Gallagher’s Poole-based marine practice meet with clients and industry partners at the 53rd Southampton Boat Show
The Gallagher Poole-based marine practice attended the 53rd Southampton Boat Show and took time to meet with clients, industry partners and friends of the show. Billed as Britain’s biggest festival of boating, the show opened on Friday September 16th and continued until Sunday September 25th.
Andrew Skinner – Head of Marine Practice in Poole said: “For two decades we have been attending the Southampton boat show, it is the mainstay in our team boat show calendar each year. The show is a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with clients old and new and learn about the industry’s latest trends.
“The team provide our clients with specialist risk management advice and insurance that spans across everything from yachts and motorboats to marine trade and commercial craft and as we attend the boat show again this year we look forward to connecting with clients and being at their service at the Show each day.
“It’s been great to see everyone exhibiting and attending this hugely successful and enjoyable show.”
Reactions from the Boating World included:
· Bruce Hastie, Finance & Insurance Manager, Princess Yachts – “This boat show feels like we’re returning back to normality. The order book is strong, we’ve sold through on many models through to the 2nd half of 2023 and some models through to 2024, business is steady. We’ve brought along 7 boats to the show, including the world premier of the F65.”
· Richard Tilley, Senior Sales Broker at Sunseeker London and Sales Director of Sunseeker Spain and Germany – “The show has been good. I’ve had lots of prebooked appointments and they’re all turning up! We’ve having some great conversations and we’re selling boats. We have a total of 9 boats at the show, including the UK launch of the Predator 65.”
· Steve Arkell, Chairman of Christchurch based Cobra Ribs – “This is a regular annual event for us. We have had the same pitch for the last 3 years, it works for us with excellent footfall traffic. We’re hoping to probably achieve about 10 – 12 sales during our time here. We’re showing, for the first time, the Cobra 8.2 Nautique with heated seats. It’s also a premier of the 7m Nautique. We’re based in Christchurch at our new premises, which have trebled in size in the last 2 years, to meet demand. We now have a new dedicated Service Centre, a specialised GRP facility and a new Production facility. It’s been a £1million investment. It’s busy times for us and the forecast for sales is looking good.”
· Richard Burnett Business Development Manager at Golden Arrow Marine – “We are the UK distributor for Torqeedo, based next to the RNLI building in Poole. Torqeedo are the original supplier of the electric propulsion systems for boats; supplying outboards, inboards, pod drives and sail drives. From my perspective I’ve never been so busy working at a boat show, I’ve had so many interested customers making enquiries, it’s great.”
· Claire Bates, Sales Manager for Bates Wharf – “We’re showcasing the Rand 24 Supreme and pushing electric motors here at the show. We have 2 electric boats on display which are grabbing attention. There is lots of interest currently in the electric market.”
· Jon Ford, Brokerage Manager at Salterns Brokerage – “We’re very excited to be representing Fairline in our capacity as ‘Fairline Poole Harbour’ for the 1st time at the 2022 Southampton Boat Show. We are the newly appointed agent for Poole Harbour and welcome any enquiries. We’re particularly looking forward to the ‘soon to be launched’ Fairline Targa 40 and the Squadron 58.”
· John Williams, Graduate of the Boat Building Academy based in Lyme Regis – “I graduated from the Boat Building Academy 2 years ago, a retirement present to myself to join the academy, a course which takes place over a 40- week period. That’s the flagship course for the Academy, which runs alongside their furniture course. Since graduating I’ve set up my own workshop, based on the outskirts of Lyme Regis. I was formerly a Chartered Engineer in the military aviation industry, but I’ve been in and around sailing and yachts all my life. Being at the boat show is an excellent opportunity to show people what the Boat Building Academy is all about and we’re having lots of conversations. I highly recommend checking us out at www.boatbuildingacademy.co.uk
· Nick Smith, MD Salterns Marina – “I’ve been attending the show for many years. Since the pandemic it’s been brilliant to welcome lots of new faces to the boating industry. The marina has been full since the end of the first lock down and we have a waiting list on every size of berth. We’ve had exceptional growth across every department.”