Dear readers,

My visit to the boot Düsseldorf is over. I'm sitting exhausted on the ICE, my feet are aching and I feel like I've had a stormy day of sailing. Instead of strolling through the halls as a private visitor, I've spent the past few days working for our water sports editorial team - a change of perspective that I would never have expected a few years ago. This trade fair is a huge opportunity for a young journalist like me. Not because you just look at boats here, but because you realise how many facets there really are to water sports.

My last time at boot was in 2019. I had just finished my A-levels and wanted to use the free time during my gap year to visit the trade fair in Düsseldorf for the first time. I know exactly how impressed I was by the boats, the many people and the presentations. If someone had told me back then that in a few years I would be working for Delius Klasing at the boot I wouldn't have thought it possible.

This time everything was different. Instead of relaxed boat watching, it was time to check the lighting conditions, recharge the batteries and find the perfect angle. There is a huge difference between checking out a boat for your own pleasure and trying to capture every detail for social media channels. Each hall was a new cosmos of themes. Performance cruisers, family boats, electrification, foils, refits, charters, equipment, safety issues, travelling, regattas, training. You don't just walk from stand to stand, you constantly jump between the different worlds in your mind. This variety of topics would hardly be available in such a concentrated form in everyday life. At the same time, that's also the challenge. When everything is exciting, you have to decide what is really important and what you prioritise for you as a reader.

A particular highlight for me was reporting on the winners of the "European Yacht of the Year Awards". I took a close look at all the yachts, watched videos for Instagram and tried to capture original sound. Not so easy, because you don't usually have many attempts at a good interview or interesting recordings. A quick trip on the boat, taking photos and videos and hoping that the microphone quality is good enough in the noisy exhibition hall. After all, you don't want to do the same interview three times. It is precisely at such events that you realise how many opportunities the trade fair offers journalists. The protagonists are on site, the boats are accessible, you get first-hand impressions.

A real place of retreat for me was always the Delius Klasing stand. You meet colleagues from the publishing house there, have good conversations and there's always something to eat. It was the perfect place to take a deep breath or to look through my materials in peace. What do we tell, how do we tell it and what do we deliberately leave out?

The highlight of my time in Düsseldorf was the Flagship Night, the Oscars of the water sports industry, so to speak. Many familiar faces come together here to celebrate the best yachts of the year. After a glass of sparkling wine and a delicious meal, we got started. "And the prize for the best yacht in the Category Performance Cruiser Monohull goes on..." - And right at that moment, my mobile phone battery died.

I was sitting there, supposed to be making videos for social media, and my smartphone gave up the ghost. Fortunately, a power bank came to the rescue, but that's when the real work began. While the others enjoyed a cosy end to the evening, I took as many pictures and videos as possible and edited them on the spot.

But as tedious as everyday editorial work at boot may be at times like these, it also brings with it many privileges. With a press pass and the right trade fair outfit, you are only ever a short conversation away from getting access to the most exclusive yachts. Where I used to need a lot of patience and luck to see a new Hallberg-Rassy or a premiere from Beneteau, this time I was mostly able to walk past the queues. A quick nod to the stand staff and the barrier opened as if by magic. It was a great feeling - a bit like the "golden ticket" at the theme park, which allows you to simply walk past the queue in front of the rollercoaster. This is enormously helpful for work because you can gather a lot of impressions in a short space of time. And that's what it's all about in the end: a trade fair like boot makes it possible to see and report on so much in just a few days because everything takes place in one place.

I gained an incredible number of new impressions during this week and had more expert discussions than ever before in my life. It was exhausting, often breathless, but above all extremely exciting to experience boot from the "other side".

The trade fair is the result of thousands of hours of hard work, passion and aching feet - for the stand staff as well as for us in the editorial team. The anticipation for the coming sailing season has increased significantly as a result of my time in Düsseldorf. And now the task is to filter out exactly what you are most interested in from this huge range.

David Ingelfinger

YACHT volunteer

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