Southampton’s warm glow
Millions of pounds in sales and orders flood in as new models and fine weather attract visitors
The public and dealers alike fell back in love with the Southampton Boat Show after early reports showed a considerable rise in both visitors and boat sales.
Buoyed by dry weather and a raft of new models to tempt people in, visitor numbers leapt by an average of 7% over the first three days of the show.
Many dealers were also celebrating double-digit rises in boat sales with all the big players and a number of smaller ones taking impressive numbers of confirmed orders during the crucial opening weekend.
Key new model launches like the Princess 49, Sunseeker Manhattan 52 and Fairline Targa 53 Open were top of many people’s wish lists with order books for some of them now stretching well into 2018.
Even boats which currently only exist on the designer’s drawing board such as Sunseeker’s new Manhattan 66 and Fairline’s Targa 63 GTO were being snapped up prior to next year’s launch.
Sunseeker London’s Chris Head sold four Manhattan 66s on the opening day alone, helping to push Sunseeker’s overall sales for the opening weekend to a remarkable £25 million.
“The first weekend at Southampton Boat Show has been extraordinary and we are pleased that the Manhattan 52 has commanded so much interest,” said Sunseeker International’s sales director Sean Robertson.
Princess seemed equally delighted with the reception given to its new models confirming record sales of 15 boats at the preceding Cannes boats show and announcing a £55 million investment over the next three years to further enhance its stream of new launches. With a new S60 being unveiled at the London Boat Show in January and a 62 flybridge following hot on its heels, the first fruits of that are already well under way.
Fairline also came out fighting with lots of interest in the latest Open version of its Targa 53 and an order book for eight of the new Alberto Mancini-designed Targa 63 GTOS a year ahead of its planned launch date – a great achievement.
And it wasn’t just the big British manufacturers making hay while the sun shone. Wessex Marine took orders for two of its clever new Marex 310 Sun Cruisers and one for the larger 375. Bavaria dealer Clipper Marine also had a strong start to the show with 12 confirmed sales over the first five days thanks partly to UK debuts of the new R40 and E40 flybridges.
“We had a good show last year but this year’s is massively better already,” confirmed director Matthew Attree.