National Boat Shows (NBS) should bottle this chap and exhibit him, because his reply said more than any stilted press release. 'It was fantastic', he said. 'The children adored it. We looked at lots of boats in the hall, had a tour round a destroyer and were even allowed to go inside one of the superyachts in the marina. After a while, the children were running around and beginning to argue as to who would have which cabin. It was a fantastic day.'

Following a bit of cross-examination and a process of elimination, I worked out that the ‘superyacht’ in question must have been John Charnley’s Discovery 55. And bully for him and his team for letting a stranger and his spirited brood have a look on board.

As it so happened, my new acquaintance turned out to be a young city corporate lawyer; so one day he could even be a Charnley client. Predictably, however, he said that the bigger motor yachts were well defended against his attempted incursions.

My new lawyer acquaintance was not the only person to say how much he enjoyed the show.

There’s little doubt that the shenanigans over in West London in December have done a lot to shake National Boat Shows (NBS) out of any complacency. Indeed James Brooke, he of the Earls Court Boat Show (ECBS) claimed in a press release: 'It is clear that our creativity has inspired National Boat Shows and much of the new content at the London Boat Show is a clear replication of our vision. This is a positive thing as we have managed to enhance the show at Excel through competition to the benefit of the consumer. It has taken time for the British Marine Federation to fully understand the benefits of competition in an industry, and we have clearly stated time and time again that we are a positive force that can benefit everyone.'

Battle-hardened
It was also interesting to glean the opinions of battle-hardened exhibitors. After all, they’ve seen it all before and are definitely not there for the fun of it.

They are there to do business and – hopefully – make a decent return on the ever-rising costs of stand space and expensive East End hotels.

Chris Satchwell of Sunsail (who also attended the ECBS and was less than impressed by the volume of business he did there) said: 'I thought that a great deal of effort had been put in by NBS. To me the North Hall was a ‘Boat Show’, however I think the South Hall is still a bit of an exhibition. I liked the centre stage area, the shows and presentations. The deck games were good and well attended by visitors. Yes we did do good business; with the stand well attended by visitors. If the NBS team can build on this for next year they will have gone a long way to meet our boat show aspirations.'

There was also, he added, much more communication between the NBS team and us, the exhibitors.

Satchwell’s last comment was echoed by many others. Maybe NBS was sharpened up by news that Brooke and his team established an open, friendly and ongoing dialogue with the Earls Court exhibitors during that show. Or maybe NBS just underwent a ‘road to Damascus’ conversion and suddenly realised that all exhibitors (not just the big players) are valued customers – rather than performing acts to bring in a paying audience.

Either way, it was a well-received (and overdue) change of attitude. Let’s hope it’s here to stay.

Peter Thomas of Hanse Yachts was also impressed by the changes. 'The public clearly enjoyed the very good stage show (although I wouldn’t like to have a stand right beside it). The North Hall seems to have all the features, so the South Hall looks a bit boring, with the five big motor boat builders dominating the proceedings and dwarfing most of the other stands.'

And what about these popular features in the North Hall? In my opinion (not his), many ‘non commercial’ activities succeeded thanks to the down to earth energy and enthusiasm of new ‘entertainment guru’ (my term, not his) John Goode.

Anchor Watch returns
The ‘anchor watch’ feature returned, and was even better attended than last year. The ‘start boating’ area featured the essential ingredients to attract newcomers to the sport – namely affordable secondhand boats and the owners’ associations that support them. If anything, this whole section could benefit from being bigger – or at least from having more boats exhibited on the allocated space – because the majority of those who start boating do so in something aged and inexpensive.

And make no mistake – many show visitors come looking for a used boat. Whilst chewing the cud with Ancasta’s marketing man Will Allen on his brokerage stand, I met an excited French visitor. Who spoke no English.

Since I can struggle through French, I asked him what he wanted. 'Un vieux Birchwood 30 avec deux moteurs.' Nothing else would do. Amazingly, Ancasta had one on the books.

The Classic Boats area (despite being jammed up against an end wall) was also a popular success - packed with interest, charm and gleaming wood. But perhaps the most popular exhibit of all also bordered on the classic – and was also definitely not for sale.

According to NBS, HMS Exeter attracted ‘up to 20,000 visitors’ – which represents almost a sixth of the total claimed gate of 127,000.

But if visitors could not buy a Type 42 Destroyer or a lovingly restored classic yacht, what were they buying? In its post show news release, NBS speaks of its 'four key success criteria of attendance, sales, ambience and industry showcase.'

