Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Motor Boat & Yachting

We have been impressed with Parker for some time and are confident it will go with our other dealerships Boats.co.uk has been appointed a dealer for Parker Boats, a manufacturer of outboard-powered sport, leisure and fishing boats. The arrangement comes into force immediately with Boats.co.uk exhibiting six of the new Parker Boats at the London Boat Show in January. Parker Boats is a subsidiary of UK Company AH Parker & Sons (GB) Ltd, although the latest generation of craft are manufactured in Poland. The boats range from the Parker 630, a 6.1m dayboat, through to the 11m Parker Monaco. The current UK dealer, Sussex Boat Shop Chichester, will continue to handle the brand in Hampshire and Sussex, while Boats.co.uk will deal with sales and service on the east coast, West…

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? COLD DIP Seventy hardy souls took part in the Ledostav festival of winter swimming by the Trubetskoy Bastion, St Petersburg, Russia. A new adventure play park is to be built at Fambridge Yacht Haven, providing a facility for marina berth holders and visitors. The playground, which will be opened in the spring, will include a range of equipment and apparatus for children aged 3-16. As expected, there is a nautical theme to the park, including a ship and a crow’s nest. The playground will overlook the River Crouch and the farmland around Fambridge Yacht Haven. “We want to make Fambridge Yacht Haven a great destination for boaters and visitors of all generations,” said Danyal Adams, the marina manager.…

An amended bill to the Greek circulation tax is likely to become law following discussions between the Greek Marina Association and the country’s parliament, according to the Cruising Association. This could mean that boat owners will only be charged when they leave port. Two years ago, the government introduced a new tax that caused many boat owners to leave Greek waters. That tax has not yet been implemented and discussions have been ongoing to reduce the tax and make it fairer. Chris Robb, a member of the CA, who has been campaigning on behalf of all those cruising in Greece, said, “During the summer, the bill went back to parliament with a new charge rate of €10 per metre above 12m, raised from €8, despite the iniquity of a huge…

HIGHLIGHTS • The amount of glass • 40-knot performance • Three or four cabins Sunseeker Predator 74 Düsseldorf Stand 6/B61 Two new Predators will be making their debuts at Düsseldorf and the new flagship of the range is the 75ft (23m), 53-tonne Predator 74. Despite its size, the 74 is a true performance boat, capable of 40 knots with the largest twin MAN V12 1,900hp engine option. Your local fuel pump operator will be thrilled. Away from the throttles, the exterior structure appears to be made of almost as much glass as GRP. The topsides, saloon and roof are full of the stuff, which should make for a spectacularly bright interior. A main deck that opens out into the cockpit gives unbroken access and a lovely flow of air through the…

“The driver raised his hat, turned to port and glided back up the canal towards the slipway before driving off down the lane” During November, we were in Brittany for some belated winterising. The Rance valley was amazingly mild, with plenty of sunshine to cheer the scene. So on a beautiful glassy morning, with most jobs done and dusted, we couldn’t resist a final foray on the river – the last before Christmas blotted out normal life. Slipping out from Plouër’s marina, I curved upstream through the secret upper reaches of the Rance. It was a couple of hours before HW, ideal for meandering up to Châtelier lock and its timeless canal basin. There was hardly a soul about. Even Mordreuc village seemed deserted and a sleepy west bank hamlet…

The far west end of the Mediterranean has an aura of expectation and transition. Passing through the Strait of Gibraltar in either direction, you feel a sense of new experiences waiting round the next headland. Outside this famous shipping gap is the restless Atlantic, beckoning adventurers towards empty horizons. Inside stands the stunning rocky outcrop of Gibraltar which, together with Mount Sidi Musa at the tip of Morocco, forms the classical gateway to the Middle Sea – one of the great Pillars of Hercules in Greek mythology Gibraltar is a fantastic limestone anomaly opposite the hot Spanish hillsides of Algeciras, towering 1,400ft above the blue waters of a spectacular bay. At its south tip, the red and white lighthouse on Europa Point is a strategic and romantic landmark for countless…

We keep her in Elmhaven Marina on the tidal river Medway. It’s a lot more budget friendly than some marinas I’m 44 years old, married with one teenage daughter. We bought our first proper boat four years ago and truth be told, it was a bit of a disaster. Constant mechanical problems meant we didn’t get as much use out of it as hoped, so two years ago we upgraded. Our dream boat had always been a Fairline Turbo 36 so when we spotted a 1989 model for sale with TBS at Penton Hook, we had to make a cheeky offer of £48,000 against the asking price of £65,000. It was accepted, subject to no quibbling over any minor issues found in the survey. We keep her in Elmhaven Marina…

My current boat is a 2007 Sealine SC29 with twin 160hp Volvo D3s that I imported from the UK four years ago. It had one owner from new and just 120 hours logged on the engines. It cost £75,000 to buy and a further £3,000 to transport it to Sweden. It was worth buying in the UK because there was a much larger range of boats to choose from than in Sweden and the purchase price was about 20% lower. It also means that I’m confident I could sell my boat today and still get my money back, avoiding the usual hidden cost of depreciation. I keep the boat about ten minutes away from my home on the east side of Stockholm in the inner archipelago. It takes about 30…

Absolute’s newest flybridge model, the 58 Fly, is having quite the show season and there’s no sign of it abating any time soon. After a global launch in Cannes, it was on to its home show in Genoa where we caught up with it, then a couple of days after our test it was shipped across the Atlantic to make its US debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. It’s a hectic schedule, but Absolute knows the hard yards are necessary as this boat wades into battle with the likes of the Sunseeker Manhattan 52, Azimut 60 and Princess’s new 55. It’s a sector brimming with talented competition and the 58 Fly needs to make its presence felt. We edge out of the show to blue skies and calm…

Dark clouds are hanging in a menacing sky as a brisk breeze sighs through the swaying treetops lining the banks of the River Hamble around Mercury Yacht Harbour’s basin. It isn’t an ideal day for boating, and with the wind set to increase, it’s looking likely that we’re going to have the Solent to ourselves. If this boat was a sportscruiser of old, then the prospect of peeping through a flapping letterbox in the canvas canopy and getting the odd soaking might lead you to retire to the warmth of the yacht club and see what the next day brings. However, the modern breed of enclosed hardtop sportscruiser, like the C430, turns this on its head. If, on marginal days, you really fancy getting the boat out and heading for…

Didn’t we have a speedboat/ jetski combo recently? Yes, we did, the Vanqraft VQ16. I’m glad you’re paying attention. There is one very important difference, however (two, if you include the fact that this one doesn’t cost nearly €100,000). Go on, what does this one add? It’s not so much what the Sealver Wave Boat 444 adds as what it subtracts – a proper detachable standalone jetski. It comes apart? Why so? It’s the brainchild of Patrick Bardon, CEO of Sealver, the manufacturer. He dreamed of being able to share his passion of jetskiing with his family. What he needed, he surmised, was a way of easily transforming his ski into a proper boat with room for the whole family. That’s quite ingenious. So how many people can it carry?…

There are no doubt plenty of sound, practical reasons to justify buying a PowerRay, such as checking your sterngear, but let’s face it, you’re just going to use it as an amusing toy when you’re at anchor. Personally, I’ve never had a problem embracing my inner child and I’d certainly be very happy to play with this. It’s a submersible drone, but unlike the flying variety, this one links via a 40m cable that hooks into your smartphone or tablet, recording 4K UHD images to its SD card while streaming real time 1080P into the palm of your hand. You can take 12-megapixel photos too. Incredibly, it’ll dive to 30m, where its built-in headlights will come in handy. It will even tell you the water temperature, its depth and fish…

We turned up at our berth for a weeklong stint on the boat and to our dismay, the tender wasn’t there. Frustrating and slightly bizarre as we had left it upturned on the foredeck and lashed down with multiple lines so there was no way it had been pinched by the weather. The marina office was sympathetic but said there wasn’t much they could do as CCTV doesn’t cover the area and the staff hadn’t seen anything suspicious during their rounds. Without any obvious recourse, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we were likely to be without a tender for the week unless we stumped up for a new one. We rely on the tender a lot where we are and it didn’t look as if the old one…

+ Tremendous nocturnal privacy for a 33ft boat - Not over-imbued with deck space DATA FILE Length 33ft 5in (10.2m) Beam 12ft 0in (3.7m) Draught 3ft 0in (0.9m) Displacement 6 tonnes Fuel capacity 120 gallons (540 litres) Engine Perkins Sabre M135 135hp diesel FOR SALE Bray Marine Sales. Web: www.tbsboats.com Designed by John Bennett and moulded by Aquafibre (it was also used by Broom for its 9/70 back in the ’90s), the hull of the Haines 335 was unusually available in two versions. The ‘Coastal’ is fitted with a single engine and designed to be used for inshore and inland work, and an ‘Offshore’ that was constructed with a much heavier build and fitted with twin engines for, as the name makes clear, predominantly offshore work. INTERIOR Both versions shared…

Email: mbynews@timeinc.com Brunswick Corporation has said it intends to sell Sea Ray, one of the 15 brands that comprise the Brunswick Boat Group. The company, which is based in Illinois, also owns Boston Whaler, Bayliner, Quicksilver and several other boatbuilders. It announced its plans regarding Sea Ray in early December. “Our marine strategy is focused on developing, manufacturing and distributing market-leading products to recreational and commercial marine consumers through our portfolio of engine, boat and parts and accessories businesses,” Mark Schwabero, Brunswick’s chairman and CEO said. Brunswick bought the Tennesseebased Sea Ray in 1986 for $350 million from its founder Connie Ray (after whom the company is named). Ray, a wartime pilot, launched the company in 1959 and was one of the first manufacturers to use glassfibre. He built Sea…

Three new Dark Sky Discovery Sites have been designated in Chichester Harbour. The sites were all identified as excellent places for stargazing due to their levels of darkness, excellent lines of sight and good accessibility. The locations are in West Itchenor, Chidham and Thorney Island. Chichester Harbour Conservancy made the nominations earlier this year and each was approved by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The designations were particularly welcomed because in 2016, the Campaign to Protect Rural England said that the harbour had some of the highest levels of light pollution across England’s 33 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. By raising awareness of the issue, the conservancy hopes such ‘night blight’ can be reversed. Roger Price, the chairman of the conservancy, said, “Preserving our dark skies has so many…

Four leading marine organisations in Malta have strongly denied accusations of wrongdoing in its application of EU rules governing VAT on boats. Pierre Moscovici, EU commissioner for taxation, wrote to the Maltese government complaining about schemes that allow people to lease boats so that they only pay VAT on the proportion of use they enjoy within EU waters. The letter asked that the rules be changed and warned that if they aren’t, the European Commission may launch an infringement procedure that risks incurring heavy financial sanctions. Moscovici has also written to the British government about the Isle of Man’s tax practices on yachts and private jets. Malta Maritime Law Association, Malta Maritime Forum, The Yachting Trade Section of Malta’s Chamber of Commerce and the Superyacht Industry Network Malta deny the…

“A strong onshore wind meant I arrived in Dartmouth decidedly soggy, boat covered in salt – no way to store it for winter” When it comes to something as simple as booking a lift-out so that Smuggler’s Blues 2 can hibernate ashore through the winter, what could possibly go wrong? Pick yard, book date, take boat round. Simple. The yard I chose was Dartside Quay on the River Dart. Last year I’d wintered ashore courtesy of Torbay Council on Brixham harbourside, which was good value but I felt my much more expensive and much larger boat deserved a proper boatyard with a travel lift and facilities like shorepower. The date I chose was Wednesday November 1, which offered an afternoon tide to avoid an early start. Hazel wasn’t working, which…

