METS… and more show positive signs!

pfrankli ♦ November 22, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

This week’s announcement from Boat International that 273 superyachts have been sold in 2013 celebrates the burgeoning global superyacht brokerage market we have seen this year. Breaking the marker of 272 sales set in 2012, this is a significant milestone for the industry as it continues to show resilience against other market trends.

At the same time the METS (Marine Equipment Trade Show) in Amsterdam was as busy and bustling as ever. 11 halls brimming with every kind of nautical gadget and gizmo imaginable, including quite a few new innovations. The Superyacht Pavilion was bigger again this year serving to underline the above news from BI.

With lots of seminars, fringe meetings, presentations and a few early evening cocktail parties celebrating various corporate achievements, METS has firmly taken its place as a networking venue in the annual nautical calendar.

The excellent and well organised press lounge at the RAI Exhibition and Conference Centre was as busy as I have ever seen it, and was host to a very international influx of yachting journalists from Scandinavia, Southern Europe, USA and Asia. In fact as a local ‘adopted Dutchman’ I felt in quite a minority amongst so many different foreign accents!

I attended the Boatbuilding Technology seminar put on by ICOMIA and IBI on Wednesday afternoon, and covered it in overview for IBI News in the daily METS newspaper which is published on every morning of the show. I will now be writing a more detailed two page review for their January 2014 issue, As a time served boat builder (many moons ago) it was interesting for me to catch up on the latest developments, and to reflect on how some things have changed dramatically, and some others, hardly at all!

Needless to say as a keen boat owner I was on the prowl for some useful new products, not only to write about, but to maybe buy for myself, as I’m already planning next summer’s cruising itinerary.

You will see more about these on this blog over the next week or so, and in my article for Asia’s Prestige Magazine YACHT supplement published next April.