Who are we?: I, Dave Knowles have worked as a director/editor for the BBC, ITN, Southern Television and Channel 4.

My passion for boating was so strong that, despite running my own production company that produced 60 programmes for Channel 4's "Old Country" with the legendary Jack Hargreaves, I also run this eBay chandlery.

I have had an interest in boats for since childhood when I helped my dad build a 12 foot boat at night school. Eventually in April 2002 I took the plunge and became the proud owner of a 7 meter Cleopatra cabin cruiser.

Having bought the Cleopatra which I renamed "Dream Catcher" I wandered how many more of these boats built in the 1960-70s in Essex were still around so I decided to setup a web site for owners of Cleopatra boats, www.mycleopatra.co.uk. This immediately, much to my surprise, attracted owners from all over the world, who like me were looking for advice and spare parts.

Within a year the site had grown to a size that meant many of the users felt they should contribute to the running costs. I was unsure about this and decided instead to start a chandlery called MyCleopatra-chandlery, the idea being that the profits would be used to cover the site costs.

Unfortunately it didn't really work so in July 2004 I decided to give eBay a try along side MyCleopatra - chandlery web shop. Having bought the name TheBoatJumble.co.uk I decided to trade under this name but this caused confusion to my buyers as I was initially selling non boat items on eBay and therefore bought TheJumbleSales.co.uk and changed it to this name. I still use this as my registered eBay name but since shutting the MyCleopatra chandlery web shop and moving the items to an eBay shop, once again I have started using The Boat Jumble name again. The Boat Jumble almost exclusively sells chandlery items world wide and as you can see from the feedback has quickly become a firm favorite to our customers but this has taken a lot of learning what our buyers need.

In the early days I found it hard knowing what would sell and what wouldn't. I therefore was very cautious on how I bought, something that I still am. One thing I always do when looking at a new products is to make sure that it is something I believe in and would happily use myself. This has meant that I have often turned down the chance of sell items due to not wanting unhappy customers.

Unfortunately these don't always work out, for instance solar vents are very popular, but I have stock some toilet extractor fans which are a brilliant design and should sell very well but I have sold none. They extract the smells from around the bowl and push them out the overflow pipe.

They were on Tomorrow's World an number of years ago and the distributor had some left over so I bought them.

One of my recent products is the Cobb BBQ which due to it's design is ideal for use on a boat. This came about after I bought one at my local Garden Center. I was so impressed with it that I decided to track down the importer and add it to my ever growing list of products. Since then it has featured on the BBC2 series The Hairy Bikers Cookbook which has created a lot of interest.

Dream Catcher - My Cleopatra

Another product, Corrosion Block, an active anti corrosion fluid specially designed for the boat industry. This is now used exclusively by Sea Start and has become a firm favorite in the tool box of many boaters. So who buys our products?: Any boat owner or person using a boat, we also sell a lot of the solar vents to all sorts of people. In fact a few months back a builder contacted me and ordered 10 for a building project that he was working on. Service is all important: At The Boat Jumble. I would like to think that the service we provide is second to none. This along with quick delivery, pre and after sales service makes The Boat Jumble preferred by many of our customers. We now find many people automatically return to us when they want something urgently as they can rely on quick and efficient service. We feel it is very important to give good service on eBay and this in turn leads to repeat business. I have at times had emails and feedback from people who are that is surprised at having someone who cares. Each item we ship out contains a flyer showing other items in our store but this will soon be expanded to include a full catalogue.

We have also started a newsletter which will be sent out to people who sign up for free.

The Future: The Boat Jumble has continued to expand its stock and this will continue. Our nautical book shop is starting to reasonably well so this is an area worth keeping an eye on. We have started "Merlin's Nautical Notes" which are a light hearted look at the boating world through the eyes of our cocker spaniel, Merlin. He is a seasoned sailor and with careful observation of those around him gives many helpful hints on life on the water.