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ExCeL and Earls Court go head to head
01 Feb 2007
Exhibitors at the Collins Stewart London Boat Show at ExCeL last month were shocked to be approached to exhibit in a boat show to be launched at Earls Court in December of this year.
James Brooke, an RYA sailing instructor, has teamed up with John Vincent, who runs the Whyte & Mackay distillery group. Whyte & Mackay is the major sponsor of the show and has put up £1.5 million to start the ball rolling.
After being pressed, he agreed to ask the companies for permission to use their names. As BB closed for press one week after asking, no names had been received.
The promotional material for the show said ‘RIVA have come on board as a flagship exhibitor’, but David Buchler of Ventura UK told BB he would ‘be prepared to exhibit one or two boats’, adding it depended on who else was exhibiting.
EMW Marine, also quoted in the ECBS literature, was more forthcoming, with Ian Murdoch insisting ‘ExCeL is the wrong place and the wrong time’. The company will show its range of Malbec yachts at the Earls Court show.
Other quotes in the promotional material were vague and not definite intentions to exhibit.
The Earls Court show comes at an awkward time for the ExCeL show, which is organised by NBS, a subsidiary of the British Marine Federation. The show has seen declining attendance since moving to ExCeL in 2004 and this year’s show failed to halt the slide, although exhibitors – boatbuilders and retailers alike - reported doing excellent business.
