Southampton Boat Show

An excellent weekend was had by all at Southampton Boat Show. We met my parents and their friends Steve and Debs at the gate at opening time after a very early start for our journey’s from North West and North East respectively. We were very excited to get back on board, as will probably be very clear from the last few updates, indeed our guests were struggling to keep up as we progressed over 2 footbridges and across the entire show to reach MI Cats berth on the pontoons. Karen very kindly gave us sometime on the boat uninterrupted to show everyone around.


A very big thumbs up was given by all. I think it is fair to say everyone was overwhelmed by the size, quality and value for money of the Mahe 36. Alex, Kevin’s daughter has given full unreserved approval for her cabin at the port bow and my dad is already making plans for stowing himself away in the anchor locker! Kevin and I really enjoyed the opportunity to show everyone around, it’s great to have so much support for what we are doing. Steve and Debs who have done some sailing before but on monohulls were particularly surprised by some of the benefits of catamarans, especially the salon above water level, the additional space in cabins, cockpit and saloon… so much so they were collecting brochures the next day…!




We did a lot of research over the two days, we visited all of the exhibitors for the kit that we are looking to buy to see all the items we have researched on the internet. We definitely confirmed the Raymarine choice on the electronics. We had a bit of a turnaround on the tender and outboard however, we saw the Zodiac and Honda stands and confirmed the excellent build quality and features of the tender and outboard selected by Kevin previously. However, now we had chance to measure up the boat for storage of a 15hp outboard engine and 3.1m rigid hull inflatable boat. The tender would fit well between the hulls, but we really wanted to make sure that we could remove the outboard for security and to protect it from the elements. Also, all reports we have read and visual evidence suggests that rubber boats do not survive well stored permanently on the back of the boat on davits. Finally, extensive measuring up by Kevin suggested that the outboard would not fit where we were planning. Therefore, we started to turn back to our original idea of buying a tender and outboard which could be deflated and stored. So, when looking on the Honda stand at the tender and outboard deals we decided to go for one of their aluminium slated floor models (with a boat cover) and to get it now, so we can have a play!!

In what seemed like perfect timing after a worrying week of headlines for house sellers about Northern Rock etc, we had a call mid-morning on Saturday to arrange a viewing for our house on Monday night. So, now we could really relax and enjoy the weekend. We all went for dinner with Karen and her partner Paul and Kelly from MI Cats on Saturday night which was a great end to the day. In fact, thanks must go to all at MI Cats for their wonderful hospitality and endless tea through the weekend as we found it hard to tear ourselves away from the Mahe!!