Hanseboot 2009 – Fit For The Future, With A Brilliant Success Story

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50 hanseboot events in 49 years – the water sports industry is meeting again in Hamburg from 24 October to 1 November. hanseboot 2009 presents "boating life" with a more varied programme than ever before, confidently pursuing its strategy as the excitement show for water sports. This half-centenary Hamburg International Boat Show features some 700 exhibitors from 30 nations, presenting around 1000 boats and yachts, including numerous firsts, and international innovations in equipment and accessories. More than ever before, hanseboot is becoming the exhibition for special yachts and boats, for individual boats, classic yachts, radical racing yachts, and much more.

The Partner Region of the 50th hanseboot is the Balearic Islands, with Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera presenting their cultural diversity and watersports tourist attractions. The islands want to develop new target groups and are investing in public harbour facilities and environmental protection projects.

The hanseboot arena in Hall B5 will be the core of a new action area, with a show stage and a large water basin, bringing watersports to life in all their facets – with a programme that includes sailing and surfing, canoes and kayaks, and the new trend sport Stand Up Paddle Surfing.

The in-water hanseboot presents boats and yachts in their element. For the first time large sailing and motor yachts will moor in Sandtorhafen in front of a backdrop of Hamburg's new HafenCity district. A shuttle bus will be in operation, linking the fair site with the harbour.

After the successful start last year, the Hamburg International Boat Show will become a watersports campus again with the hanseboot academy. There are some 250 places available on the programme of compact courses and seminars run by various watersport schools.

Anniversary campaigns: "Kids go free!" – Children and young people up to the age of 15 years have free admission to the 50th hanseboot. The day ticket has been changed to the Comeback Ticket, which costs EUR 13 (concessions EUR 11). This tickets entitles the holder to admission again from 15:00 onward on any subsequent day. Visitors who buy tickets online at www.hanseboot.de by 30 September participate in the Big Anniversary Lottery, with a chance of winning a one-week sailing tour of the Balearic Islands as the first prize.

hanseboot – "the mother of all boat shows"
hanseboot has the longest tradition of all German boat shows, informing the interested public and the experts of trends and innovations in the sector for nearly five decades. The Hamburg Boat Show developed from very small beginnings to become the most important event of its kind in Northern Europe, with high international standing. The first Boat Show in Hamburg was held by Hamburg's boat builders at the end of the 1950s. At the time it was still an outdoor event, held at a pier on Lake Alster between Neuer Jungfernstieg and Lombardsbrücke, and the organisers were not really satisfied – the spring boat show was spoiled by Hamburg weather.

After this battering from the weather, the boat builders approached the Hamburger Fair company (which was still called Planten un Blomen Exhibition Park at the time), to put their show under a roof and out of the rain. The "1st Federal Trade Fair – Sports and Utility Boats" opened on 12 January 1961. This date marks the birth of hanseboot. It was organised by the German Boat and Ship Builders Association (DBSV), which was created in 1956 as a joint organisation of artisanal builders of boats, yachts and ships. It attracted 75 exhibitors from Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, presenting 65 boats in one exhibition hall with 3, 400 square metres. They brought 25,000 visitors to the first Hamburg Boat Show. That also convinced the Trade Fair management, which took on the role of organiser from the next year onwards. The DBSV is still a concept supporter of hanseboot today.

News of the success of the Hamburg Boat Show spread quickly within the industry. The first event presented only boats, but in the subsequent years there were more and more manufacturers and suppliers of accessories and equipment, canoe and surfboard suppliers, and representatives of the diving and charter industries. By the time of the second event, the exhibition space was already increased to three halls, and visitors numbers rose rapidly to 60, 000. The amount of space was doubled again for the third Hamburg Boat Show. For the first time, it also included international exhibitors from twelve different countries.

In 1971 the organisers held two "German International Boat Shows" at the Fair site, in January and then again in October, to secure the ideal order and premiere date in autumn, without leaving a gap of about a year and a half. In 1985, after the October event was long established as the ideal ordering opportunity, the Hamburg Boat Show underlined its new, successful course with a new name – "hanseboot". The name combines reference to the Hanseatic tradition with a modern exhibition concept. Since 1991, visitors have also been able to see boats and yachts in their element in the hanseboot harbour.

With 50 events in 49 years, the Hamburg International Boat Show has become an established event in the international boat show calendar. hanseboot 2009 will be held from 24 October to 1 November, and is open at both weekends (Saturday and Sunday in each case) from 10:00 to 18:00 and Monday to Friday 10:00 to 19:00, at the Hamburg Fair site and Sandtorhafen in the HafenCity district.

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