World's largest boat show?

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by freetime

How many boats do you build each year old and new factory? What sizes do you have right now?

435 Standard and electric
455 Standard and electric
405 Standard and electric

And the 445? Do you have more...?

The present sizes produced are the 435 and 455 , 6 units this year and 10 units next year
By the end of next year we also plan to have the 405 and the 555 in production

Greetings

Gideon

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by jzk

???? I can understand that a small upstart company might not be able to afford the boat show">Annapolis Boat show, but to say that it doesn't do customers or prospective clients any good is nonsense. It is a gateway to thousands of potential buyers. Of course a next step would be to sail the boat and stay on it, but first you have to lure them in somehow.

And by the way, Annapolis is a wonderful town in its own right and doubly so during the show.

We have many attended boat shows over the last 7 years in 1 x Düsseldorf, 4 x Hamburg, 4 x La Rochelle, 4 x Amsterdam,1 x Miami but have found that it does not go much further than a first acquaintance with the boat.
People that are really interested come and fly into Amsterdam or Durban from anywhere in the world and they get a chance to sail and live on these boats .
Now with the INTERNETand the fantastic ways to show a boat with pictures , movies etc I believe the boat show function is not necessary anymore and the expense ( and these are paid by the purchaser at the end of the day ) is just not worth it.
That is only my opinion .

You are right Annapolis is a wonderful town , lovely to spend time there.

Greetings

Gideon

[sandy daugherty]

Side-by-side comparisons can be perilous to boat manufacturers. Same day demonstration sails can also be hazardous unless you have the clear performance champion for the day. That's why no sensible manufacturer publishes polars for their products; they can come back and bite them in arbitration. So even if you're on a demo sail aboard contender 'A' and contender 'B' passes nearby, neither demo driver will engage in direct head to head racing without some convenient excuse on hand, just in case.

I think that one of the reasons there aren't more catamarans at Annapolis is that "Demo Days" afterwards is just too damn risky!

Besides, it costs a lot of money, requires planning two or three years in advance, and needs an in-place task force to avoid the many pitfalls and tanktraps of doing business long distance.

I've worked the Annapolis Show for many years, and I don't think anyone but the major high volumn manufacturers sell enough boats to justify the expense. Being there seems to be a defensive maneuver more than anything else.

[jzk]

Fountaine-Pajot publishes its polars but notice only for 20 knots of wind!