To be in the market in the market for a 60ft flybridge is to be presented with some of the finest craft the world’s boatbuilders have in their stables. These boats must meet a hugely demanding list of requirements and, sitting as they do on the threshold between being owner-run…
Motor boat reviews
Pearl 80 review: Stylish British flybridge oozes Miami glamour and luxury
Downtown Miami on a December evening, and hazy sunlight is bouncing off the mirrored towers that make up the city’s shimmering financial district. We are here to meet the Pearl 80, which is alongside the jetty attached to the subtly named Epic Hotel. This is one of downtown’s popular nightspots…
Grand Banks Eastbay 44 review: Efficient and appealing on every level
Grand Banks is emerging from a period of change that has seen around $4 million invested in its Malaysian facility and a refocus that leaves the yard currently building two models: the Grand Banks 60 and the Eastbay 44. It is the latter that sits before me, lashed to a…
Beneteau Flyer 8 Sundeck: Stylish looks backed up by sporty performance
Though the engaging showroom sparkle of Beneteau’s current Flyer line may imply otherwise, the Flyer has been around in one form or another since the 1980s. It’s a name woven deep into the Beneteau narrative, but it wasn’t until 2013, on the 30th anniversary of the product line, that it…
Keizer 42 review: Superyacht tender style without the price tag
The Keizer 42 is not the type of boat you’d normally associate with Dutch boat building. It’s made out of GRP rather than steel for starters and its classic open styling with polished mahogany transom and near-vertical bow looks more suited to Mediterranean blasting than pottering along North European waterways.…
Zeelander Z44 review: Extraordinary quality more than justifies hefty price tag
First unveiled at the Monaco Yacht Show to a well-heeled chorus of public cooing, the Z44 is not your everyday boat. Designed and built in the Netherlands specifically to cater for a supremely solvent client base, this high-end take on the classic lobster boat exhibits the painstaking detailing of an…
VIDEO: Jersey 36 Elanco boat test review
The beauty of the British boatbuilding industry is that just when you think you know every yard, make and model there is to know, another one pops up to prove you wrong. In fairness, Landamores is far from new, having been building boats in Wroxham, Norfolk since 1923. However, since…
VIDEO: Dale 40 boat test review
Anyone who has driven a boat in a decent following swell will know the feeling. That moment when the boat is right in the sea’s pocket, manipulating the conditions for a natural boost as Mother Nature provides her own shove of forced induction. The speed jumps up momentarily before the…
VIDEO: Princess R35 sea trial test
A text message to the editor after a test is not rare, just a quick line to reassure him everything has gone to plan and I haven’t accidentally run the boat in question up the nearest sandbank. The summary sent to him after the test of this boat, though, was…
Dominator Ilumen: Space and light illuminate semi-custom stunner
Alberto Mancini is a man in high demand at the moment, and be it revitalising the Fairline range or penning the latest Mangusta rocket ship, it seems the Italian designer can do no wrong. The Ilumen concept from Dominator proved a challenge, however. The brief was to create a boat…
Linssen GS500 review: Inshore cruising favourite faces offshore test
There is a common perception that Linssen yachts are only suitable for navigating inland waterways. That certainly is not the case with the Grand Sturdy 500 AC Variotop (catchy name, huh?) lying before me on a hammerhead pontoon in East Cowes Marina. The boat made the journey over to the…
Agapi 950 test: Aquatic SUV promises fun for all the family
Have you noticed how every new concept claims to have been originally drawn up on a table napkin? Well, on one of Agapi’s promotional videos there’s a photograph of the very napkin upon which the concept of Agapi was born. It was drawn in 2006 by Peder Asplund, CEO of…
Aquador 35 AQ: Revamped flagship shows the way forward for Finnish yard
As I perch on our support boat among the pristine waterways of Finland’s Nauvo region, watching Aquador’s new 35 AQ at play, it’s tough not to be struck by the experience. With its long, deep-cut hull contours carving at the water, its steel trim catching the light and its tinted…
Azimut Grande 27M: Game-changing ideas abound on luxurious cruiser
Azimut’s new, raised-pilothouse Grande range kicked off in spectacular style last year with the 35 Metri, a true game-changer among motor yachts with its efficient, wave-piercing hull design, which was widely admired on its launch and showered with awards, not least from MBY, who considered it the best yacht in…
Brabus Shadow 800: Car-tuning supremos turbo-charge the Axopar 37
The winding road that leads through the region of Sant Agustí, Mallorca is alive with the sound of thunder. The skies are clear; this is thunder of a different order. A deep, angry thunder that sounds like Zeus himself is gargling a bag of hammers. This thunder is pouring from…
VIDEO: Brig Eagle 10 review
The nose of the Brig Eagle 10 encapsulates its ethos very neatly. Rather than the bow reaching a sharp point, it is squared off, almost as if it ran into a wall at some point. What this gives, of course, is useable internal beam right to the tip of the…
VIDEO: Greenline NEO review
Having not been in the cockpit of a fighter jet during a full lock turn I can’t say for sure what it feels like but it can’t be that dissimilar from doing the same aboard the Greenline NEO. Under instruction from our snapper Richard to “crank it hard over”, the…
Beneteau Barracuda 9 review: Versatile cruiser offers something for everyone
Back in 2003, when the original Beneteau Barracuda 7 was launched, it felt very much like a blueprint for modern high-value boating. It certainly wasn’t the cheapest boat in its field and neither was it the most dynamic to drive, but by refusing to commit to any single strain of…
Glastron GS 259 OB review: Flagship sportscruiser adds outboard appeal
Once upon a time, it was clearly understood that a recreational cruiser was at its best when fitted with an inboard diesel engine. Given a steady supply of good fuel, clean air and regular services, such engines would reward you with endless reliability, cruising economy, lots of torque and optimised…
Beneteau Swift Trawler 47 boat test – 24 hours on board
A suspected mechanical malady meant that a recent passage home on my boat that would normally take 45 mins at 25 knots instead took almost three hours at 6 knots, and as we finally reached port we firmly agreed on one thing. Cruising at displacement speed for a change had…