Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i Motor Boat & Yachting

Boating has a reputation for being an expensive hobby, and certainly if you compare it to golf or stamp collecting, that’s undeniable. But buying and especially chartering a boat has much more in common with purchasing a second home or booking a foreign holiday than bashing a small white ball around manicured lawns or buying overpriced squares of coloured paper to stick on envelopes. Just like a holiday home or a nice hotel, you can eat, sleep, relax and entertain on board a motor boat but with the added advantage of waking up in a different place every morning ready for some fresh adventure. And unlike most other hobbies, your family and friends are going to enjoy it just as much as you do. Viewed in this light, boating suddenly…

Sixty-four hours. It doesn’t sound a lot does it? But that was the total running time for Smuggler’s Blues 2’s engine during 2024, and it’s over 25% up on 2023. Important, of course, to remember that in a moderately fast boat, engine running hours are a fraction of the actual time spent on board. Consider a typical weekend; leaving the marina mid-morning for a potter downriver and a 30-minute blast up the coast to a quiet bay for lunch, maybe joined by friends on their boats. A swim in the afternoon, a laze in the sun and a run 30 minutes up the coast to another marina for an evening of fish and chips, wine and vodka, a riotous evening and a night on board sleeping it off. Then the…

LOA: 43ft 0in (13.10m) BEAM: 13ft 1in (4.00m) ENGINES: twin Volvo Penta IPS500s TOP SPEED: 38 knots PRICE: on application CONTACT: www.wajer.com Holland has long been a hotbed for high-end custom motor yachts and models like this new Wajer 44S only serve to galvanise that reputation. Pronounced ‘wire’, after the surname of the founding family who still run the show (and based in the northern Dutch province of Friesland, where everything is designed, built and tested in-house), the 44S takes the underpinnings of the established 44 and 44 HT models and tailors the experience toward family boaters, watersports enthusiasts and those who love to be outdoors. To that end, you get deep-set walkaround decks that entirely orbit the central furniture. That means there is ultimately less furniture to play with…

THANK YOU TO JULIAN GREGORY for sending in this lovely photograph of his Hardy Commodore 36 Crazy Diamond. It was taken last year on the River Deben in Suffolk in front of the Ramsholt Arms. A bottle of Mermaid Gin is on its way to you! ARE WE AN EMBARRASSMENT? I have sailed plenty of boats but nowadays enjoy a shared Merryfisher 855. She gives me time on the water and, happily, cruising enjoyment comes in many guises. As I believe that our sport needs a voice, I am a gold member of the RYA. However, reading the last RYA magazine, apart from a RIB advert, there is no mention of a motor boat anywhere. Are they embarrassed by us, do you think? Nick Ryley, Lymington You’d have to ask…

Sitting alongside at the old port in Cannes is a boat that looks supersized almost to the point of excess. If that much is only to be expected of a 62ft power cat with a 29ft beam, the option of a fully enclosed upper deck and near vertical lines, it’s pleasing to reflect that the forthright styling is very much counterbalanced by the lightfootedness of the concept. Because what we have here is a cat designed to cruise indefinitely in quiet, and largely emissions-free serenity, thanks to a combination of solar panels, high-capacity battery banks and backup generators. That certainly makes plenty of sense, given that this Austrian yard (very aptly named Silent Yachts) has been dedicated to the production of fully electric solar-powered catamarans ever since its foundation in…

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When you woke up this morning, did you have any idea that you would end up lusting after a Fiat 500 shaped boat? Because you do now don’t you, how could you not? Just look at it! Described by the manufacturer as being “inspired by the Fiat 500”, I think we can agree there’s rather a lot of “inspiration” going on here. It looks great though, can carry up to five people and is available in a whole range of colours. At 5.5m long and 1.7m wide, you can slip around Monaco harbour to the almost inaudible tune of an electric motor, or up the ante with between 40 and 100hp worth of petrol outboard engine, giving you up to 34 knots. But just as in the car world, there…

There are phrases that creep into common parlance that irritate. Phrases like “Have a nice day” or “Happy holidays”. “Quality time” is another but while I hate to admit it, that was exactly the reason I organised a trip to Fowey last summer – to spend some meaningful time with my eldest daughter, Louise. My wife’s sister, Jackie, does crafting classes on Saga cruise ships and is allowed to take a plus-one, so she took her little sister on a cruise to Norway. My youngest daughter, Penny, was away in Sicily for three months so that left just me and Lou at home in Cornwall. We hatched a plan and at the start of August, Louise, her little dog, Bertie, and I headed off from our mooring at Restronguet,…