Predictably (and vaguely) it kicks off its sales figures by claiming that Sunseeker’s sales were ‘significantly ahead of the £80 million’ achieved at the last show. Runner up in the sales claims stakes is Northshore, whom NBS quotes as having another ‘best show ever’ with sales up 50% on last year. Interestingly, the ECBS press release claims Northshore sold 12 Southerly yachts (worth £1.8m) from the pool at Earls Court. So which show actually brought in the most business for Mr Abbott’s indisputably upwardly mobile and niche market outfit?

Overall, I detected a less than euphoric response from most boat sellers. But then this is hardly surprising, given that so many unpleasant outside factors are stalking the market.

As the sterling falls against the euro, so French and German boats cost UK buyers more. The widely anticipated tumble in house values and disconcerting slides on stock markets around the world mean that buyers are less likely to liquidate assets (especially at current prices) in order to buy a new boat.

And anyone who has recently been flipped on from a fixed rate mortgage to a variable rate will be experiencing an unwelcome change in his monthly direct debits.

Only the super-rich will feel comfortable in ignoring such irritations – which might explain why sales of superyachts continue on their exponential climb.

Perceptible shift
Another perceptible shift in the boat buying market was towards sailing boats. David de Vere of Bates Wharf told me he was surprised to find that the company was selling as many sailing boats (Bénéteaus) at the show as it was motor boats.

Finance specialist Lombard Marine confirmed the drift, saying that the value of applications taken at the show was up by 11%, thanks to a demand for medium sized sailing boats and large (over 70ft.) motor yachts. Ian Braham added that: 'The split between power and sail is around 50:50, indicating the shift towards sailing boats observed at Southampton has continued at London.' Strange. I wonder why?

Are motor boat buyers being slowed down by the threat of double price diesel? Are they more susceptible to the circling uncertainties in the outside world? Time alone will tell.

But one thing you can be sure of – the relentless advance in the superyacht market is continuing. Big is beautiful – commercially if not always literally.

And what about little boats? Martin Wadhams, MD of leading dinghy suppliers LDC, told me: 'The show began extremely quietly for us, but rallied to some extent over the last four days. We felt that the number of dinghy sailors visiting the show was well down. Interestingly, our sales were pretty strong in the run up to the show, so perhaps there was a confusion effect between Earls Court and ExCeL resulting in some people not going to either but ordering their new boat anyway. Given the low number of visitors to Earls Court last year, I doubt very much that we would decide to exhibit in 2008. Our budgets cannot support two shows.'

Hartley Marine (builders of perennial favourites the Wayfarer and Wanderer dinghies) told me they were selling a boat a day, which was much the same as at Earls Court. So Hartley probably will be returning to the new show.

If so, they may have a clear field there, because I got the impression that Laser, Topper and LDC may have agreed amongst themselves to stay away from ‘The Court’.

Another essential element in any boat show is 'shopping'. So the chandlers and other associated retailers need to see footfall. Terry Smallwood (of Kelvin Hughes) told me that by mid-show, cash taken was slightly down, but that he was happy with ExCeL. He did not want to incur two sets of London overheads, so would not be going to Earls Court.

Andy Goddard of Andark, on the other hand, said that while he was delighted with his improved stand position at ExCeL, by the new look of the show and by business done there, the way things stood he would still be going back to Earls Court.

Chris Murdoch, managing director of Nauticalia said: 'We have ended ahead of last year and have had an enjoyable show. The number of visitors was good, the quality was excellent and the ambience and atmosphere and WOW factor was the best I have ever seen at ExCeL and undoubtedly increased the dwell time, visitor spend and should bring people back next year.'

Trailing
Let’s hope - for the sake of the industry as a whole - that Murdoch is right. Attendance figures at the Paris, Genoa and Düsseldorf boat shows continue to leave ExCeL trailing in their wake, so NBS has plenty of catching up to do.

It’s of course unfortunate that the new look of the show and greatly improved attitude of its organisers happened to coincide with a raft of bad financial news that was completely beyond NBS’ control. Under the circumstances, a drop of around 2% in attendance is almost a result.

Looking ahead, the ECBS dilemma is unlikely to disappear – now that Carlsberg has joined Whyte & Mackay as partners to the show. And it's probable that the ECBS team will have learnt lessons from its less than effective 2007 pre-show marketing campaign.

So NBS will not be able to rest on its 2008 laurels. It will need to build on its efforts and make ExCeL 2009 even better – which is what BMF members pay it to do.

But ExCeL 2008 was definitely a big (and welcome) step in the right direction.