2008 Earl's Court Boatshow in London

[Jim H]

The family and I spent an enjoyable day at the 2008 Earl's Court Boatshow today.

It's a smaller show than last year, but it was still fun to be at the boat show that is less crowded than most. We spent boat bucks at Aladdin's Cove chandlery, went aboard a Southerly 32 and 38, a J 122, and even a couple of Bavarias for fun. There was a new Folkboat and other smaller sailboats, and the kids got to scuba dive again, which they were very much looking forward to.

There's a photo gallery of the visit at

Earl's Court Boatshow 2008

Here are some sample pics:

[Faster]

Great shots Jim.. thanks for posting.

Looks like your family had a good time too.. I like the idea of the big pool - a floating show within a show! Cool.

Does Southern Rival need to be jealous of that tasty little J122?

[Jim H]

Originally Posted by Faster

Does Southern Rival need to be jealous of that tasty little J122?

The J 122 was really nice-- a combination of good design and living space below, along with real performance gear and layout.

Hopefully, SR isn't jealous, since I'm waking up the family right now to pack and go spend the weekend with her. If we get a weather window, we plan to sail to either the Isle of Wight or Lymington for an overnighter. (If we go to Lymington, we might visit a Westerly Oceanloard 41 there.)

One thing: is it bad if I've bought more xmas presents for the boat than my wife and kids so far? Yesterday, I picked up a boat knife set for SR. In a leather sheave, it has a dedicated boat knife, marin spike with shackler, as well as a stainless narrow nose pliers. It looks similar to this:



We had one on the boat we sailed across the channel, and during the week it was very useful to have a sharp knife and spike hung near the companionway where everyone knew where it was. I saw the same thing on other boats recently, and thought it would be good on SR before our longer trips this April and June.