JOIN OUR CLUB
A chance meeting at the Southampton Boat Show leads to the formation of the Marex Owners’ Club
The very loose internet definition of a boat friend is as follows: a normal friend prevents you from drinking and driving. A boat friend just makes sure you stay on the boat. There are many reasons for buying a Marex, but one that I never expected was making new friends. When we were considering buying a new boat we visited the Southampton Boat Show so we could have a touch and feel of as many of our initial selection as possible. When we sat on the Marex 310 we knew she was the one, and settled in to the comfy seats hoping never to move. As another couple also hopped aboard we made eye contact and gave polite English hellos. “It’s a lovely boat, isn’t it?” my wife Julie said to the couple. “I hope so, I just bought it,” came the reply. We then spent the next hour comparing reasons why we both loved the Marex, had a good long chat with Guy, David and Paul from Wessex Marine and said we would stay in contact with our new boat friends Will and Jane. Just one problem – we didn’t have a boat yet.
Skip forward two months and we had paid our deposit on a Marex 310 for delivery in May 2017. My first call to announce our new purchase was to Will. We compared specs and found they were the same. A week later and we were celebrating with Will and Jane on their boat. My boat was now on order and Will had found out that a third Marex was arriving soon after mine. No more would be coming into the UK that year as the worldwide allocation had already been sold and Wessex were now taking orders for 2018. We both felt a bit smug.
Will met the owner of Marex (no3) soon after by knocking on the canopy. Will lives down the road from Salterns Marina where Wessex Marine are based. Years ago contact between all of us would have been slow and infrequent but with Will creating a Whatsapp group it’s easy for us to stay in touch. A trip to the factory was soon arranged, and many conversations about the numerous slight adjustments to Will’s boat were discussed in detail. We all agreed to meet up for lunch at Salterns and someone made a comment halfway through the meal this should be the inaugural meeting of the Marex Owners’ Club. Will was swiftly voted in as president, with me as vice president and Keith as social secretary.
Since then we have been joined by Barry and Christine who took the delivery of their Marex (no 4) in Spring 2018. More boats are on their way and we have expanded from just Marex 310s to welcome our first Marex 375 owners, Rick and Donia. Our first full meeting was held in August 2018 with a 100% turnout!
We even have an owners’ website. It is pretty basic but will hopefully let other Marex owners find us and join in the fun. The website is www.marexownersclub.co.uk, and on the suggestion of Jack Haines a club burgee is
, being designed. But at the end of the day it’s all about one thing – isn’t it a friendly thing to own a boat? Richard Hall