Southampton International Boatshow 2024

It was a busy old week last week, what with sailing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but after a (much needed) lie down in a dark room with a damp towel on the brow on Thursday, I managed to score a cheap ticket for the Boatshow and went on Friday.. the forecast for the weekend was hideous, and weekends are always busier at the show anyway, and as it turned out I was glad I had gone when I did..

What follows then is just my view of the show - lots of people have gone, and still to go, and all have their own view of the success or otherwise of the show all of which are valid, but hey, this is my tiny little corner of the interweb, so clearly I'm right.. 😏

Cards up front then - overall, I thought it was a good show - better than last year for sure, and I think getting back to those levels of excellence last seen before Covid - unlike last year there was a good amount of chandlery present, but more next year please. 

Themes for the year seemed to me to be, electric, electric, electric, in all forms of propulsion- and a continuing focus on polarising markets - mobo's seemed to be focussed on smaller (ribs and Axopar style) while yachts (with one or two exceptions) are getting bigger..

'From the sublime' - as I mentioned - the range and depth of electric outboards is now huge compared with even a year ago - this (following) was mainstream internal combustion supplier Mercury's offering..  

That 75e at the front develops the equivalent of 10HP (they also have a bigger one capable of giving 15HP as well), and the middling one on the right is the one I was (mildly) interested in, the 35e is their approx. 5HP model - it weighs 47lbs (not including battery/s) c/w with 55lbs for my Tohatsu, BUT, the battery weighs the same again, and the 35e needs two of them, and also the hardware to tandem the two batteries together, oh, and the charger...    and from what I'm seeing there's not much change out of £14K for that little lot, the battery's are £2.5K a piece themselves!! That would buy you a lot of Tohatsu's.. 😁

..'to the ridiculous'..  biggest HP I saw at the show competition, this one was a Mercury (others do them too - I saw a Honda and a Suzuki version), but yes, that's a 300HP V10... almost as tall as me..  you can also get a 600HP V12, didn't see one though.. 😳

Time to head for the pontoons...  which were looking busy!

Highlights...

Ever since we chartered a Halberg Rassy for some of the Jolly Boys trips I've had an interest in them - they are a glorious boat - my HR choice for this year was a 44.. £700-800K going on current prices..

This one (following) was my 'boat of the show'..  the Dutch make glorious boats.. more here [clicky] on this one, but powered by sails and an electric engine (Torqeedo 3.0 POD) and note the integral solar panels just in front of the mast and up to the nose.. yours for anything north of  €70K (ex tax) depending on what extras and stuff you want - this one was simply stunning with that deep red hull..  no good for me though, as quite apart from not being able to afford it, it's also a fixed keel.. 😏

Saffier SE 24 Lite 😍

What comes around, goes around - Sparrow was fitted with roller boom furling back in 1967, still works, all manual and the sail wraps externally, but the concept appears to be making a come back, albeit hydraulic and wrapped internal  these days..

Seen her before but this one is pretty - IF I was to buy one this is the one I'd probably go for..  carbon mast and boom, couldn't be doing with the wooden spars..  much more manageable this one at approx. £30K. More here[clicky]

Hideous - following - this one fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch going down - 90 foot of butt ugly..  purely my view 'natch... 😁 They're selling well I understand, so clearly that is one, a good thing for British boat building, and two, a number of people who disagree with me.. 😏

Next - was good to see "Boleh" (means 'Yes' in Malay apparently) again, it was a while ago I last saw her up close [clicky]

Always a sucker for a square rigger, and they always seem to get one at the show - this year it was the Dutch training ship Thalassa [clicky]. Despite her looks she's a youngster, even when compared to Sparrow. Built in 1980 near Amsterdam, the hull was originally from a Dutch fishing ship the "Reliquinda", an old side trawler. In August 1984 it sank after hitting a wreck from the Second World War. She was refloated, gutted and rebuilt, relaunched and renamed in 1990 and then went on the Tall Ships circuit in 2004.

...and there you have it - my experience of the show...😀  

Only one thing to finish the day, a beer in the Platform ... well done to the organisers, a cracking show..

Four blow the cobwebs out..

...and so the 2024 cruising season comes to an end ..  well for the Jolly Boys anyway..

The overnighter format seems to be working well for the "four old men crammed in a small(ish) boat" scenario, and so it was that we decided we needed one last Summer '24 hurrah, and as we hadn't been to Yarmouth in years (it was 2021, as it happens) we thought we'd make that our destination for the trip..

Massive, and I mean massive (a 5mtr tide in Portsmouth the day we came back) Spring tides, for the two days we were away. It was also a midday HT which was not optimal, but was doable for both tidal assist and getting on and off the moorings where Ami-Ly is kept..

The team convened on the day of the jaunt at Rod's gaff at 07:00, and a mere hour later were on Ami-Ly and heading for the harbour entrance - weather sunny, good breeze, and anticipation high. 

