WHEN the 34th Southampton Boat Show is opened amid the usual fanfare on this Friday there will be one local man who deserves star treatment.

For it was Norman Kemish, now 79, who launched the first Boat Show with his business partner Arthur Gale in September 1969.

Little did they imagine the show, organised by the British Marine Federation, would become a magnet for the boating industry, with exhibitors and crowds attracted from all around the world.

Norman has penned The First Twenty Years of The Southampton Boat Show, to coincide with the slick, multi-million-pound event.

Norman said: "The book tells the story of the many trials and tribulations encountered and overcome, with chapter and verse details on the help received from some and the considerable hostility of others."

Some of the anecdotes make for light reading like a bill for £3,000 for some Army pontoons. It transpired that the Ministry of Defence blamed a secretary who had added an extra nought by mistake.

Both Normon and Arthur ran electrical contracting firms, including one called J E Artman and Partners, and were well known in the regional business world.

But could two electricians run a boat show?

They were influenced by a chap called Bill O'Brien, who persuaded them that they could organise a better boat show than the one in London, which dated back to 1954. What historic port, easily reached by land, air and sea, could be more appropriate than Southampton where ship and boatbuilding had been going on for centuries?

Norman and Arthur, with the backing of various organisations including the Chamber of Commerce, persuaded the great and good to agree to a site at Mayflower Park.

The first boat show, opened by city mayor and alderman Kathy Johnson, an enthusiastic supporter of the project, ran from September 29 to October 4, 1969.

There were 50-odd exhibitors, and that first catalogue, with the cover slogan "See Boats Afloat - At Their Happiest", sold for a shilling.

Journalist Peter Cook writing in Yachts and Yachting, said: "The first Southampton Boat Show may have lacked quantity but the quality was as good as any to be found anywhere in the world and, with what is responsibly claimed to be over 60 per cent of the British pleasure boat trade situated within a 25 mile radius of the town, the Southampton show stands every chance of becoming a popular annual event."

An Echo reporter was more to the point, telling the organisers: "Bloody good show, mate."