Hamburg Ancora Yacht Festival: Lots of visitors, great atmosphere at the start of the trade fair season

Fresh wind, white-blue skies, only a few heavy showers on Saturday morning: the weather was kind to the organisers. And because this is the great unknown at in-water boat shows, the results of the Hamburg Ancora Yacht Festival are rarely positive. Event director Heiko Zimmermann estimates the number of visitors at 18,000 - a significant increase compared to the last trade fair here before the pandemic.

Unfortunately, some shipyards and dealers had not managed to bring their boats to the Hamburg Ancora Yacht Festival in time. As a result, some of the pontoons remained empty. Nevertheless, the fair had the character of a real premiere show for the first time. Many yachts such as the Solaris 40, the Linjett 39, X-Yachts' revised X 4.3 Mark II, Oyster's recently launched 495 and the Comfortina 43 had never been seen in Germany before.

The abundance of new products, but also the breadth of the range on offer, ensured a lively rush. At some of the pontoons, there was hardly any space left on Friday lunchtime, which is usually rather quiet.

Another indirect indication of the yacht festival's attraction was the demand for parking spaces: The nearest car parks were quickly full, which, at a flat rate of ten euros, caused some displeasure. The one-way traffic routing was also not signposted clearly enough. However, these were the only points of criticism, and the mayor of Neustadt has already vowed to do better next year.

Then the trade fair will probably be well booked again. At least that's what the initial feedback from exhibitors that YACHT online researched today suggests. Magnus Rassy, not usually a man of big words, put it in a nutshell: "The fact that sailors are keen on a boat show is clear - we expected that. But we didn't expect this level of interest from buyers." The Swedes placed orders for several models, including the new HR 50, directly at the yacht festival - "including new customers," reported Magnus Rassy, "with whom we had never had contact before." Although the German branch is based directly in Neustadt and can therefore offer viewings all year round, the trade fair was "a complete success" for Hallberg-Rassy.

Ben Vaes from Solaris Yachts was also extremely satisfied: "The trade fair went really well for us, we had a lot of interested visitors every day. The yacht festival is the perfect opportunity for us to show our colours here on the Baltic Sea. In particular, it was a good platform to present our new Solaris 40 to a wider audience. Due to the pandemic, we have only had a few opportunities to do this so far. This much is clear to us: we will definitely be back next year!"

Maxim Neumann, Head of Sales at the Hanseyachts Group, registered demand across the entire brand portfolio. He told YACHT: "The trade fair was very good! We sold three motorboats, Hanse did well, as did Dehler, and we are still in some post-show talks."

Michael Schmidt, owner of Michael Schmidt Yachtbau/Y Yachts, had a Y7 specially transported from Greifswald to Neustadt. At 22 metres, it was the largest sailboat at the show and was prominently positioned at the head of the premiere jetty. Schmidt enjoyed the in-water boat show: "It's great that there is a trade fair like this. It was certainly interesting for the visitors to see a boat that is not typical for Neustadt. But there were also people who are actually interested in visiting the shipyard now and are thinking on this scale. So it was good for us and the trade fair."

Christian Daum, with Bente Yacht from the other end of the size spectrum, said: "The show was very well attended. Many seriously interested parties were on site. The quality of visitors was excellent. Basically, there were no travelling tourists at our boat show. Sales also took place. The overall atmosphere of the trade fair was great. The number and variety of exhibitors was well selected. Even though a few boats were missing because they were not ready or had been sold in advance, the range of boats on display was varied. We also had some existing customers at our stand who wanted to switch from the Bente 24 to the new Bente 28."

Equipment and technology suppliers also drew a very positive conclusion for the most part. Lasse Hochfeldt from Flin Solar, for example, an innovative manufacturer of solar panels, found the yacht festival "brilliant all round!".

"The trade fair was very worthwhile for us. We received a large number of offers, many of which will result in a purchase. Many sailors are interested in the topic of solar power; perhaps independent energy supply has also become more exciting again due to the increase in boat offices. Our system is very simple and is well received by sailors. Our stand at the catamaran was very well attended and we will definitely be back next year."

Christoph Steinkuhl from Germany's oldest ship chandler A.W. Niemayer was equally impressed. He spoke of a "sensational event", praised the "top organisation" and was "overwhelmed by the number of test drive appointments booked in advance via the website" for the OceanBay motorboats sold by awn.

Steinkuhl found the atmosphere in Neustadt "relaxed, easy-going, even euphoric". It was clear that "the industry and, above all, the customers were looking forward to the event". The bad weather on Saturday morning did not dampen the mood. "The visitors were prepared for it."

And for all those who were sailing or could not be there for other reasons, here is the YACHT-tv video about some of the most exciting new products: