THE defunct first Liverpool Boat Show is to be re-branded as the “Spring on the Waterfront” event for this year.

Liverpool City Council is pulling out all the stops to stage a scaled-down replacement version of the boat show over the same dates of April 29 to May 8.

Liverpool City Council leader Cllr Joe Anderson and Liverpool Vision chief executive Max Steinberg yesterday hosted the first of weekly meetings for all interested local parties to build a new programme.

While the down-sized event will lack the major boat sellers and exhibitors, it will retain the peripheral activities.

The event will include nine tall ships, Liverpool Kindred Yacht Clubs regattas, Liverpool Comedy Festival, Liverpool Shanty Festival and a Shanghai Expo exhibition.

Spring on the Waterfront is essentially a holding event, in an attempt to keep options open for a full-blown boat show in 2012 or 2013. Although Liverpool City Council was not running the boat show, its disappearance created a large economic hole.

Hotels, bars, restaurants, retailers and attractions had been told Liverpool Boat Show would bring in 300,000 visitors and £30m.