Sausages went in the frying pan as we came through the harbour entrance, and we had a stonking tidal assisted run down to Gilkicker helped along by sausage baps and cups of tea, before hardening up for a reach along the edge of the north shipping channel and then cutting the corner at Calshot between a bulk carrier, and a tanker carrying something nasty as she had a tug hanging off the back to help her round the corners.

Shot past Beaulieu entrance (still on the tide) and a mere four hours (!) after we left Portsmouth we were motoring into Yarmouth - almost as good as the near mythical blast we had in 2016 [clicky] in "Ocean Waves"!

Yarmouth was middling busy - good number of boats but plenty of spaces, and we were soon parked up in a good spot just opposite the RNLI all weather lifeboat. I like Yarmouth, it's an interesting mix of commercial (the car ferry leaves from the same harbour entrance as the leisure/marina stuff) and scenic. The town is pretty, and the time zone is abut GMT-50 years.. 😀 Four pubs in Yarmouth though and all doing food except one (kitchen closed on Tuesdays) - we ate in the Kings Head and I thought it was good..

I'd like to say we all slept well that night, but it was fairly noisy with wind and tidal movement - in fact the wind didn't really drop noticeably until about 4 in the morning!

Day 2:

Plan for  the day (apart from getting home eventually😏) was going to be tidal driven. We were at almost the western most end of the Solent and looking to get to just about the most eastern end, but into the face of that continuing, and now slightly stronger easterly (head) wind and there was no way any of us wanted to motor all the way home against a foul tide (and it was Springs as mentioned so they were fierce!)

Easiest way to get back we decided was to split the trip - we'd do the morning part with the last of the east going morning tide to Cowes, get there before the tide turned, and then have lunch, snooze, read, and generally laze until the tide turned in our favour again, or at least slack, for the last bit back to Pompey...

The plan worked well but it required an early leave - and it looked like a number of other boats had had the same idea. As we were getting ready to go there was a steady stream leaving Yarmouth and heading east. We were up at 7, showered, tea'd, and off we went just after 8 - we only had two or three hours of usable tide, so we did it all on motor, and we were moored up in East Cowes by 11!

Yacht Squadron, and Gurnard in the distance

More tea, trip to the Co-op for milk (for more tea), and then a leisurely lunch in the Lifeboat - thoroughly recommended, we reckon it 's the beast eating emporium in Cowes..

Snoozing, reading, and laying in the sun followed, while Smithy went walking to get his steps in, but at just after 3, we dropped the mooring and headed for the Solent - the wind was building, direction the same, and we'd already put the second reef in the main in preparation. Tide was still slightly foul but we needed to get on with it or we'd never get home.. 😏

Paddle ship Waverley [clicky]

Just outside the harbour we headed up into a very brisk ENE'ly and raised the main, waved at the passengers on Waverley, bore away slightly for Osborne Bay, rolled out a bit of jib (about 50%) and then settled in for the best fun I've had on the helm in an age - she was on rails, and despite two reefs and half a jib we were getting 6.5's and 6.8's SOG, upwind, and against the last of the tide... even the huge gusts we got every now and again didn't knock her off the rails, she was balanced, no luffing and going like a train.

Three or four tacks and it was clear we wouldn't get on the transit under sail and the alternative was a longish beat out to the end of the main channel - we were tired, so about 3 hours after we'd left Cowes we were heading through the harbour entrance after turning the engine on to allow the passage down the swashway.

Dead low water was 17:36, and given it was the aforementioned Springs only 0.6mtrs! We were there about an hour after that, but there still wasn't a cat in hells chance we were going to get on to the pontoon. We'd left the day before at about 8 and that was with just 0.4 mtr under the keel and 3 hours after dead low - clearly we needed to wait a while, but we had sausages, beer, crisps, tea/coffee, milk and cake - we were not going to starve..😀

Picked up one of the RNSA moorings over on the Gosport side, the sausages went in the pan and the beer was racked open while we tidied up the boat, put everything away, and got her in all respects ready to depart the moment we were ashore on the pontoon.

..there are worse places to sit and wait for the tide to fill in, and this definitely wasn't one of them!

..we eventually dropped our temporary mooring at about 8'ish and half an hour later, after a passage across harbour in the dark, we were on the pontoon - the end of another cracking two days away.

Log:

Distance: 55.44 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)

Wind (Speed; Direction):

• 17th: F4 gusting F5; ENE
• 18th: F5 gusting F6 occasional F7; ENE 

Sail Plan: 

• 17th: Full main; full genoa
• 18th: Reefed main(2nd reef); reefed genoa (about 50%)

Speed (Max/average in knots): 

• 17th: 7.5 / 1.7
• 18th: 7.9 / 4.7

Emsworth channel is a target rich environment.. 😀

September has been a weird mix of heavy winds, light winds, rain and duff tides and it was almost two weeks since the last sail (on the 3rd) and I was beginning to get concerned that the season was actually over, never mind almost over..  a weather window on Monday though gave me the opportunity I wanted, albeit a short one..  

