Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Motor Boat & Yachting

It’s a good job I’m not personally in the market for buying a new boat. Having pounded the pontoons at both the Cannes and Southampton boat shows in recent weeks, the sheer number and variety of new craft on display was genuinely overwhelming, even for a seasoned hack like myself. I tie myself into knots trying to work out which pair of deck shoes to spend £60 on let alone trying to decide which boat to spend several hundred thousand pounds of my own (imaginary) money on. It’s ironic, really, given that a big chunk of my job is reviewing boats for other people but without the burden of my own emotions to contend with, it all becomes a lot simpler. The main problem is that I can’t decide what…

When it came to buying my current boat I took a lot of advice from colleagues in the industry and looked at a lot of boats. One friend, an ex-yacht broker of many years’ standing, was adamant that given my budget and requirements (an 8m sportscruiser for circa £50,000), one boat stood head and shoulders over the rest, the Jeanneau 805 Leader. He would indulgently listen to me wax lyrical about the Monterey 250 or Sealine S25 I’d been to see recently before gently steering me back onto the path of righteousness with the words “yes, lovely boat, but what you really want is a Jeanneau 805 Leader”. When I finally got to see one (which involved a trip to Ireland and slightly sinking it – long story), I had…

LOA: 32ft 6in (9.89m) BEAM: 8ft 8in (2.63m) ENGINE: Mercury inboard or outboard from 300-600hp TOP SPEED: 45-73 knots PRICE: from £254,356 inc VAT CONTACT: www.cormate.co.uk Tucked into an unusually verdant corner of the Southampton boat show, the new Cormate 32 looked even more colourful than expected. Resplendent in its turquoise gelcoat offset by a silver boot topping and golden teak rubbing strip, it stood out like a multi-coloured jewel among the ranks of white production craft. It wasn’t just the colour scheme that set it apart. With its reverse-angled windscreen, subtly contoured topsides, voluptuous flared bow and razor sharp 24.5° deep vee hull, it offered a tantalising alternative to the ever increasing number of Axopar wannabes. The other significant difference is that the Chase 32 derives much of its…

LOA: 43ft 11in (13.10m) BEAM: 12ft 7in (3.85m) ENGINES: twin Volvo Penta 440s TOP SPEED: 38-40 knots PRICE: from £572,000 inc VAT CONTACT: www.nordstar.fi Nord Star has been in business for the best part of a century so it’s no great surprise that the Cruiser variant of its 42+ feels so very well sorted. While the likes of Sargo and Targa tend to use relatively wide side decks, the Nord Star trims them in a bit to generate extra volume in the saloon. On the base “Voyager” model, that’s used for quite a squat dinette that juts out into the space, forcing the long starboard galley to taper as it runs aft. But here on the Cruiser model, the dinette is longer and narrower. It runs unbroken all the way…

LOA: 29ft 7in (9.02m) BEAM: 10ft 4in (3.15m) ENGINES: single 300 to twin 300hp outboards TOP SPEED: 40-50 knots PRICE: from £155,361 ex VAT CONTACT: www.flipperboats.fi Having tested Flipper’s 900 DC in Lymington a few months ago, we were extremely keen to visit the Flipper boat show stand to investigate a sister model that, on the face of it, appeared to make even more sense. And just as we had hoped, the new 900 ST (Sport Top) tweaks the DC’s classical Nordic weekender layout in some really productive ways. For a start, there’s the big island sun lounger at the aft end. It can be extended right out over the engine well for plenty of sunbathing space and it also hinges open at the starboard side to reveal a playful…

Duchess is a 2002 Wim Van der Valk Continental 1800, which I bought secondhand in the Netherlands and brought back to the UK in 2017 (See MBY Sept 2020). The delivery trip gave me a taste for cruising in the Netherlands and I always promised that one day we would return there for a family cruise. This is the year we decided to make it happen. The plan was to spend a couple of weeks on the delta taking in the Veerse Meer, Oosterschelde, Grevelingenmeer and Haringvliet, but first we needed to find a suitable weather window for crossing the Channel and choose an easy Schengen port of entry for the paperwork. July 2023 was the wettest on record, with heavy winds to match, and I was beginning to wonder…