BUILT 2023 PRICE £154, 950 Although it clearly is one, calling this a cuddy cabin boat is selling it short because this is a big boat at over 27ft long and 9ft wide. Add to that the fact that this one is almost brand new with only 62 engine hours and it starts to make a lot of sense as a first step afloat. INTERIOR If you’re looking for standing headroom and a large galley down below then you’re going to be disappointed; it is a cuddy cabin sportsboat after all. And yet, this is way bigger than your typical 20ft Sea Ray cuddy and actually has everything that most people need for a weekend afloat. Parker has eschewed cabin seating in favour of a proper comfortable bed with a…

BUILT 2018 PRICE £79,995 Years ago cars were divided into saloons, coupés, convertibles and estates. Today there’s a plethora of alternatives; SUVs, 4x4s, crossovers and hybrids. It’s the same in the boat world. It used to be that sub 30ft planing boats were broadly either 4-berth cruisers or sportscuddies, but now we have RIBs, explorers, walk-arounds and more to choose from. But sometimes, as 007 said in Skyfall, “the old ways are the best”, and this Ciera 8 harks back to a grand tradition of Bayliner sportcruisers that date right back to the eighties. INTERIOR The layout of this is broadly identical to that you’d have found in a 1989 Bayliner 2455 Ciera, a converting dinette at the front, galley opposite the loo at the base of the companionway stairs,…

A cold December day in Poole and a fast open boat doesn’t sound like a particularly appealing combination, but when the boat in question is a Windy 29 Huracán and the day is blessed with blue skies and winter sun, there are few places we’d rather be. A gentle breeze and a residual swell from the preceding day made the prospect even more enticing, giving us the perfect conditions for putting Windy’s latest sportsboat through its paces. You can find out how it coped in our full report starting on p62 – suffice to say that it passed the wave jumping test with ‘flying’ colours! SEE MORE mby.com/bigpic…

ALBERO BRIXHAM Albero is a stylish intimate restaurant located on the South West Coast Path which bounds two sides of Brixham’s inner harbour. But you have to look hard to spot it, for apart from a tiny terrace covered by an awning resembling a sail (the word Albero means ‘mast’ in Italian), there’s few clues of an eatery hiding in plain sight in this quiet corner of an otherwise bustling seaside town. With just seven tables outside and around the same number indoors, Albero has an exclusive air about it; a kind of hidden gem known only to the cognoscenti. That said, over the three days we spent in Brixham the restaurant was constantly busy – so word must be getting around. If you’re looking to visit make sure you…

LOA: 44ft 0in (13.40m) BEAM: 12ft 7in (3.86m) ENGINES: triple Mercury V10 600hp outboard engines TOP SPEED: 74 knots PRICE: on application CONTACT: www.skipper-bsk.com Most people know BSK as the builder of Skipper Powerboats – RIB-style high-performance offshore craft with race-derived hulls and buckets of power. But this new Zyara 44 is the first in a new range of boats designed to sit alongside that established brand. BSK is describing it as “a new chapter in luxury yachting” and certainly, as a four-berth sportsboat with a party-ready deck layout, it looks like a major departure from what BSK has done before. But actually, the underpinnings look very familiar because what we have here is BSK’s four-step hull design. As with any steps, the idea is to reduce drag, improve efficiency…

SEE MORE mby.com/400ht You might imagine that a remote Polish lake, raked by drizzle on a chilly winter’s morning, is a questionable start to a fun day out. But the boat we’re here to see could hardly be more exciting. It comes on the back of an invigorating market shift from Aquador that has seen it transform its increasingly dated fleet with a fresh generation of sportscruisers known as the HT line. We’ve already seen the 250HT and the 300HT over the last couple of years – and both of them have managed to combine usable volume and dynamic styling to better effect than pretty much anything else out there. So as the new flagship emerges through the gloom, it’s great to see that the basic design principles appear to…

As always we have selected a winner in each of our nine boat categories based on how well it performed during our rigorous sea trials and how well it meets the requirements of its target market in relation to its size, style and price. In some categories we have also awarded a Highly Commended to a boat which has moved the game on in some significant way. Last but not least we would like to thank Sleipner for once again partnering with us as the headline sponsor of the 2025 Motor Boat Awards and our two category sponsors Garmin and Lumishore. SPORTSBOATS UP TO 30FT AXOPAR 29 Replacing a boat as popular and iconic as the Axopar 28 is fraught with danger but Axopar has negotiated that tightrope with consummate…

