I barely know where to start. I am back in the DeckHardware Warehouse already and cannot believe how fast it went. This will be a little longer than usual as I try to recall so much of what happened whilst away.
It was fantastic to be able to spend just over 24hrs with the team at Allen Brothers. Thanks to those who came out to dinner and made me feel welcome. An extra special thanks to Liz and Graham who made me feel so welcome. When we represent suppliers in Australia the relationship between companies is so important. As well as of course knowing how they do things and knowing a little more about the behind the scenes of the company. Allen celebrated a massive milestone at METSTRADE so it was great to hear more about their story.
The latest Allen Catalogue is now online and it is great to see new product being released. The Allen range has been a wonderful edition and it is nice to work with another Family Business who are working hard to continue to develop and adapt to the changing sailing scene.
After the quick visit to Allen I headed to Frankfurt for the weekend not being able to spend too long away everything was super short. It is so nice to have a “home base” in Europe. Once again my trip coincided with Thom’s Birthday this time he turned 9! He was well aware that next time he will be double figures. It has gone too fast! Marty and Marlene were such a big part of the Animus days and it is always so special to spend some time with the two of them, their three fantastic kids and Marlene’s Parents.
Jake showed he is definitely part Aussie having multiple vegemite toasts in one sitting hahaha. It is also nice now the kids are getting older that they remember me each trip. It is a number of years since they came out to AUS as a family and we caught up on the Lake. So it is nice to be able to catch up and just hang out.
The Weekend was over and before I knew it I was at the Train station with Marty who was heading off to work away for the week. In the car on the way there it said -2.5°c. Seriously… No offence Marty although it was great to catch up my happier memories with you involve shorts and a t-shirt sailing hahaha.
This time in Amsterdam I was staying somewhere different to previous trips, on the Tram line rather than walking distance or Train to the RAI. Somewhere in between suppliers to make it easier! Day one at METS was seriously one of the busiest I have seen. I managed to catch up with a number of suppliers and checked out what else was on show. It was one of those days that I didn’t even have time to stop for lunch although when I was on the Forespar stand they did offer me some that I didn’t get around to eating oops. Before I knew it the time was 7:30pm and the email to back home was getting lengthy about the days news and I was getting more than a little hungry.
The best part about METS is catching up with our suppliers especially the ones we have worked with now for over a decade. Bill from Forespar is one who has made it out to AUS and seen where we are and what we do. He has been a big part of our journey and it is always great to catch up. Along with Bill I managed to catch up with Dayl also from Forespar and Will and Fred from Schaefer for dinner. It was great to see the friendships between these two companies and shows why we enjoy working with them.
METS is a chance to find out what is new, what is yet to be announced and industry news. Fitting all this into just three days is always epic and of course a good reason for a coffee catch up, meal or a drink. This year was no exception!
It was so good to see Mal Page there who was in town for some meetings and his very first METS. It was great to catch up in person! You can imagine the number of topics we tried to cover in this short time. That is the problem with being friends for so long and both involved in the sport and industry.
This time I decided to fly out of Amsterdam in the evening rather than lunch time Friday to just give myself a little more time to make sure I had made notes on everything before flying haze sets in… With time to kill I then headed to their Maritime Museum. This is seriously one of the best ideas yet! As someone who loves the history of our sport I was in awe of the range of Sextants, Maps etc on display. Seriously incredible and worth doing for any sailor who has a few hours in Amsterdam.
As I sit here back at my desk I look at the pile of catalogues I have brought back that still need sorting through! A few of them have now been loaded to the DeckHardware website. With new ones from Allen, LIROS, Blue Performance online.
The next two weeks are going to be big as we celebrate 10 years of my family owning DeckHardware. Dad has been writing some blog posts lately on his sailing history as a way of showing how we ended up here. Stay tuned for a little history from Mum and I also!
Time to get back to it. There is so much new product to make sure is on our website and plenty coming soon that I got a sneak peak of at METS.
