Motor Boat & Yachting March 2022

SEE MORE mby.com/pardo SEE MORE mby.com/tendr Lying in bed last night, ruminating on life, the universe and MBY (but mainly MBY), I started adding up how many issues I had edited since I took over the helm in 2005. Rather terrifyingly, it turns out that this is my 200th issue of MBY, every one of which has caused me to wake up in a cold sweat at 3am the night after we’ve sent it wondering what errors may have slipped through the net or how I could have made it even better. You’d think I would have got used to it by now but I take solace from the fact that I still care deeply enough to lose sleep over it – not caring enough would be a far bigger sin. The thing…

1 SPIRIT’S SLEEK ELECTRIC FOILER Spirit Yachts is partnering with BAR Technologies to build an all-electric foiling wooden speedster. A marriage of gloriously retro styling and cutting-edge foiling technology, it has been commissioned as a chase-boat by the European owner of the Spirit 111 supersailing yacht, Geist, the yard’s largest project to date. The striking lines of the new 35ft electric foiler were penned by Spirit Yachts’ CEO and chief designer Sean McMillan, who admits to taking his inspiration from a 1920s Gold Cup-winning American hydroplane called Baby Bootlegger, which sported a similar near-plumb bow, long varnished foredeck and a two-seat cockpit. It also shares certain similarities with vintage racing cars of the era, such as the token fold-down aero-screens and the twin aerodynamic cowlings, which enhance the gorgeous sloping aft sections.…

The ending of the latest Bond film, No Time To Die, genuinely moved me. It’s hard to see how they’ll move on from it. Even if they ‘reboot’ it (already done – Casino Royale), we’ll always know how it all ends. Badly. They’ve spoiled it, I think I’ve seen my last new 007 movie. I’ve read every book and watched every film. Bond has been with me from a small boy, when my parents allowed me to watch the inevitable car chase before banishing me to bed. As a teenager, my auntie would take me to the cinema, sitting with her eyes tightly closed through the killing (villains always had a lair with henchmen to overcome in those days). Though the tone of the films changed over the decades, the style…

THE ADMIRAL’S ARM QUEENBOROUGH For those not familiar with Queenborough, “It has a lot of history,” says MBY reader Fred Trice. “From being invaded by the Dutch – they soon gave it back again – to being visited by Hogarth and Pepys, the town has seen it all. Nelson, (who learnt much of his seamanship in the area), had a house on the high street. Visiting gentry considered the place a right dump…not much has changed…” What Fred actually means by this tongue-in-cheek remark is that being so far off the beaten track, Queenborough has not suffered what he describes as the indignities of becoming upmarket and trendy, so the locals can still afford to live there and the town’s inherent character remains intact. All of this makes it a popular choice for…

LOA 61ft 4in (18.7m) BEAM 15ft 11in (4.84m) ENGINES Cummins QSC 8.2 600hp TOP SPEED 21 knots PRICE from £1.64m inc VAT CONTACT www.prestige-yachts.com Prestige’s X60 uses the underpinnings of the 590 to form an entirely different take on a 60ft flybridge cruiser. The boats may share a hull and powertrain but from there up they are very different beasts. Like its X70 larger sister, the X60 has a more even split between cockpit and saloon space on the main deck. Prestige reckons there is 40% more usable space in the cockpit compared to a traditional 60ft flybridge boat, and this area is bolstered by the infinity-style transom that creates a terrace above the beach club and the modular furniture that can be moved around the deck as desired. The two areas blend much more easily and…

LOA 54ft 9in (16.7m) BEAM 15ft 9in (4.79m) ENGINES Volvo Penta IPS700/800 TOP SPEED 34 knots PRICE from €1.27m ex VAT CONTACT Inspiration Marine +44 (0)2380 457008; www.fjordboats.com Few brands have embraced the T-top sportscruiser genre as warmly as Fjord, and with this new flagship it is aiming to throw down a gauntlet for its impressive gaggle of competitors such as the Pardo 50, Solaris 48 Power and Wallytender 48. This model has the largest T-top and deck area that Fjord has ever designed, and the amount of customisation on offer is mind boggling for a production boat. Naturally, hull, deck mouldings and fabric colours are up for grabs but there is also an enormous amount of play in the physical layout of the main deck as well as the arrangement of accommodation on the lower deck. Yes,…