TENDER EVOLUTION Williams Jet Tenders introduces a range of 20th anniversary upgrades After 20 years in business, Williams has become the Branston, the Hoover and the HP Sauce of the tender market. It is now so entrenched as the go-to tender brand that a great many yacht builders design (and define) their garages and high-low platforms in relation to the specific model of Williams it will accommodate. Williams now operates an 80,000 sq ft facility in Oxfordshire, employing more than 140 staff, supported by a team of engineers across the world – and with more than 12,000 boats behind it, founding brothers, Mathew and John Hornsby, have chosen to celebrate their 20th year with a raft of evolutionary upgrades. WILLIAMS SPORTJET 460 This second largest of the SportJet line is designed…

One of the big quandaries at the end of the boating season is whether to leave your boat’s fuel tank full or empty. That used to be a straightforward answer which depended on the type of fuel your boat burns. For petrol-powered boats, the advice was always to leave it as empty as possible because petrol gradually goes off, making the engine harder to start and reducing performance. This has become even more of a problem since the EU (and now the UK) began to add bio-ethanol to it (10% for regular E10 unleaded and 5% for E5 super unleaded), which goes off even quicker and reduces its flammability. For that reason I recommend filling up with super unleaded towards the end of the season and using up as much…

Founded in the late 1960s and originally based near Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, the Birchwood Boat Company forged its reputation building cruisers for the inland waterways and estuaries markets. Initially focusing on 18 to 22ft craft, the firm expanded its range up to 29ft in the ‘70s and to 37ft in the ’80s. Later, under the name of Birchwood Marine, vessels up to 51ft were also constructed, including the subject of this review, the Birchwood Crusader 400. Launched in 1998 and offered with a flybridge or in a hardtop format known as the Compact, the Crusader 400 superseded the 380 series, the key changes being a revised hull design and a revamped interior. With a pair of throaty Mercruiser D-Tronic engines pumping out a total of 500 horsepower to push its semi-displacement…

BUILT 1996 PRICE £49,950 I often mention the size/age/price triumvirate – altering one will have an immediate and obvious effect on one or both of the others. Well here’s a great example. Same length as the Parker, but with twin diesel engines in place of that single petrol outboard and a proper cabin with standing headroom, a galley and a dinette as well as a separate bedroom and it’s a third of the price! Why? Because we’ve moved the age side of the triangle from almost new to almost 30 years old. But wow, what a lot of boat that gains you. INTERIOR Higher and wider, with a beam of almost 10ft, the cabin is in a different league to the Parker’s cuddy. Step inside the Sealine and you’ll discover a…

RIVA TRITONE SPECIAL CADILLAC COOL RATING THE BOAT WORLD’S ANSWER TO A FERRARI 250GT0 When this cool boat feature started almost three years ago, one of the very first boats to make the grade (the first was the Miami Vice Scarab – forever the coolest boat in existence) was, of course, the iconic Riva Aquarama. A stone cold classic, one of the prettiest boats ever launched and an absolute icon. But there is one boat that might just out-classic the classic, and it’s this 1960s Riva Tritone Special Cadillac – which, at the time, was the biggest, fastest, most powerful Riva ever to hit the water. Carlo Riva wasn’t one for deviating from his standard and highly efficient production schedule, so this example, commissioned in 1960 by wealthy Italian industrialist…

1 NEW PEARL 63 Pearl is putting the finishing touches to a new flybridge model base on a heavily revamped version of its best-selling Pearl 62. Visually, the new 63’s most obvious upgrades are a pair of folding balconies on either side of the cockpit that create valuable extra deck space and improve the connection with the water. The cockpit seating has also been rearranged with an L-shaped sofa to port and a pair of hi-lo tables to make the most of the views this opens up. Another key change is a versatile new stern treatment that allows buyers to choose between an ensuite crew cabin or a transverse tender garage. Although the old 62 had a garage option, it was only big enough for a PWC, meaning anything larger…

LOA: 30ft 6in (9.29m) BEAM: 9ft 10in (2.99m) ENGINES: twin 200-250hp outboards TOP SPEED: 38 knots PRICE: from €134,500 ex VAT CONTACT: www.beneteau.com Those in search of maximum fun for their money have long admired the Antares line and the new ‘Series 2’ revamp of the Antares 9 builds on exactly that. Redesigned for 2025, it’s still a boat that can seat ten and sleep four to six but it now comes with a pair of 300-litre tanks as standard for uprated range, plus a lighter, more rigid hull for extra efficiency and reduced vibration. It features a subtly augmented profile too, thanks to a single elongated hull window and an extended aft roofline that pushes out above the cockpit for improved shelter. That roof can be upgraded with either…