There is really not a lot to the Vanquish VQ48. The cabin down below is pretty spartan – minimalist, if you prefer – with its white decor, straightforward seats and simple head compartment. In the cockpit and on deck, what you see is absolutely what you get: plenty of places to sit, plus big sunbeds fore and aft, while the engineroom is compact but not so filled with machinery that you can’t get around in there perfectly well. The styling is fiercely fashionable, with its slab-like topsides and emphatic chine flats running all the way forward to a pronounced knuckle half way up that axe bow. What you might not appreciate at first glance, however, is that the Vanquish is also a thoroughly seamanlike vessel. Sure, it has an insanely…

Contrary to all expectations (well, mine at any rate), the editor’s role at Motor Boat & Yachting does not come with a company boat. This means that, horror of horrors, I have to pay for my own boating. As first-world problems go, it’s almost as undignified as having to turn right when boarding an aeroplane. However, with a bit of ingenuity and some creative negotiations with my three brothers it turns out that it is entirely possible to buy and run a thoroughly enjoyable dayboat on a relatively modest budget. Truth be known, we’ve been running a boat together since we were teenagers. A small windfall from our grandfather’s will, himself a keen motor boat owner, enabled us to buy our first boat together, a faded diarrhoea-coloured 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte…

Our boating adventure actually started with a holiday home in Bournemouth, which we bought in the late 1990s. Having watched with envy from the packed sands of Bournemouth beach people bobbing around on their own little islands in sand-free isolation, we decided to take the plunge. We became the proud owners of a 17ft White Shark, which we kept in Poole and used to learn the ropes, literally. Having caught the bug, we upgraded to a 26ft Cobra RIB before leaping to a secondhand Fairline Targa 40, then a Bénéteau Monte Carlo 37 before changing to our current boat, a Swift Trawler 34. One reason why the ST34 appealed was because we found ourselves travelling at displacement speeds on the Monte Carlo 37 so often, we might as well bite…

“Not a problem!” The young man beamed at me. Of course it wasn’t a problem. Why would it be? I was in a coffee shop. And from a menu, whose range of choices would have put an airliner’s parts list to shame, I had passed over the option of a Fairtrade Bolivian medium-dark roast with Nepalese yak cream and a dash of hand-ground Tahitian vanilla seed syrup, in favour of a medium Americano. A plain black coffee, in other words. No milk, no sugar… nothing. He had the technology. It filled the wall behind him, hissing and burbling, with enough valves and gauges to control the main engines of an aircraft carrier. And he had obviously done ‘The Training’, because his next question was, “Is there anything else I can…

Way back in 1995, Princess launched its then-new 65. It was a very fine boat, but the thing I remember most about it was the television in the midships master cabin. Press a button by the bed and a huge (in volume if not screen size) CRT TV would lower itself slowly through the ceiling: it was all very James Bond. It’s fair to say that flatscreen televisions were a total game changer for boat installations when they were introduced in the late 1990s. Suddenly you had something that could be hung on a bulkhead rather than needing a cabinet with 2ft of space behind it. The rise and fall mechanism that allowed these new wonders of technology to be concealed at the back of sideboards or behind settees even…

Locks are used to move boats up or down to different water levels and due to swirling currents and winds, can prove tricky to negotiate, particularly for the less experienced boater. Locks generally come in two varieties; those where you tie up to the lock wall and have to adjust your lines as your boat rises or falls, and those which have a floating pontoon inside that rises and falls with you. Many locks are self-service, so consult the local guidebook for details of how they operate. On approach, be ready with suitable lines and fenders – the latter may well need to go at gunwale height. If the lock is manual, you may need to come alongside the waiting pontoon and set the lock to allow your boat to…