HT was at 11:10 and spring'ish at 4.1 mtr's, and wind was one of those supposedly* atypical easterly's that always make the trip a little more interesting if only for the fact you don't spend the entire trip beating up against the tide to Marker 😏  

On the boat by 9:15'ish, topped up the tank with 3 ltrs of Super, started up the donk (first pull!), got the sails ready, plugged in all the electronics, and eventually dropped the mooring about half past (but only after realising I had tied myself to the mooring via the tenders mooring line and having to sort that out.. 😀)..

Motored to end of the ditch, and as the wind was on the nose put the main up as I was half way between Northney and Sweare Deep, rolled out the genoa shortly after, and just after I turned the engine off got this little fellow..  my first of the season, and a school bass (juvenile of the adult tasty eater..  slightly bigger than the two that grandson got a few weeks ago, so I'll call him a teenager 😏) - admired, picture taken, and released..

Bore away just past Sweare Deep and on to a broad reach, a lovely thing to have but everyone knows that for every downhill there's an uphill, so once I got to Marker I turned and tightened up for the beat back..  I was checking to see what my bearing was on starboard tack as I was hoping it might take me up the Emsworth channel into Emsworth which would be a first this year. 

It wasn't too bad, but of course the wind was switching up to 10 degree's either side (I reckon offshore wind is always tetchy) which made the target rich environment of the Emsworth channel moorings  a fun challenge. Made it to the waiting pontoons though, and then turned for home..

Came round the corner by the Beacon and ran before the wind and against tide up until Sweare, before dropping and rolling the sails away and heading for the mooring. 

It was good to be out, but despite what the Cambermet beacon was reporting I think it was lighter up where I was...  either way, next day I was due to head to Yarmouth with the Jolly Boys, so it was good to get my hand in before I went, and this trip also took me through the 100 miles for the year. 👍

*(prevailing wind has always been SW'ly in this part of the world but when I look at the log, out of 15 trips I've only seen that 4 times this year)

Log:

Distance: 7.38 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting F4; switching between ENE and ExN
Sail Plan: Full main/full and 75% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots):  4 / 2.4

Two beauty's and a beer..

Time to get out on Sparrow again.. but this time for a decent run as 11 year olds are not known for their delight at being away from electronic connectivity for three or more hours! 😏

Tides were still optimal (12:53HT) and we're firmly in the Springs (4.2m) period so once again there was a lot of water sloshing around, and all of it in the wrong direction as usual! 😀 Happily though we had a repeat of three or four weeks go and the wind was almost dead westerly.

On the boat by quarter to 11 I dropped the mooring at quarter past and drifted down the ditch having deployed the fishing rod..  clearly not doing it right, as not a sniff where grandson was hauling them in hand over fist.

Headed into wind off Northney and put the main up, no reefs, forecast was a F4 but only bottom end so I figured I'd be good. Turned for the channel, rolled out the genoa (all of it for once, as wind was not overwhelming, and there wasn't going to be a lot of short tacking) and headed off to the bottom of the harbour against aforesaid tide..

I was making good times..   foul bottom, foul tide, but I was still seeing 4's SOG. The wind was up and down all the way - always manageable but I had to play the mainsheet a few times in the gusts.

Shot past Marker (always a joy!) and then spotted this beauty as I was going past Verner - bones between her teeth and hooning up harbour on the last of the flow..  beautiful..

Soon enough we were past the HISC moorings and the wind was still good, surprisingly (usually the club and headland cause a lee in a westerly) so headed on past the club, up to the lifeboat station, target was Eastoke, maybe even the Bar Beacon as we were still just shy of the ebb - maybe slack water.

Unfortunately not to be - headed by the wind as it bent round the headland it would have meant tacking to get the distance, and I couldn't be bothered so turned and headed back up harbour. 

No last legs of tide to help but I guess we were going "with the grain" as I was seeing 4.8's and 5's SOG. Just past Marker I was passed by this beauty like I was standing still - a Rustler 33 and my second beauty of the day..

...and that was largely it - started hardening up as we went past Beacon, engine on at Sweare Deep and then motored back to the mooring, packing away as we went. Back on the mooring t'other Dave turned up in Kings Ransom - he'd been out for a potter as well with a friend of his, and as is the way we convened there for a chat and a beer - loving the September sun and warmth..

Glorious..  fingers crossed for more, only 5 or 6 weeks left to lift out..  😐

Log:

Distance: 10.12 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)

Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 going F4;WxN
Sail Plan: Full main/full  & 95% genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.8 / 3