A common misconception, according to the düsseldorf boat fair. Wrong! When the boat is in fact a lot of fairs will be simultaneously held. Who is on pilgrimage to the extensive grounds on the banks of the Rhine hall-to-hall – of- 16 in number – must be good to foot, and immersed in very different worlds with very different audiences. Here the divers, as the Paddler, the Surfer, because the back of the Charterer, the oarsman, and the Angler. Motor boats and sailing yachts – this time about 1500 – are at the core of the event, but by far not all of it.

Walter Wille

editorial “technology and Motor”

F. A. Z.

The boat is the largest water sports trade fair in the world. 50. Issue since the beginnings in the year 1969 is on this Sunday, after nine days to the end. “The largest we’ve ever had”, as Jürgen Tracht, managing Director of the Federal Association of the water sports industry, the ideal sponsor of the Show. Nearly 2000 exhibitors from 67 countries are represented, for some interested parties, there is no more space found in the fully booked halls. It was not always so. As a result of the global economic and financial crisis of 2007/08, for a considerable time reigned in a disaster mood. “We were shaking, none of us knew how to do it,” recalls Tracht. In the halls of the giant gaped gaps, tedious, walls, Seating, laminated with adjusting furniture, plant tubs. In some desolate corners of the impression that it is haunted.

Over, no trace of the like. The boat in the middle of the Winter, under roofs, costume, according to one of two exhibitions in Europe, in contrast to many other a truly international character and to grow. The other is the Cannes Yachting Festival in late summer, under the open sky in the port. “In Düsseldorf, Germany and Cannes, the whole interest is concentrated,” says Tracht. 247.000 visitors were counted last year, with a high proportion of foreign guests,

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the versatility of The exhibition one of its success factors is, according to the costume. Above all, it has paid off the first crazy appearing idea of the ancients, boats to drag in the hall to show to the country instead of where it belongs. The boats should come to the people and not Vice versa. Large catchment area, good transport links and the proximity of the purchasing power are more important than the salt water and the coast.

For difficult tasks in this context, there are “Big Willi”, since 1980 mascot and weight most employees of the fair: The 84-tonne rolling crane large yachts to lift up 100Tonnen, arriving on the Rhine, in the country. That usually works out well. Just, in 1998, the 35-Meter vessel “Golden Eye cracked him” from 60 cm height to the ground, because a strap tear. The record of the largest ever in a hall issued Yacht the 41-Meter “Catwalk since 2006”.