Beaulieu Boat Jumble: Sunday 27th April 2008

WOA was at Beaulieu Boat Jumble for the third consecutive year. It rained heavily in the morning and the whole day was a bit damp underfoot but the event was well attended, and WOA had its usual pitch keeping dry inside the marquee. Welcome to the five new members who joined this year.

When WOA first heard about plans for a new Earls Court Boat Show, we approached the organisers to see what they were aiming for, how we might fit in, and what a presence there might cost us in time and effort as well hard cash. It turned out that they were keen to have us, and made us an offer we could not refuse; not only an affordable shell scheme stand, but heavily discounted tickets for members too.

By borrowing a desk and furniture from Ian Cochrane at XW Rigging, having two re-usable display banners made, and staffing the stand with an army of WOA volunteers in WOA shirts, we were able to present a smart and professional image at minimal cost.

Earls Court 2007 is the first time WOA has attended a major boat show in its own right. In the past WOA attended major boat shows as the guest of the Westerly company, and more recently as the guest of Rotostay/XW Rigging, as we did again at Southampton boat show 2007. And in January 2007 we attended the ExCeL boat show as part of a special feature by National Boat Shows; as we will do again in 2008.

You will see from the boating press that attendance at Earls Court was very low; however, it appears that those who did go were our sort of people. We had a good week meeting existing members, and signed 21 new members at the show. That is a very respectable total for any boat show in recent years, although we have had an exceptional year in 2007 signing up over 150 new members at the three major shows we attended.

WOA was at the London Boat Show in style in January 2007. We were given the opportunity of a star position near the main entrance, attached to one of LBS new features - ‘Jargon-free Boats’, in association with All-At-Sea.
The idea was to have various craft (a cruising yacht, jet-ski, dinghy, RIB, Powerboat etc.) spread around the sides of the ‘Boulevard’ (the central walkway between the two exhibition halls), with owners alongside ready to talk about their sport to anyone who turned up – particularly non-sailors finding out what it was about and how to get into it. Member Roy Litten lent us his Pageant for the show and we also had our WOA membership desk alongside.

The sight of the first Westerly Pageant at the London Boat Show for over 30 years certainly attracted a lot of interest and we were inundated with enquiries for the whole week. We spoke to queues of people looking to find an affordable way into sail cruising, reminded a generation of boat buying public of the Westerly name, and attracted 100 new members to join WOA.