Barry Chapman on LinkedIn: Glorious weather in Amsterdam for a day at Hiswa te Water Bataviahaven… (2024)

Big "thank you" to Mike Wimbridge and Simon Hedley of Pantaenius UK Ltd. for hosting me at your networking breakfast this morning at Deacons Marina in Swanwick 🙂 Coffee & bacon butties in the sun - a great way to meet like minded professionals involved in marine technology, distribution, boatbuilding, legal, insurance and recruitment. Fantastic to meet you Grégoire Outters, Ray Badminton, Adam Pullinger, Louis Palmer-Smith, Clarissa Dumolo, Liam Dobbin, Alex Cox and Mark W.

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I’m absolutely crazy about America's Cup and always have been. I love everything about it - the theatre, the tradition, the format, the build up, the huge characters, the fierce rivalry, the massive tech advances, the sky’s-the-limit budgets - everything, the whole nine yards. So it’s difficult to admit, but having watched last week’s preliminary regatta, I’m really struggling to enjoy watching this 37th edition 😢 Maybe it’s just me, but I’m just not seeing a spectator sport in the same way it used to be. If you look back to 2013 in San Francisco Bay there was so much adrenaline and action to engage with, as we watched experimental AC72s charge round the course, on and off their foils. We saw crews sliding across the trampoline during gybes, grinders working the pedestals, trimmers tweaking the sheets, kites unfurling, the spray, high speed crosses and nose dives. We saw performance athletes pushing themselves hard, and high-octane sailing with all the thrills, and very often the spills. Fast forward to 2024 and we now have highly refined boats with little human element on display, making them far less enthralling and dynamic to watch. Recently a friend asked me “…why doesn’t AC resemble sailing...?” which seemed a fair question, given there’s not so much as a single rope on show these days. Ignoring the (almost invisible) cyclors, we now have four guys out of sight in their pits, talking calmly on their mics, watching displays and pressing buttons. Feels as if the human input has been eliminated by tech. Combine this with few seemingly competitive races, many already won at the start line, and rare close crosses - the essence of match racing - and in my view, much the entertainment and spectacle has gone.Sure, the boats are phenomenal. Their defiance of physics makes them incredible in every respect, but have they become so refined and engineered that they’re now unrelatable? Feels like we’ve following F1 into familiar clinical and formulaic territory.I used to be mesmerised by the human endeavour; the organised chaos, the shouting during transitions, the exhaustion of the crew, the mistakes, the raw emotion - even guys falling overboard - but now all that’s obscured.Not everyone will agree and I’m not trying to be provocative, but am I alone in this view? Interested to know what others may think?

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Looking forward to seeing all our Dutch contacts on Thursday at the Hiswa te Water Bataviahaven Lelystad boat show in Amsterdam, it promises to be another great show 🙂 DM me if you want to meet up to talk marine grade piezo-electric switches & control panels, and hear what's new over a coffee. Whether it's for current requirements or future projects, let's chat!

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Many thanks Debbie Hood and Phil Payter of ENIGMA Powerboats Ltd for treating us to a blast on board Enigma 38, on the eve of the Cowes-Torquay powerboat race, to show off what she’s capable of.Wow, just wow. Despite strong winds and residual swells from Storm Lilian, she barely noticed the confused seas as we tore around at just over 50 knots in complete comfort and style. Amazing performance. And Debbie and Phil’s obsession with perfection is evident in everything they do and across every inch of this incredible boat.If you’re looking for a very high performance luxury RIB with a strong racing pedigree, it’s well worth a chat.Watch this space for collab with Barantech ….

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Contact me if you want to see working samples of our groundbreaking digital switch panels, or visit us on our stand at IBEX or METS where we will be launching our new CONNECTED BOAT concept with the ability to "build your own" #cruzo panels!

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Massive thanks to FLEW SAILS LIMITED for their amazing service as ever in providing urgent repairs to our jib leech. Impulse has been pushed hard in recent months, what with the Round Island Race, a fast Channel crossing plus two rather spicy trips gusting 30 knots in the past week or so. mark Flew’s responsiveness, fast turnaround and professional service - all delivered with a smile - is second to none 🙏

Can’t wait!!!

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What a treat to wake up to this morning at Newtown!!

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Lovely catching up with Marine Industry News’s Lyndsay McClay yesterday aboard Impulse 😀⛵️ We were blessed with classic Solent conditions on the water - a blustery SW F5 - for a beat over to The Island, where we met Cowes Yacht Haven Manager and fellow British Marine member Daniel Jehan for a quick bite, followed by a blistering downwind blast back to base in Gosport.Plenty to talk about, what with the upcoming boat show season nearly upon us and many other industry events lining up in the calendar. Thanks guys 🙏

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