The second you set eyes on the Viggo C10, it’s evident that this is not your typical sportscruiser. From its untreated aluminium construction to its slender deep-vee hull and spartan facilities, it seems to defy just about every design trend going. That’s because Viggo is not particularly fussed about anything as ephemeral as design trends, its primary interest is in building boats that get you from A to B quickly, safely, reliably and comfortably year after year with the minimum of fuss and whatever the weather. Everything else takes second billing, even cost. It’s a brave call in a marketplace that seems to prioritise luxury, space and bang for buck over almost everything else, but Viggo isn’t chasing mass market numbers. It only builds around 30 craft a year at…

One of the joys of boating is the wide variety of different craft on offer. Whereas the vast majority one engine and therefore drive in roughly the same way, boats are much more varied in terms of size, style, hull design and means of propulsion. As a result they tend to handle very differently too, so making the switch from something like a single-engined planing sportsboat to a twin-engined semi-displacement cruiser requires a certain amount of readjustment from the skipper too. So how do you go about doing that? For me, having a clear understanding of what’s happening when and why is vital to grasping what steering and throttle inputs are needed. This particular boat is a perfect example. It’s a brand new Dale Classic 37 with a semi-displacement hull…

Windy began building boats 57 years ago and while it hasn’t yet built as Heinz has varieties, the company’s back catalogue does encompass a formidable range of popular sportscruisers such as the Ghibli, Tornado, Bora and Grand Mistral. In common with its Windy siblings, the subject of this report is named after a wind: the Zonda, a dry wind which howls around the eastern slopes of the Andes at 150mph. And you can see what Windy had in mind when they named this boat! Admittedly, this 31ft weekender can’t actually match the speed of its Latin American namesake but it’s nonetheless a boat with the performance and handling to take your breath away. When we reviewed the 31 Zonda as a new boat back in 2011, our writer described it…

BUILT 2019 PRICE £ 139, 995 A doyen of cuddy cabin designs from way back when, Cranchi has a rich back catalogue of boats, like the 24 Turchese and 28CSL, so if anyone was primed to tap back into the cuddy cabin market, it was this Italian builder. Launched in 2019, the E26 comes in two forms. The Rider is an open-bow outboard engine version to tap into the modern zeitgeist. But the Classic is a proper old-school cuddy cabin inboard engine sportster. INTERIOR The whole point of cuddy cabins is to have a small cabin beneath the foredeck, so it’s simply a fact rather than a criticism that there isn’t much to be found below decks. All you get is a crawlin space with seating and infills to create…

BUILT 2014 PRICE £ 59,950 Geographically, Finland isn’t actually part of Scandinavia but in boat building terms, boats from Finland fall squarely into the practical, high quality, ultra-capable subset we call Scandinavian boats. Dating back to 1972, the name Yamarin derives from the fact that its parent company was a Yamaha outboard engine dealer. Rather than having to buy an outboard engine and then find a boat to put it on, it made sense to provide customers with a complete boating package. And since the boats would all have Yamaha engines, the decision was made to combine Yamaha with Marine, thus creating Yamarin. There are three model ranges: SC are open boats with a side console, BR are open bow riders and the cuddy cabin boats sail under the DC…

When MBY reader James Leaver decided to buy a 59ft Van der Valk instead of a holiday home in 2017, he promised his family that one day he would take them all on a cruise back to its country of origin. This summer he made good on his promise, crossing the Channel from Eastbourne to Nieuwpoort, Belgium, then on into the waterways of Holland. As this photograph shows, boats are an integral part of Dutch life so the facilities for visiting craft are superb with berths right in the heart of many towns. These are in Middelburg, and the Leavers’ boat Duchess is in the centre ofthe action (in front of the tall white house). Turn to p50 for the full story. SEE MORE mby.com/bigpic…

