London Boat Show

The London Boat Show was an event held in London from 1955 to 2018, organised by British Marine. First held at Olympia, it was later moved to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, and finally the ExCeL Exhibition Centre. The show's cancellation was announced in May 2018, with organisers citing the show as commercially unviable for the industry in its current format.[1]

A boat at the 2012 show

History

The first London Boat Show was held at Olympia, before moving to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1957. A popular feature of the show during its time at Earls Court was the use of the venue's pool area to host floating boats for visitors' inspection. It had expanded for some years into Chelsea Harbour before being moved to ExCeL in 2004.[2] The inclusion of smaller craft such as dinghies, kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards, as well as popular watersports such as wakeboarding, led to the inclusion of the Watersports Action Pool, where visitors could watch the craft indoors.

The show was usually ten days long, but in 2018 was reduced to five days.[3]

Sponsorship

In November 2014 it was announced that CWM FX had become the title sponsor for the London Boat Show. Since 2015 the show would be known as the CWM FX London Boat Show.[4][5] CWM FX was closed in March 2015 after allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme.[6][7]

Attendances in final years
Year Attendance Source Notes
2002 154,211 ABC audited
2003 145,845 ABC audited Last year at Earl's Court
2004 213,801 ABC audited First year at ExCeL
2005 154,041 ABC audited
2006 140,000 (unaudited)
2007 130,000 National Boat Shows press release, 14 January 2007 (unaudited)
2008 127,251 ABC audited
2009 112,000 National Boat Shows press release, 18 January 2009 (unaudited)
2010 102,655 National Boat Shows press release, 17 January 2010 (unaudited)
2011 109,778 National Boat Shows press release, 17 January 2011 (unaudited)
2012 102,841 National Boat Shows press release, 16 January 2012 (unaudited)
2013 93,327 National Boat Shows figures, reported in Motor Boat & Yachting,
2014 88,593 National Boat Shows figures, reported in Motor Boat & Yachting
2015 92,288 National Boat Shows figures, reported in Motor Boat & Yachting,
2016 90,328 National Boat Shows figures, reported in Motor Boat & Yachting,
2018 52,000 National Boat Shows figures, reported in Motor Boat & Yachting,

See also

References
  1. "London Boat Show cancelled". Motor Boat & Yachting. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  2. Link text Archived 28 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "London Boat Show - CWM FX signs as title sponsor".
  5. "Boating Business | CWM FX signs as LBS title sponsor".
  6. "Police call on Gurkha victims of suspected £50m CWM FX Ponzi scheme". CityAM. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  7. "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 3 May 2020. Cite uses generic title (help)

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