Princess Anne opened Scotland’s Boat Show as it celebrated its 30th anniversary at Kip Marina last weekend.

Despite the autumnal weather many boating enthusiasts visited the event over the three days to experience the many attractions in and around the three pavilions at the largest second hand boat show in the UK.

The show's anniversary celebrations began with an official opening by HRH The Princess Royal on Friday viewing some of the 120 boats on display, touring the exhibitions and viewing the on the water activities that were taking place.

RYA Scotland enabled a series of free sessions in dinghy sailing, yacht cruising, motor cruising, RIB driving and accessible boating which proved extremely popular over the weekend with over 350 visitors getting afloat.

James Allan of RYA Scotland explained: “The success of the Get Afloat experience has been really key for the event and it has been absolutely the perfect stage to bring so many people into the environment of boating and try going on the water in a variety of boats. That facilitated the partnership between Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, the sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae, You & Sea and the Ocean Youth Trust, without whom we couldn’t have provided such experiences.”

A unique powerboating experience for those in wheelchairs could be had aboard the Wheelyboat from the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park centre at Lochwinnoch. It was one of the few vessels Princess Anne happily stepped aboard.

On shore the RYA Scotland pavilion hosted many of the marine trade with RYA staff and volunteers on hand to explain membership, training and to facilitate the experience of boating to the many new to the water at visiting the RYA Scotland stand.

Under the same roof the RYA Scotland stage hosted a series of ‘Ask the Expert’ talks covering topics ranging from technical advice on weather or materials to inspirational cruising stories. A very popular session was with former BBC cameraman, Dylan Winter, who presented on ‘Boating on a budget’.

Largs Model Boat Club also had a demonstration display under one of the tents, while Geraldo's (formerly Sugar and Spice) had a stall in the food and drink area, and Largs marine artist Alastair Houston also had some of his paintings on display.

Photos: Marc Turner, George Munro.