Show me the boats...

Hello again

It's been too long since I last updated this blog so many apologies although my excuse is that I have been busy making some great new content.

We've had some great feedback about the Classic Malts show from people who have thought about sailing there and form those who are regulars.

September is of course the month of the Southampton International Boat Show. This is one of my favourite shows because when the weather is good there's nothing like wandering down the pontoons and looking at boats on the water. The show was very busy this year, some days we could hardly get along the pontoons. One of my most unusual conversations of the week was with the captain of The Bounty which was at the show. This is the replica ship built for the original Mutiny film and star of lots of films since then. I tried to chat with the captain about the history of the original Bounty etc and how exciting it was to have this ship here, when he quietly sat me down and explained that "visitors are only really interested in the movies that the ship has been in." Well, I'm sorry but I completely disagree and I'm sure that the majority of people queueing to get on the ship knew about the mutiny and were looking forward to experiencing what it may have felt like to be living on this vessel, before we even get onto the subject of perhaps the most amazing feat of navigation ever when Captain Bligh arrived at Cape Town.

Rant over, however, I must admit my 3 year old daughter enjoyed having her picture taken with Jack Sparrow!!

One of the most popular sailing yacht displays was the Bavaria stand. Whenever I walked past there were always queues of people waiting to get a look at the range and in particular the Bavaria 31. Since Peters Opal went into liquidation a new company has been formed called Clipper Marine who are now sellimg the Bavaria range. In the next show we have an interview with Richard Hewett one of the directors of the new company.

So as my feet recover from miles of walking we're putting the finishing touches to the next programme. There will be the usual mix of pilotage, news and skills.

Keep sailing

Steve