Our Market Expert Email: mby@timeinc.com in association with COPPERCOAT The strongest copperbased antifouling available with a proven lifespan of 10 years from a single application. To see what our customers have to say visit www.coppercoat.com As gestations go, the F380 was certainly the most protracted and painful in Sealine’s history, possibly in any major boatbuilder’s history. A huge amount happened between Sealine first taunting us with renderings of a smart new flybridge cruiser in 2011 and the launch of the F380 at the Düsseldorf boat show in January 2014, not least of which was the entire company slipping into administration in April 2013. For a while, it looked as though we would never see another Sealine. Then, in June that year, the news came that investment company Aurelius AG, owners…

+ An iconic classic - Will need a loving owner DATA FILE Length 30ft 0in (9.1m) Beam 10ft 4in (3.2m) Draught 2ft 6in (0.8m) Displacement 4 tonnes Fuel capacity 40 gallons (181 litres) Engine Perkins 4107 35hp diesel FOR SALE Broom Boat Sales. Web: www.broomboats.com Norfolk Broads-based Broom Marine Group claims to be the oldest production boatbuilder in the country – with some justification, it put out its first boat in 1898, and continued making wooden boats for private and hire company customers. But it was in the 1960s that things changed with the adoption of the newfangled glassfibre, and the first boat Broom built with this wonder material was the Broom 30 in 1965. It was a big hit, with 250 examples built over the following 15 years. INTERIOR…

So there we were, in Cowes, in the dark, with a broken boat that absolutely had to be back at Southampton before the show opened Health and safety is ever improving, including at boat shows where (quite rightly), rigorous processes and checklists are in place before exhibitors are allowed to take boats displayed on the pontoons out for sea trials. In reality, the value of these trials is a little questionable in any case. One very large manufacturer that I was involved with used to run regular sea trials in the last hour or so of business for potential clients, claiming to be just a boat ride away from signing on the dotted. They don’t do it anymore, quietly admitting that hardly any of the many trials ever actually resulted…

The Environment Agency has confirmed that boat registration charges for the waterways it manages will increase in 2018/ 19 by up to 10% in some areas. It said the rises are essential to help deliver a good navigation service. The highest increases are reserved for motor boats kept or used on the Upper Medway (10%) and Anglian waterways (7.5%). Thames-based boats will be hit by a 5.7% increase. Charges for unpowered boats (not houseboats) and those registered with British Rowing or British Canoeing will increase by 7.7%. The Gold Licence, which allows boat owners to cruise on waterways managed by both the Canal and River Trust as well as the Environment Agency, will increase by 3.8%. The new charges will apply from January 1, 2018 on the Thames and from…

A revamped London Boat Show will hope to revive flagging interest when it opens its doors on January 10. The show will feature a new layout with all the main boat stands lined up along the back wall. A shorter fiveday format should also help reduce exhibitor costs, attract more small marine businesses and focus visitor numbers into a narrower time frame. There will also be a greater emphasis on getting into boating, including an all new Boating & Watersports Holiday Show within the same exhibition hall at ExCeL and an inland boating section. So far the signs look positive, with 23% of the exhibitors being new to the show. The Boardwalk display of smaller boats is also proving popular with over 200 craft already confirmed, an increase on last…

Norwegian sports clothing company Helly Hansen has signed an agreement to buy Musto, the British sailing and country wear brand. Helly Hansen says it is a strategic acquisition, “complementing its existing leadership position in professional skiing apparel and enhancing its presence in the UK outdoor market.” It has no plans to merge the brands or move the Musto offices to Norway. Helly Hansen is buying the brand from private investors Phoenix Equity Partners and other shareholders. Musto was established in 1964 by Keith Musto, the world-renowned Olympic sailing medallist who identified a gap in the market for high- performance sailing gear. It has been granted two British Royal Warrants and is an official supplier to both the British National Sailing Team and the British Equestrian Federation. Peter Smith, CEO of…

