Celebrity TV Chef, Shaun Rankin, who owns and runs the Michelin starred ‘Bohemia’ bar and restaurant in Jersey, opened the show alongside champion powerboat racer, Shelley Jory - and it was immediately plain that, once again, the key focus of the show was on the power side of things.

Behind the celebrity guests, ‘High Energy’, a 90-foot Sunseeker charter boat dwarfed the Sunseeker Portofino 47, while on the rest of the marina pontoons, builders, dealers and distributors from the British mainland embraced the show with just as much verve as the local inhabitants of St Helier. MRL, based at Drivers Wharf in Southampton, had brought a selection of Stingher RIBs across from the English south coast and so too had Bates Wharf, with a fleet of Trophy sports fishers and rather delicious Sessa express cruisers. Pursuit UK and Morgan powerboats of Plymouth had also made the trip under their own steam and you can see why. It may boast only a brief three-year history but to date the event has always done a brisk and vibrant trade.

As well as around 120 exhibitors, the assorted visitor attractions were also busy, with families enjoying the chance to experience a taste of life at sea, treading the decks of a variety of working boats moored at the special ‘Condor Get on Board’ pontoons. The Royal Navy’s 79-metre Fisheries Protection vessel, HMS MERSEY was also on display, as was the tall ship, Lord Nelson, the Port of Jersey tug, Duke of Normandy, and two of the Navy’s training vessels, HMS TRACKER and HMS TRUMPETER. All were on hand to lower their gangways and welcome visitors on board. Live entertainment also added to the good vibes, with performances including the famous Beat Retreat, performed by the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines. The band also joined young Jersey musicians in a Gala Concert at Jersey’s Opera House for a sell-out show.

Having attended the show for the first time in 2009, I was struck by the cultural integrity of the event and I am delighted to say that nothing has changed there. In place of the regular boat show fare of overpriced burgers or (worse still) bagels with cream cheese, we were offered locally harvested mussels and locally brewed cider (it is considerably stronger than it tastes). And while the sheer quantity of boats leaves you in no doubt as to the strength of the event’s identity as a boat show, it retains an element of open-mindedness that sees stands selling things as welcome and as tenuously related as woollen jumpers, nautical artwork and GRP garden furniture.

In terms of the island’s natural assets, it’s a tough place to beat. The climate is great, the island is full of boating and watersports options, and a fractious history has left the place littered with areas of enormous historical interest. Even getting there on the ferry is a simple affair. It tends to cost from £50 to £100 for a foot passenger from Portsmouth, Poole or Weymouth. Come with a family (it doesn’t have to be your own) and a car works out cheaper still. See you there in 2011 . . .

About Jersey

Jersey is a small island, adrift in the Bay of Mont St Michel, a few miles off the coast of northwest France. It measures just nine miles by five and yet it is the largest of the Channel Islands, with 45 miles of varied coastline, some of it geared up for tourism, some of it surprisingly secluded and all of it of immense appeal to the visiting boater. The capital of the island is St Helier, in the middle of the island’s south coast, at the eastern edge of the huge sweeping sand expanse of St Aubins Bay. Here, there are two excellent marinas for visiting boaters with easy access to the centre of town.

About the show