Founder of the 2007 Earls Court Boat Show, James Brooke, has taken a Stalinesque approach to the low attendance figures: he’s ignoring them! He told YM: ‘Numbers don’t mean anything to me, they are just a black and white thing. I haven’t got a clue how many people came and I don’t want to know.’

He maintains that shows have been judged by figures for too long and that statistics don’t tell potential visitors anything. Instead he is collating exhibitors’ and visitors’ responses.

‘What is importnat is to marry up the right sort of visitors with the exhibitors they want to see. That is what makes a successful show.’ Next year’s Earls Court Boat Show dates are already booked: Press Day is Friday 28 November and the show opens the following day on 29 November and runs until Saturday 7 December.

For the only sailing magazine analysis of the new show see Yachting Monthly’s three-page special report in the January issue on sale 13 December.