With its Southampton counterpart freshly completed, the London Boat Show is now set to take centre stage.

The winter’s biggest boat show returns to the capital in 2011 from January 7-16.

The Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show will again take place at ExCeL in London’s Docklands with a raft of new features.

For the first time the show will have a used-boats marina, something many visitors have been requesting for years. There will be up to 70 boats on display of all sizes.

The North Hall will contain a dedicated watersports zone, including a 70 x 24m pool where show visitors can try stand-up paddle boarding, wakeboarding, windsurfing, dinghy sailing, canoeing, kayaking and model yacht racing.

There will be a cruising chute workshop, showing how to hoist, gybe and lower a cruising chute so a shorthanded couple can fly one confidently.

As usual hundreds of marine exhibitors will showcase their products and around 1,000 boats, from kayaks to yachts, will be open to climb aboard, explore and trial.

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