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Displaying items by tag: Boat Market

#Trade - Irish yacht brokers were among a range of smaller firms enjoying some buoyant trade at last week's London Boat Show.

And it's this growth within the domestic UK and Ireland market that's keeping the marine industry afloat as Britain's export market faces another difficult year, according to the Guardian.

Domestic sales have offset an 8.7% fall in foreign sales revenues across the leisure boat, small commercial vessel and superyacht markets, claims trade body the British Marine Federation (BMF).

Taking the blame for this are continuing financial troubles in the eurozone and what the industry says is Westminster's failure to provide expected funding to the BMF to attract overseas deals at shows like London and beyond.

The trade body also points out that the renewed focus on domestic sales runs against the UK government's push towards manufacturing for export.

The Guardian has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Trade

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.