Motor Boat & Yachting June 2021

I am writing this having just returned home from my first post-lockdown weekend on the water in my own boat. The sun was shining, the sea was as cold and clear as a dry martini and all was well with the world. I even managed to book a table at Shell Bay restaurant so we could watch the sun set over Poole Harbour while eating fresh local fish. God it felt good! Not because it was exceptional (although the food was) but because it was unexceptional. For the first time in months things finally felt normal again. On every boat we passed people smiled and waved in silent recognition of the shared bond all boaters have. It doesn’t matter whether you’re at the helm of a 10ft MIRROR dinghy or…

Taking on the mantle as the smallest model in Princess’s flybridge range is an unenviable task. The boats the Plymouth shipyard has built in this sector are some of the best and most loved it has ever made but never has there been a time when customers expect so much from an entry-level model. With design influence from Olesinski Design and Pininfarina, the F45 has the challenging task of balancing modern yet timeless styling, interior volume, easy handling out on the water and the attention to detail that Princess prides itself on, all with an eye on value for money. It goes without saying that this, for many customers, will be their first experience of a Princess product so it has to set the tone for what is a consistently high-achieving…

1 HARDY HYBRID Cockwells has launched the first of its new generation Hardys after buying the brand last year. And it’s a diesel electric hybrid. The boat is a Hardy 42, a timeless well-proven model, around 30 of which have been built over the past 18 years. Previous owner Windboats started the build by laminating the hull and superstructure but the remaining 70% of the work has been completed by Cockwells at its Mylor Creek facility in Cornwall. The hybrid installation is based around a single 440hp Yanmar diesel engine, rather than the usual twin set-up, with a 20kW electric motor linked to a 22kW generator and a 48V 400AH lithium-ion battery bank providing an additional source of clean, quiet power for the single shaft and propeller. The generator either runs the…

Your boat is probably your second most expensive purchase, after your house. For me however, it was the first. Not because my boat was especially expensive, but because I bought my house during the recession of the early 1990s. A three-bedroom terraced needing work and in a scruffy part of Torquay, I paid £34,000 and did it up gradually, clearing the mortgage quickly, and living there for 25 years. It’s also said that buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can experience. Having handled hundreds of boat sales during a 20-year yacht broking career, I never understood this. However last year, stuck at home during the first lockdown, I found myself browsing Rightmove, and later viewed some houses, one of which had incredible potential. It was time to…

CINNAMON BAY HAMBLE-LE-RICE Spicy food has always been a favourite of mine so I always look forward to a visit to an Indian restaurant. Whether it’s to eat in or, as in this case, pick up a takeaway, the promise of a meal I’ll probably regret the following morning keeps me coming back time after time. The only reservation I have is that all too often the food from one Indian restaurant looks and tastes like that from so many others. While I have no problem that every slice of naan bread I’ve ever seen appears to have been modelled on the same bicycle saddle, I do like a bit of individuality when it comes to the main dishes. So for this visit to Cinnamon Bay, which describes itself as a friendly long-standing…

The partnership between Princess Yachts, Olesinski Design and Pininfarina, which first took shape in the creation of the R35 sportsboat, is well established now but it’s models like the Y72 that demonstrate what a potent design force it is. The way the three factions work in sync to modernise and update the range whilst retaining the timeless appeal that Princess has worked so hard to cultivate is mightily impressive and there’s a synergy and cohesion between the boat’s exterior and interior that few manufacturers achieve as successfully. There are curves around the boat’s haunches and the mouldings for the flybridge furniture that are echoed on the main deck and even down in the sleeping spaces. Despite having three cooks peering over the broth, they were never in danger of spoiling…