The first Poole Harbour Boat Show took place on 9th and 10th May and has been hailed as a huge success by the event organisers, Poole Harbour Commissioners and Poole Quay Boat Haven.
Poole Quay welcomed sailing vessels of all shapes and sizes with many top brands featuring at the free entry event which attracted not just marine enthusiasts but families keen to learn more about the marine industry. Among those present were Sunseeker, Fairline, Windy, Bayliner and Legend Yachts, including Poole based charity, RNLI.
As well as boats and ships to view close-up, visitors were able to enjoy many ‘on the water’ activities, courtesy of the local yacht clubs, as well as live music and fireworks on the Saturday evening. The public were treated to exclusive access to tall ships TS Pelican and Stavros S Niarchos with the ships looking quite spectacular at their harbour-side location.
Coleman Insurance Brokers was one of several sponsors of the event and were keenly involved in its organisation.
Richard Lacey, chairman of Poole Harbour Commissioners officially launched the event and said, “A lot of people have worked extremely hard to pull this event together for the town and we thank them all for their efforts.”
Richard continued, “We are starting something this year which will ultimately put Poole very firmly on the maritime event map and we are committed to making it accessible to everyone.
A team of staff from Coleman were present throughout the Boat Show, manning a stand on the busy quayside, chatting with visitors and providing numerous quotes to boat owners.
Tony Pauffley, Yacht & Commercial Craft Development at Coleman enthused, “ It is fantastic to have a boat show on the edge of Poole Harbour. We are proud to have been one of the sponsors at this event and to have been involved in the organisation. The support that we have received from the marine industry as a whole has been superb and allowed the Boat Show to be the success that it has been.”
Tony added, “Lots of us spend our lives working in and around the harbour. This weekend has been really good to show the public a part of our world.”
Nick Edgington, MD of Hayling Island based Legend Yacht UK Ltd commented, “Turnout at the Show has been much better than we expected. It has been incredibly positive and we’ve been really pleased to be able to showcase the Legend 37 in Poole – a yacht that we first launched at the Southampton Boat Show in 2014. Poole Harbour is a great location for the boat show and we hope that the organisers stick with it and repeat the event next year.”
Richard Bates, MD of Poole based Bates Wharf which is the distributor for Fairline for the South Coast and London commented, “It has been really busy…surprisingly busy! There has been a good mix of visitors too. We have seen lots of new faces but also many of our existing customers. The confidence in the boat show is very inspiring!”
Steve Handy, Sales Executive at Sunseeker Poole added, “This has been a fantastic opportunity for Sunseeker to showcase itself to local people and enable them to see the product that is built locally. It has also been good to get lots of people who work at the Sunseeker factory to come along to the boat show and see the quality of our competition. It helps them to appreciate how hard we need to work to make our product as good as it is!”
Sealine Boats UK which is based on the Thames in London were also present and Sales Director, Chris Manners enthused, “This boutique boat show shows the way forward. It really is buzzing! We have had so many conversations. Visitors might not be current boat owners but they could be in the future. We are selling the life style for future generations.” Sealine was displaying their S330 and F380.
https://www.thecolemangroup.co.uk