LOA: pending BEAM: pending ENGINES: twin 300-425hp outboard engines TOP SPEED: Over 50 knots PRICE: from €320,000 ex tax CONTACT: www.aiataboats.com There’s still a fair degree of secrecy surrounding this boat (hence the absence of cabin pictures and confirmed specifications) but this debut model from new Turkish brand, AIATA, looks particularly interesting. The long-term ethos is apparently to deliver high-powered, modular, multipurpose vessels that prioritise comfort and ease of use – and the new Wayfinder 38 certainly seems to have the practical side of things well covered. For a start, it uses a secure walkaround arrangement, with extremely wide two-part gates on either side of the cockpit deck. These look as handy for swimming as for pontoon work and you can also configure the cockpit itself, with either an aft bench…

Waking in Winningen, on a bright but cool June morning, we were both conscious that today we were leaving the relative security of the slow-flowing Moselle. Just a few kilometres downstream, we would enter the Rhine, starting the final stage of our voyage from the South of France to the North of Holland. Travelling down the Rhine has been likened to stepping onto a conveyor belt – fine until you need to stop! We were still 300km from the Dutch border but with no locks to interrupt us and the river’s flow boosting our usual 10km/h cruising speed by an estimated 6km/h, I reckoned 100km each day should be possible. However, keeping clear of upstream traffic was going to need our full attention as the closing speed would be faster…

SEE MORE mby.com/w29h Let’s not beat about the bush – there’s a big choice of 28-30ft sportsboats in the market at the moment and most of them are less expensive than Windy’s latest offering, the 29 Huracán. Then again Windy has never sought to compete on price. Its USPs are good looks, strong performance, exceptional handling and lasting build quality. We’ll see how it fares on all those fronts but there’s another reason to consider a Huracán – cruising ability. Nearly all its rivals are powered by petrol outboard motors and prioritise day trips. The Huracán, by contrast, is a compact but very capable cruiser with the option of diesel inboard power – either a 370hp Yanmar 8LV or 440hp Volvo Penta D6. Both of these deliver similar performance to…

DART & GREY PRINCESS YACHTS COLLABORATION We’ve seen many branding collaborations between boat manufacturers and other industries. Clothes mainly, but also watches and even cars have been logo-ed with a boat manufacturer’s brand. But this latest tie up between Princess and ‘emerging fashion brand’ Dart & Grey is rather different. Specifically, there is no Princess branding on the goods that are resulting from this collaboration. So where is the link? Well that’s the interesting part. The goods are made out of bits of Princess boat! To be exact, surplus materials from the manufacturing process of the boats is being used to create a range of “luxury garments and accessories”, in particular clothes such as jackets, dresses, skirts and tops plus travel bags, handbags, laptop cases, tote bags and even sunglasses…

Each year, I arrange an early annual haul out for my boat, Cecienne. Not only does this allow me to take advantage of an extra free month ashore as part of my marina package, but it also means that I can get her back in the water well before Christmas. So at a time when most owners are contemplating their winter haul out, I’m already back in the water – and that’s perfect because I really do love winter boating. Yes it has its disadvantages, not least cold wet weather and short days, but there are so many plus points. One of these is that pontoons and moorings that are crammed during the summer months are totally deserted. There are several pontoons in the River Fal, and it’s never a…

One of the most gratifying things about my YouTube channel is when people write to me saying that they had no interest whatsoever in boating before discovering Aquaholic, and yet after a year of watching my aquatic nonsense had decided to take the plunge themselves and get afloat. Of course there are many ways to achieve this, depending on where you do your boating, what your budget is and the kind of boating you want to do, so this month I’ve found four distinctly different routes afloat to tickle your fancy with. However, the most important thing is not what you start boating with, but the decision to do it in the first place. Come on, summer is coming, and you are a long time dead! Besides, in all of…

BUILT 2017 PRICE £89,950 At 29ft 3in, the 855 Cruiser was the biggest in Quicksilver’s range when it launched in 2013, so the company threw the proverbial kitchen sink at this one, making sure it had enough space and sufficient features to thrive in a market untested by the brand. INTERIOR The deck saloon layout massively extends your season as you’re basically driving this boat from indoors. Masses of headroom (6ft 8in!) and deep windows ensure this area never feels cramped and the dinette converts cleverly from a diner with two benches facing each other to a U-shaped sofa or even an additional bed courtesy of a dropping table and infill cushion. The galley is up here as well, leaving space on the lower deck for two double cabins and…