MEET ME AT THE METS

Not even new Covid variants and ongoing supply chain woes can stop the avalanche of new boating gear that’s coming to market in 2022. Masked and sanitised, Boating New Zealand’s Craig Ritchie went to METSTRADE – the world’s largest boating parts and accessories trade show – for a first-hand look at what’s coming to store shelves over the next 12 months.

Held in Amsterdam, Netherlands each November, METSTRADE is the world’s largest marine equipment trade show – a global supermarket of boat bits and marine accessories that’s quite unlike anything else in the world.

Off limits to the public, METS is where the boatbuilders and marine equipment stores go to shop, and where all the newest nautical gear makes its global debut. In a normal year METSTRADE attracts around 20,000 visitors from more than 100 countries. Yet even in 2021, with large chunks of the world still blanketed under Covid travel restrictions and the Netherlands itself under a partial lockdown, a masked and socially distanced METSTRADE still attracted more than