SMOKING LOBSTER COWES Like many south coast boaters I’m a big fan of Cowes. However, I have to say that up until now I’ve often been underwhelmed with the food I’ve found on offer. Now, I’m pleased to report that’s all changed, for on the busier western side of town is an excellent restaurant named Smoking Lobster. Located at the point where the High Street becomes Shooters Hill, readers familiar with Cowes may remember the premises as Tiffins, which in its time was a perfectly acceptable café. And while the exterior doesn’t look too different today that’s where the similarities end, for Smoking Lobster’s fare is positioned very much towards the fine dining end of the culinary spectrum. The restaurant describes its offering as “local island produce and seafood reimagined…

LOA: 39ft 8in (12.1m) BEAM: 11ft 6in (3.50m) ENGINE: Single 60-115hp diesel TOP SPEED: 8 knots PRICE: from £249,245 inc VAT CONTACT: www.braymarinesales.com Balt Yachts is likely to be one of the largest boat manufacturers you’ve never heard of. Based in Poland, it’s been making boats for brands like Jeanneau, X-Yachts, Quicksilver and Cormate for years but now it has branched out with a range of its own. The Balt 37 Grand is its largest offering to date, and instead of trying to compete with upmarket European rivals, it’s an unashamedly value-conscious package. Costing a whisker under £250,000 inc VAT, it must be one of the best value 40ft motor boats on sale today. That buys you a remarkably spacious two-cabin, two-bathroom cruiser that four people could comfortably live on…

LOA: 40ft 7in (12,40m) BEAM: 11ft 4in (3.46m) ENGINES: 2 x 300-400hp Mercury outboard or Volvo D4 sterndrives TOP SPEED: 40+ knots PRICE: from £386,689 inc VAT CONTACT: www.nimbus.se Nimbus has taken a while to develop the Weekender version of its original 40ft T11 but it has used that time to good effect, creating a boat that is more practical, more versatile and even more appealing than the fast but focused Tender version. Launched simultaneously at Cannes and Southampton, it is a boat that will be just as happy on the Côte d’Azur as it will in our more northern climes. The starting point is the same efficient-running twin-stepped hull, but a new deck moulding not only creates more space and headroom down below but also a more user-friendly cockpit.…

LOA: 32ft 10in (10.00m) BEAM: 9ft 10in (3.00m) ENGINES: Twin Suzuki DF325 outboards TOP SPEED: 55 knots PRICE: From £250,000 inc VAT CONTACT: www.island-ribs.co.uk When we spoke to Alex Cottle, director at Island RIBs, he expressed doubt over the phrase “adventure boat”, speculating that true adventure involves far more doubt, exposure and hazard than an afternoon picnic at Newtown Creek, and his boats absolutely reflect that. So if boating for you is about cupholders, bench seats and pop-up TVs, you’d best look elsewhere because anything that compromises strength, reliability, practicality or longevity is conspicuous by its absence. This commercial-spec platform is instead designed to foreground the strengths that the traditional RIB owner values – a soft, dry ride, a robust build, a quick-draining deck and prodigious load-carrying capacity. The forward…

Finally, we are commencing the last leg of this year’s adventure, heading north up the eastern coast of mainland Greece. The good news is that the infamous Meltemi wind, which blows with monotonous regularity from July to September, is taking a break, giving us the chance to make a dash for the Northern Sporades. This archipelago is made up of more than 100 islands, of which the four largest and best known are Skyros, Alonnisos, Skopelos and Skiathos. From Lavrion, southwest of Athens, we set out in perfectly calm waters bound for the southernmost island of Skyros. After rounding the tip of Euboea – the second largest Greek island after Crete – we start the long trek north along Euboea’s mountainous and inhospitable east coast EXPLORING SKYROS We reach Skyros…

When you first set eyes on the new Squadron 58, it feels impressively restrained. While competitor models from Sunseeker, Galeon and Absolute adopt all kinds of dramatic angles, curves and cutaways, there’s a simple purity to the Squadron 58 that feels perfect for a brand whose success has been built more squarely on demonstrable seagoing substance than on tricks of the eye. Huge unbroken glazing sections dominate the superstructure and hull sides. The raked aft struts of the optional flybridge T-Top mirror the angle of the hull windows, and there’s a stark, fuss-free contrast between the black and white that feels very forthright and confident. That’s not to say that the new 58 is without its own share of stylistic spice though, because however you feel about the relative absence…

