OPENING DAY OF SAIL, POWER & WATERSPORTS SHOW IS A HIT

The opening day of the 2008 Sail, Power & Watersports Show has been deemed a huge success and a hit by the exhibitors and visitors to the show today.

Events kicked off at 10:00 with the Royal Marines providing visitors with a fine display of abseiling as they shimmied down the face of Earls Court. The newsreader and presenter Katie Derham was then joined on stage for the official show opening by some well-known names from the world of sail, power and watersports including James Brooke, the show’s managing director, Geoff Holt the quadriplegic record-breaking yachtsman, Steve Curtis, eight times Class 1 powerboat world champion, and Jack Moule, the 14-year old UK jet ski freestyle champion. Nick Bonham, auctioneer extraordinaire, then launched the world’s biggest boat auction with boatbid.com.

TV presenter Peter Snow has also been at the show today accepting a cheque for £23,420 from the Little Britain Challenge Cup on behalf of the Jubilee Sailing Trust of which he is a Vice Patron. The other charities to benefit from the £110,000 raised at the LBCC included the Ellen MacArthur Trust, Cirdan Sailing Trust and the Show’s official sailing charity, RYA Sailability.

The positive buzz at the show was further reflected in the comments expressed by many of the exhibitors as well as visitors. John Whittey, Managing Director of Whittey Marine, was extremely positive after the first day. “It’s our first time here at the show and we are very delighted with it so far, it has a lovely club atmosphere and we feel the number of visitors and the quality of visitors is really very good.

“We’re exceptionally impressed with the presentation of the show, there’s been much better publicity than last year. I came as a visitor last year and it was very quiet and even though we’ve got an even more serious worldwide economic situation, we’ve got a lot of interested people looking at the boat. Hopefully it will carry on in the same vein. It’s a very encouraging start.”

French yachtsman and author Eric Brossier was at Earls Court with his family and made a point of telling the show organisers what a warm welcome he had received at the Show and how pleased he was to visit a boat show at such an iconic venue. Eric is best known for completing an uninterrupted circumnavigation of the North Pole.

Tomorrow’s highlights include more high wire antics from the Royal Marines, demos on the Pool, wakeboarding stunts and fabulous bargains to be had as well as some opportunities to drool over some of the more luxurious boats and products on the display at this year’s Show.

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