Let’s start with the most enticing part of this new entry-level Barracuda model and that’s the price. We talk about entry-level boats a lot in these pages but the Barracuda 6 is a true starter boat, designed to get families out on the water on a brand new craft for as little cash as possible. How little cash exactly? Our test boat came in at €33,740 including VAT. That, at the time of writing, is a smidgen under £30,000 for a boat with a 115hp 4-stroke outboard and all the basic amenities you need for a day out on the water. You can’t expect to pay that little for a boat and find it drowning in creature comforts and there’s no doubt that the Barracuda 6, in the spec we…

“Curtains twitched and a woman scowled suspiciously as we tied our ropes in the gusting wind” Our naïve plans to cruise the southern waterways of France through winter, it was becoming increasingly obvious, were probably scuppered. We’d heard rumours that parts of the Canal du Midi would close for maintenance, but reliable information was a scarce as chip butties in Paris. The Gallic shrug of the shoulders was about as much confirmation as we were able to get. So we headed up a dead-end branch of the Canal du Rhône a Sète to Beaucaire [in Gard department], which had come highly recommended. As we approached, the canal became more overgrown and unkempt, an ugly, dusty and noisy factory appearing on our port side, looming over us threateningly. Liz and I…

In 2015, we decided to buy a boat to keep somewhere sunny. It needed to be big enough to spends weeks at a time on with the kids, host occasional guests and be moored somewhere with pool and club facilities. Our ideal size was around 50ft and we got lucky when we secured a very nice Ferretti 150 for €110,000 (about £80,000). Mooring Seralia in Mallorca would cost around €18,000 per year – that’s over 15% of the price we paid for the whole boat and doesn’t include electricity or water. So instead, we’re based at MDL’s marina in Sant Carles de la Ràpita on the east coast of Spain halfway between Barcelona and Valencia. Our 15m pontoon berth costs €4,500 per year including electricity and water. The marina has…

After a long gap, I decided a couple of years ago that the time was right to invest in another boat. With limited finances, I concluded that a boat share would be the best way to buy and run the kind of boat that I was looking for. Having previously boated in the UK, I wanted to keep the new boat in the Med, either in mainland Spain or the Balearics. While there were a few existing boat syndicates with shares available in Mallorca, they were all for 50ft-plus boats and I was concerned that fuel and mooring costs would be prohibitive. So, I decided to start my own small syndicate and started looking for partners and a Fairline in the 30-40ft size range. Finding suitable partners and the right…

We’ve made it. After 103 days, 1,723km, 172 locks, 1,250 litres of diesel, 216 baguettes, 48 kilos of cheese, 562 cups of coffee, 366 nappies, 97 ice creams, three aqueducts and two divorce-level arguments, our floating family home motored out of the canal at Sète and into the Mediterranean sea. It all started at the beginning of last year when my wife was heavily pregnant with our second daughter. With a year of maternity leave ahead of her and me being self-employed, we were keen to use this opportunity for a family adventure. Initially we thought about buying a camper van and touring around Europe by road but a friend suggested cruising through the French canals to the Med by boat instead. I wasn’t convinced we could find a boat…

After the excitement of running the gauntlet of a military firing range and the overfalls of Ramsey Sound on our route south to Milford Haven, it’s a relief to spend a day exploring south-west Wales by car. Pembroke’s spectacular 12th-century castle captivates us, while the small seaside town of Tenby enchants us. The hilly terraces, the colourful houses, the old town walls, the quaint harbour, the rural setting and even the palm trees create an almost Mediterranean vibe. Take a look at the picture on the next page – all it needs is a bit more sunshine and it could be Italy. Our next port of call is Swansea and for a change, we have good weather and light winds from behind to speed us on our way. I call…

