BoatLife Live 2022, the brand new four-day boat show, opens its doors to visitors today at the NEC Birmingham. Ocean racer and solo sailor Pip Hare will officially open the event, which will see boats and marine brands exhibiting across the three halls of the NEC.
With an impressive line-up of speakers including transatlantic rowers, SUP record-breakers and author Tom Cunliffe, the live stage is the main attraction at the show, kicking off with a conversation with Pip Hare about her experiences as the 8th woman in history to complete the Vendée Globe.
Also heading up to the show as guest speaker is Katie McCabe, together with her 26’ (7.92m) wooden Morgan Giles designed West Channel One Design FALANDA. Aged just 14, last summer Katie embarked on a successful seven-week solo voyage around Britain, making her the youngest person to complete the trip singlehanded. Katie will be on the stage at 12pm on Saturday 19th February, while FALANDA can be found on stand G68, next to Drascombe and the Thames Traditional Boat Festival.
Next door on stand G62a Adventure Boats will be exhibiting their 9ft clinker-style nesting dinghy for the first time. Now being built by the Drascombe team, the dinghies were previously built by Nestaway and feature in our Grand Designs special on nesting dinghies in our latest issue of WaterCraft, out from tomorrow.
BoatLife Live is open 10am – 6pm daily, 10am – 5pm on Sunday, from 17-20 February 2022. Tickets cost £15 (free to under 15s) and are available from www.boatlifeevents.com