After years of watching from the sidelines as Mercury, Yamaha and Suzuki fought for supremacy in the battle of the big outboard engines, Honda has finally joined the fray. Its new BF350 is a state-of-the-art 350hp V8 engine boasting a raft of features designed to give it a technological edge over its competitors. The starting point is a new 5-litre V8 block built solely for marine use. With the exception of a handful of racing car engines, this is the first V8 Honda has developed for sale and its most powerful outboard yet – its previous flagship only mustered 250hp. Developing a true 350hp at 5500rpm measured at the propeller shaft (some manufacturers quote max power at the engine output, ignoring frictional losses incurred in the gearbox), it is designed…

Seasickness has tainted my wife’s enjoyment of boating. We addressed this on our previous boat by fitting Humphree Interceptors. These replace trim tabs and work like a guillotine, coming down parallel to the transom. The blades are short and wide so they don’t need to travel more than a few cms, meaning they are able to adjust quickly, on a wave-to-wave basis. On my current boat (a Mitchell 28 with a semi-displacement hull), I was getting quite a bit of roll in a beam sea, so I needed to help mitigate that. But Interceptors were expensive to buy and I couldn’t fit them myself. And then the new Humphree Lightning system arrived. The motor was contained in the Interceptor itself, there were no big holes to cut in the transom,…

MODEL: Windy 31 Zonda TYPE: Open sportscruiser DESIGNER: Hans J Johnsen HULL TYPE: Deep-vee planing RCD: Category B LOA: 31ft 1in (9.48m) BEAM: 9ft 9in (2.97m) DRAFT: 3ft 7in (1.1m) DISPLACEMENT: 3,900kg FUEL CAPACITY: 517 litres WATER CAPACITY: 100 litres TOP SPEED: 40-50 knots FUEL CONSUMPTION: 1.54 litres per nautical mile @33 knots CRUISING RANGE: 268nm at 33 knots with 20% reserve COSTS & OPTIONS ANNUAL FUEL BURN: 1,525 litres (based on 25 hours at 33 knots and 25 hours at 6 knots) MARINA MOORING: £6,865 (based on £710per m for a Hamble River marina downstream of Bursledon bridge) DATE: 2014 ENGINES: 2 x Volvo Penta D3 220hp LYING: Lymington www.berthon.co.uk DATE: 2012 ENGINES: 1 x Volvo Penta D6 370hp LYING: Swanwick www.bateswharf.co.uk SURVEYOR’S REPORT Windy Boats have carved out a…

BUILT 2011 PRICE £ 79,950 Norwegian company, Marex, builds some of the most sensible motor cruisers on the ocean, specialising in hard-top wheelhouses with manual sliding roofs, big windows and easy-to-deploy canopies. In fact, there’s even a promotional video for the recent Marex 330 Scandinavia that shows the owner putting a fender out! If you can show me just one Sunseeker video where the owner is handling any deck gear, I’d be amazed! And then one day, someone in the Marex design team (I’m presuming) woke up full of existential crisis, drove to work, pausing only to trade his Volvo estate for a Harley Davidson, penned the 270 Estremo, threw it at the company bosses and ran off with Ingrid from accounts. Unsure what to do with this strange apparition…

In 1999 two distinctive boats featured in the new James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. The basic premise was a failed assassination attempt at MI6 from the River Thames, and the gunning platform was a Sunseeker Superhawk 34. But arguably the coolest boat in that sequence was the jetboat that 007 gave chase in. Built by Riddle Marine of Idaho, USA, 15 craft were supplied for filming duties, all powered by 300hp V8 petrol engines which gave them a 50-knot top speed. Simon Crane and Vic Armstrong headed up the ‘Second Unit’ stunt team, and they soon discovered that these powerful little craft offered a wealth of opportunity. Jetboats produce a constant flow of water, the speed of flow and direction allowing the boat to manoeuvre rather than…

