry would like to have’ (we can see that) and Francois de Sivry, COO for Karver Systems, France, added that the three days were ‘the most effective time ever spent!’ (let’s not start pushing for a fourth day).

The SuperYacht Pavilion seems to have done well again – will grillionaires ever stop spending, I wonder? Michael Gentes, director business development for US company Magefend Mooring Products described the show as by far the company’s most productive show.

METS 2008 runs from November 18 to November 20 a the RAI.

Check out our Chandlery Products feature starting on page 23 for some of the new products launched at METS.