The 2015 Southampton Boat Show was once again a fantastic event, with over 110,000 visitors during the 10 days, 330 boats on the water and an array of exhibitors, there was literally something for everybody!

Boatshed’s EMU (exhibition mobile unit) was in our usual spot (BO53) and we were kept extremely busy with visitors to the stand wishing to list their boat with Boatshed or speak to the many experienced brokers that came along from all over the UK and Europe to be part of this exciting and vibrant marine event.

Boatshed has become famous over the years for its fizz@five receptions. At 5.00 pm, the old ship’s fog horn is sounded and swathes of visitors flock to the stand to introduce themselves to Boatshed and to enjoy a glass of fizz.

Visitors were attracted to the many hundreds of boats that we had displayed for sale and also had the chance to enter our competition to win a paddle board. The winner of the paddle board was Richard Slape who along with his son Peter were presented with the paddle board and a bottle of fizz at Trafalgar Wharf near Portsmouth, UK, where Richard keeps his boat. Richard has listed his boat with Boatshed Port Solent and was very interested to hear about the tools available to the local Boatshed broker to assist him market and sell boats.

The Boat Show is a great opportunity for our brokers to meet people wishing to sell their vessels or maybe buy boats, or both! Boatshed brokers have access to state of the art tools that help to list, market and ultimately sell boats faster. Just look at Boatshed’s boat sales record:

  • 700,000+ registered boat buyers
  • Sell your boat twice as fast
  • 260,000 unique visitors/pm
  • 1000+ boats sold per year
  • 50+ Boatshed branches world-wide

The Boatshed team was also visited at the show by people interested in opening their own Boatshed businesses; companies wishing to work with Boatshed as Preferred Partners; and we had discussions with Boat Manufacturers wanting us to market their boats on our dedicated New Boats Platform, recently developed specifically for this reason.

We were asked about the IPA scheme (Independent Pre-sale Assessment) that we have introduced in collaboration with the Marine Inspection Association; another tool proving very successful in helping to sell boats faster.

The Boatshed Team are already looking forward the 2016 Southampton Boat Show and the many interesting people, meetings and opportunities it will bring!