Sellers of luxury yachts at the annual London International Boat Show say
they are being affected by the recession.

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 9, 2009) REUTERS -
The London International Boat Show opened on Friday (January 9),
with yacht manufacturers bracing themselves for a slump in sales amid the
growing world economic downturn.

The 10-day event is a key date in the industry's diary when firms
expect to secure a large number of orders. But leading manufacturers admit
that they are having to work far harder to ensure sales.

Samantha Bryant, organiser of the event taking place in London's
Docklands, said the industry was facing a "difficult time" but
insisted there was no reason for manufacturers to be despondent.

"We're getting a steady increase in certain sectors and others
we're not," she said. "It's a difficult time, but we're confident in
the strength of the industry and that we'll get through this difficult time
and come out on top eventually."

Although 130,000 people are expected to attend the ExCeL show in
Docklands, British yacht builders accept that this year far more will just be
window shopping.

One of the country's biggest boat builders, Fairline, recently
announced 275 redundancies to cut costs. Fairline's chief executive officer
Derek Carter said the company had downsized by more than third in an attempt
to stave off financial disaster, but believes that sufficient orders will be
made this year.

"I think it's fair to say that it has affected the business,"
he said. "We operate globally, so we're in pretty much all markets that
take leisure craft and there has been an affect, and that affect has meant
that we have downsized the business by about 35 per cent from its peak in the
early part of 2008. So having taken all those steps we're now fit for 2009 and
we're receiving orders that match that production rate."

British manufacturer Sunseeker International has avoided job cuts but
halved its production of boats at the lower end of the market. Sales manager
Sear Robertson described the market as "tough."

He said: "It's certainly a tough market. I think all of us are
seeing that, I think, world-wide the manufacturers are seeing that, but there
are definitely clients still there. I think we have to work harder as a
company and as a group to get the product right, set into the right areas, and
really make sure the sizing, the package that we can deliver, is correct.
There's a market still there, but it's just that much tougher to get hold of
the clients."

Vistors to the show said they believed vistor numbers were down on
previous years. "It's a lot quieter than it normally is. The smallest
I've known it for years," said Brian Wright.

Rod Fulche, who was looking to spend up to 80,000 pounds (122,225 US
dollars) on a boat, agreed, saying that the credit crunch was putting off many
potential buyers.

Dutch boat enthusiast Tom Denboer, disagreed. He said: "Is there
an economic crisis? Who's saying that? That's the question because I don't
believe there is."

The boat show is in its 55th year and will run until January 18.