Best Beautiful Yacht Videos - Part IV : London Boat Show

Select Language Chinese Arabic French German Italian Japanese Korean Portuguese Russian Spanish English

It's ironic that what was once considered the Land of the Barbarians and their glorious victories...is home to most of the best and beautiful yachts of our times.


The London Boat Show has been able to mark its own niche in the plethora of European Boat Shows. Organised by the British Marine Federation, the same body that was involved in getting the Mumbai Boat Show going, the LBS is a feature-packed one that caters to the the Creme-de-la-Creme clientele of the British markets.

THE HEART OF LONDON

The London Boat Show is held each January at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in the heart of London, just opposite the O2 and the centre of London's business and entertainment centre.

It is a very large event, now in its 54th year, which uses ExCeL's two 32,500 square metre halls.

It is one of the two main annual boat shows in the United Kingdom, alongside the Southampton Boat Show.

Both are organised by National Boat Shows, which is a subsidiary of the British Marine Federation, the trade association for the UK boating industry. The 2008 show, known as the Collins Stewart London Boat Show for sponsorship reasons, ran from 11-20 January.

HISTORY

The first London Boat Show was held at Olympia, before moving to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1957 due to increase in demand. A popular feature of the show during its time at Earls Court was the use of the venue's pool area to host floating boats for visitors' inspection.

Up until the Second World War, sailing was very much a sport for the rich, but in the post-war years, with the launch of cheaper boats such as the dinghy, sailing became accessible to the middle classes and so there was demand for a show which could satisfy this trend.

The London Boat Show moved to ExCeL in 2004 because the old venue could no longer accommodate the vast selection of boats and equipment suppliers that visitors demanded from the show. Additionally the venue couldn’t accommodate the larger boats that visitors wanted to see and buy.

AS GOOD AS BEING THERE

The Video shows the entire LBS as it happens...both within the arena and outside on the marina also.



Many of the launches of famous manufacturers took place there and it the show was a HUGE success in terms of visitor and media turn-out.

It even highlights some of the latest technologies that were revealed at the show like the amphibious dinghy and new propulsion materials that will employed on some of the finest yachts in the future.

GO FOR MORE...

For more information on the London Boat Show and its sister concern the Southampton Boat show click here.

Hopefully the BMF makes the Mumbai Boat Show a similar success on the lines of the London Boat Show.