The Cannes Yachting Festival may have the edge on the PSP Southampton Boat Show when it comes to the big boats but at the opening of the boat show in Southampton there was summer sunshine and celebrities every bit bit as glamorous as those seen at the Cannes show which opened three days earlier.
The 12-21 September 2014 sees the 46th boat show in Southampton hosting almost 150 boat debuts, thousands of brands, boats, products and suppliers and features one of Europe’s largest purpose-built marinas with over 2km of pontoons.
TV star Matt Baker sailed into the show by boat and was joined by Olympic Gold medallist, Iain Percy OBE as together they opened the show with Freddie and Hamish Simpson, the children of British sailing gold medalist Andrew “Bart” Simpson helping to cut the ribbon.
“Bart” died during training for the America’s Cup, and is being remembered by the sailing fraternity while celebrating Barts Bash the worlds biggest yacht race on 21st September 2014
Meanwhile on the Sunseeker stand the singers including the classical-pop group, Amici Forever performed at the world launch of the all new Sunseeker 86 Yacht and Manhattan 65
Claudia Winkleman the new co presenter of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing programme played the role of compare and supervised the now famous stand up comedy duo of Robert Braithwaite and Formula 1 celebrity Eddie Jordan who tighter sung the praises of the British boating brand