1 BRUNSWICK TAKES ON AXOPAR US giant Brunswick has launched a new boat brand to complement its portfolio of boats from Quicksilver, Sea Ray, Bayliner and Boston Whaler. Called Navan, it will compete with the likes of Axopar, Saxdor and Ryck. The first two models were unveiled at the Cannes boat show in September. The Navan S30 open and C30 cabin are based on the same twin-step hull platform with near-plumb bows, walkaround decks and forward cabins with separate heads. The S30 can either be left open or fitted with a T-top shade. The cockpit is designed around a clever central bench that can face forward or flip over to face aft. Doing this reveals a large wet bar module in the base of the seat that can be equipped…

LOA: 29ft 11in (9.12m) BEAM: 9ft 9in (2.98m) ENGINE: Mercury Verado 7.6-litre 600hp V12 TOP SPEED: 55 knots PRICE: from £319,950 inc VAT CONTACT: www.nordkapp-boats.com Even in its standard guise, the Gran Coupé 905 is a dramatic-looking boat. But with its aggressive hull lines, inverted screen, tinted windows and high-contrast detailing, Nordkapp’s V12 show boat has to be one of the most potent-looking SUVs you can buy. Built around a symmetrical walkaround layout with a central pilothouse, the open cockpit provides a four-man aft bench plus an additional two-man bench at the back end of the superstructure. Both can be removed from the deck with simple thumb screws if you want to free up the space for toys, watersports or fishing. And the big bench can also face aft, past…

LOA: 39ft 3in (11.98m) BEAM: 13ft 1in (4.02m) ENGINE: Nanni 85hp diesel electric hybrid TOP SPEED: 8 knots PRICE: from £360,000 inc VAT CONTACT: www.boatshowrooms.com Discovering a new brand of boat at the Southampton show is aways a treat, especially British yard. Piper Boats is best known for building Dutch-style liveaboard barges but now it has turned its hand to a smaller, more leisure-oriented steel yacht called the Piper 12C Cruiser. Measuring a whisker shy of 40ft and featuring a solid steel hull and superstructure, it’s a full displacement craft weighing 16.5 tonnes that looks ideally suited to life on UK and European waterways. Powered by a single diesel shaft-drive engine with the option of hybrid electric power, it will chug along for days on end at 6-8 knots, sipping…

LOA: 25ft 8in (7.83m) BEAM: 8ft 8in (2.64m) ENGINES: Mercury 250hp V8 outboard TOP SPEED: 38 knots PRICE: from £142,156 ex VAT CONTACT: www.aquadorboats.fi Aquador has hit upon something pretty special with its “next-generation” line of HT cruisers. Following closely in the footsteps of the 300 HT, the 250 uses similarly elevated hull sides and side decks. That does a great job in terms of maximising internal space but it also works well in terms of the style, helping drop the relative elevation of the hardtop for a delightfully muscular aesthetic. At the aft end, there’s no room for the fold-down aft-facing bench that you get on the inboard-powered 300 model but, in spite of the Mercury 250hp outboard engine, what you do get back here are some really generous…

LOA: 23ft 7in (7.20m) BEAM: 8ft 6in (2.58m) ENGINES: 175-250hp outboard TOP SPEED: 48 knots PRICE: From £85,000 inc VAT CONTACT: www.ryds.se When you see it in the flesh, it’s clear that the new flagship of the Ryds fleet delivers quality way out of proportion to its price. Designed and built in Sweden, the “VI” part of the name stands for vacuum infusion and it enables them to create strong, lightweight boats with an impressive calibre of finish. Available with inboard or outboard propulsion, the 735 uses a neatly conceived walkaround layout, with a clever cockpit featuring two reversible benches, plus a pair of angled fold-up seats so you can accommodate six people in here while retaining easy access fore and aft. Further forward, the raised sun deck is equally…

