The demise of B A Peters will rattle around this industry for some time.

For a start there are a lot of boats out there partially owned by the marine finance houses. And with ‘in excess of 50’ boats swilling around out there, the words ‘fire’ and ‘sale’ immediately before the Southampton Boat Show hardly bear thinking about.

Another problem is the image of the industry. As soon as the administration was announced, a newspaper report dropped into my news aggregator telling me of a couple who had sold their boat to Peters and had received a confirmatory letter two days before the crash. The article assured the world the couple now had neither boat nor money.

So what positives can we draw out of this sorry episode?

How about the agreement that we – the industry – will sort out two major problems?

First the protection of clients’ money (some say this is impossible). We – the British Marine Federation (BMF) – must come up with a means of taking clients’ money out of the reach of either dealer or receivers without due cast-iron agreement.

And second this problem of boats being rejected. For the manufacturer to hide behind the dealer is a ridiculous way to do business.

Peter Poland looks at why it went wrong for B A Peters - see B A Peters - what went wrong. And once KPMG has done its bean counting, we might find out where the holes appeared. On Peters’ last accounts in 2005, the company seemed sound and strong…

At least the Peters’ brands will be on show at Southampton. Island Packet got sorted at Premier and Bavaria is now with three ex-Peters~Opal men. The new Opal Marine is, says the press release, working with Azimut, Rodman and Legend.

And we wish Peter Methven well as he rises, phoenix-like, to carry again the mantle of president of the BMF. A sound man and a safe pair of hands.