We featured Riva’s new Boutique Collection of branded merchandise recently, but this newly released sound dock merits a fresh look. Made by Modena-based IXOOST, creators of bespoke audio systems, it is crafted from the actual exhaust manifold of a Formula 1 Ferrari racecar. To this has been added signature Riva styling details, including the highly polished chrome and genuine Riva wood panelling. Compact speakers are mounted inside the pipes, although we’d question whether they can ever match the sonic power of the original engine. As well as selecting your preferred choice of dock to match your smartphone or tablet, you can also link to the unit via Bluetooth. Priced at £30,000 plus VAT, it’s not going to be everyone’s first choice of sound system but it is very individual and…

MBY’S FLEET PRESTIGE 680 ARTEMISIA MARK WEISS, Marina d’Arechi, Italy PRINCESS 67 JENNYWREN MIKE ROTHERY, Sant Carles Marina, Spain DUCHY 27 ALCHEMY PHYLLIS ROCK, Yarmouth, UK FAIRLINE SQUADRON 78 MATCH II JOHN WOLF, Antibes, France FLEMING 65 VENTURE II PHYLLIS ROCK, Yarmouth, UK STEELER PANORAMA FF53 SYMPHONY PETER CHESTER, the Netherlands SUNSEEKER 86 HARD 8 GEMMA HARRIS, Lymington, UK JEANNEAU LEADER 805 SMUGGLER’S BLUES 2 NICK BURNHAM, Torquay, UK PRESTIGE 500S BREAKING BAD NIGEL PICKIN, Port Hamble, UK JEANNEAU NC14 DIANA JOHN BRUNYATE, Port Solent Marina, UK KARNIC BLUEWATER 2250 BOHEMIAN GIRL HUGO ANDREAE, Poole, UK DALE NELSON CLASSIC 45 ARLETTE HARRY HORNBY, Badachro, Scotland PRINCESS 61 BATEAU 9 HARRY METCALFE, Port Saint Jean, France NORDHAVN 46 ENVOY LAURIE CRANFIELD, the Med FLEMING 55 PLAY D’EAU PIERS DU PRÉ, Guernsey,…

One of the best things I fitted to my previous boat was a marine stereo and four cockpit speakers. As something of an audiophile, I was keen to try and install something a little special on my new boat. The Jeanneau Leader 805 comes with a car-type stereo installed in the cabin and four speakers, two inside and two small ones in the cockpit. I wanted four speakers in the cockpit as per my last boat but quickly realised that since most surfaces are curved, this was going to be difficult. In fact, the only easy solution was a simple swap of the original speakers. I opted for a pair of JL Audio M650- CCX, at 6.5in the smallest of its topend M-Series. In theory, a straight swap; in fact,…

+ That retracting screen – a godsend for low bridges - Lots of canopy DATA FILE Length 33ft 5in (10.2m) Beam 11ft 6in (3.5m) Draught 2ft 11in (0.9m) Displacement 5.3 tonnes Fuel capacity 103 gallons (469 litres) Engines Nanni 4.340 130hp diesel FOR SALE Bray Marine Sales. Web: www.tbsboats.com The Sheerline 1020 actually started life as the Capriole 1020 – it’s essentially the same boat with a few subtle tweaks and changes. But one thing that was definitely retained in the transition was the folding screen. The ability to drop the windscreen is far from unique, but what’s special is that in this instance, it’s powered. Prod the button and the whole lot drops into self-draining slots within the cockpit coaming. In tandem with the folding bimini, it lowers the…

+ Broom quality and very manageable - As long as it has a bow thruster DATA FILE Length 30ft 0in (9.1m) Beam 10ft 5in (3.2m) Draught 2ft 6in (0.8m) Displacement 4.0 tonnes Fuel capacity 35 gallons (160 litres) Engine Nanni N4.60 60hp diesel FOR SALE Broom Boat Sales. Web: www.broomboats.com MY CHOICE Four eminently worthy river craft this month. The Sheerline wows with its windscreen – the entire thing retracting at the touch of a button – surely the closest a river boat has ever got to 007 cool? The Haines 335 offers the most sheer cabin space and the privacy of its layout makes it a terrific boat for couples or for families with annoying children. The 1960s Skipper would offer one of the most charismatic boats on the…