SOUTHAMPTON BOAT SHOW
Southampton’s wooden heart
The UK’s finest traditional boat builders were the centre of attention at the Southampton International Boat Show, sponsored by Classic Boat, with crowds flocking to the Classic & Day boat Zone and to see other classic boats around the event in September.
The wooden boat zone lay at the event’s heart, with almost 100,000 visitors coming through. Exhibitors at the show included Spirit Yachts, Drascombe Boats, the Boat Building Academy, the International Boat Building Training College (IBTC), Woodbridge Boatyard and many other businesses from across the UK’s thriving wooden boat scene.
Down on the pontoons, the tall ship Thalassa was welcoming visitors and offering trips out in the afternoon. Meanwhile the stunning Spirit 72DH was attracting onlookers and some famous names on board, while the Boathouse4 project’s Motor Gun Boat 81, Falklands landing launch F8 and High Speed Launch 102 were the most unusual craft exhibited – the former even boasting a wooden torpedo to show how the device would have been operated in the original’s military days.
One famous face at the show was Sophie Neville, who in 1973, aged 12, played Able Seaman Titty in the original film of Swallows and Amazons. Sophie was promoting the Arthur Ransome Society’s achievement in acquiring and restoring the clinker dinghies and and how they’re now available to sail in.
