Tall ship HMS Bounty sailed past and then docked at Southampton on Friday morning to provide a suitably spectacular opening for the 2007 Southampton Boat Show.
The ship, originally built for the film Mutuiny on the Bounty, and fresh from a role in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean epic, The World's End, proved a major attraction for show visitors.
So too did the TeamOrigin America's Cup yacht, moored on the show's Hydropool marina but setting off into Southampton Water at regular intervals to show off its spectacular performance.
Appropriately, the show was officially opened by Sir Keith Mills
and Mike Sanderson of TEAMORIGIN, who took the opportunity to announce the tem behind the British quest to win the oldest sporting trophy in the world. To nobody's surprise, Britain's most successful Olympic sailor, Ben Ainslie, has been selected to lead the team on the water.
And the Olympics were not forgotten at the show: there is a Chinese Quarter feature celebrating Beijing 2008 with a taste of Qingdao, Southampton's “Sister City.”
As always, major personalities from the sailing scene were much in evidence at the show, with last years winners Dee Caffari and Katie Miller, and Geoff Holt, the disabled sailor who has just sailed solo round Britain, opening nominations for the Raymarine/YJA Yachtsman of the Year and Raymarine
Young Sailor of the Year awards.
Mike Golding was presented with a Royal Humane Society's Silver
Medal Award for his heroic rescue of fellow competitor Alex Thomson in last year's Velux 5 Ocean race.
But for most visitors, the real stars of the show were the new boats and gear making World, European or UK debuts.
The Hydropool Marina this year has more than 370 boats afloat - the largest number yet at
the Southampton Show. And there are about twice as many boats again displayed ashore, plus all the equipment you could possibly need to sail them, from the latest electronics and technical clothing to hull polish and deck scrubbers.
- This is the 39th Southampton Boat Show
- It has one of Europe's largest purpose built show marinas with over 2.5km of
pontoons
- The Southampton Show now covers over 155,000 sq m of land
- The show costs over £3.6 million to stage
- There are more than 600 exhibitors and approximately 1,000 boats on display
- The biggest boat at the Show this year is Sunseeker's Tri-deck Motor Yacht 37M, which uis also the most expensive, at around £11 million
- The organisers hope to welcome more than 130,000 visitors to the show
For more information about the show, which continues until Sunday September 23rd, visit www.southamptonboatshow.com