Right from the start, Jeanneau’s new Merry Fisher 1295 feels like a distinctly modern boat. True, it’s a name that’s been around for decades and the idea of a boat that inhabits that overlap between fisher and family cruiser is hardly avant garde. But just look at the evidence. This is a 41ft flybridge-equipped motor yacht with a trio of 300hp V6 outboards on the transom. It comes with a drop-down bulwark, sliding furniture, a step-through side gate, an offset pilothouse and an aft galley with alfresco bar. With lots of outdoor entertaining zones alongside six-berth accommodation and a big internal saloon, it also does a great job of stealing some thunder from the ultra-stylish new breed of dayboat/cruiser hybrids that come in at this kind of length. Yet in…

The first commandment of the high energy Celtic band The Vatersay Boys is “Get ready to project yourselves into insanity.” They could have written those words for the subjects of this article, Shaun and Dan Bentley, who, together with family and friends, are busy recreating the halcyon days of one of Britain’s most successful historic race boats. After all, you’d have to be crazy to spend every spare penny restoring a derelict 50-year-old Class 1 powerboat you spotted languishing in a Southampton boatyard, wouldn’t you? The vessel in question is the rather wackily named Double 2 Shirts, the moniker being that of a previous sponsor, whose name Shaun and Dan have emblazoned along both sides of their 1973 40-feet Planatec deep-vee hull in reverence to its heritage. Although it sported…

Yamaha has upgraded almost all of its personal water craft for 2024, with nine of its 11-strong fleet featuring modifications and upgrades. Chief of which is a new 1.9-litre High Output naturally aspirated engine which will be fitted to many of the models. Up 25hp and almost 100cc, Yamaha says it is ‘a quieter more efficient engine, higher in power and offering more torque’. There is also a brand-new seven-inch touch screen Connext® display with Security and Enhanced Drive Control Modes – including Economy, Towing, Performance, Comfort and Customisable Drive Modes – which will be fitted to all of the new FX models. Yamaha’s Waverunner PWC collection is split into three categories. The Cruising range of larger vessels, designed for ‘exploration and adventure’, will get the new engines in its…

Boating began for me with sailboats and I've never been able to kick the habit. As a result, I have a 23ft Newbridge Venturer sailboat called Jacob, as well as a 27ft Beneteau Antares 8 motor cruiser called Greyfin. And that makes sense because I have two very different boating options on my doorstep – the rugged (some would say inhospitable) Atlantic coast of north Cornwall and the gentler Channel coast of south Cornwall. I keep Jacob on a swinging mooring just off Padstow Harbour on the Camel Estuary in the north, and Greyfin on a mooring at Mylor on the Fal estuary in the south. I can be on one within ten minutes of leaving home and on the other within the hour. But my decision as to which…

Have you noticed how everyone is driving SUVs and MPVs instead of traditional family saloon or estate cars these days? Ford has stopped making the Mondeo altogether, a fact that would have been unimaginable two decades ago. We’re seeing a similar shift in the boat world, with the rise of SUV (sport utility vessels) from the likes of Axopar and Saxdor becoming the default choice for family fun days out on the water, a market segment once dominated by the likes of Fletcher and Bayliner. But while they are here to stay, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of more traditional concepts like the cuddy cabin sports boat, because they do such a brilliant job of bridging the gap between fun open boats and full-on sportscruisers. The priority stays…

BUILT 2005 PRICE £ 25,995 Rinker is an American brand that actually dates back to the 1950s, when farmer Lossie L.E Rinker of the Midwest began building fishing boats and then racing boats on the White River. It was when Rinker’s sons joined the business that Rinkerbuilt was founded in Syracuse, Indiana, becoming one of the first manufacturers to build boats using fibreglass. More recently, part of the Polaris Group, production halted in 2020 after “considering market dynamics and the continued uncertainty around the sustained impact of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Ironically, the boat market then exploded in popularity shortly afterwards. INTERIOR It’s a cuddy cabin so the usual caveats of limited headroom and facilities apply, but actually this is a pretty nice space. It’s well trimmed with a tiny porthole…