Andrew Millington explains why a Pearl and a Nimbus make the perfect double act
About 50 years ago, our family held a vote. The choice was: swimming pool or boat? The boat won – narrowly – and that decision shaped everything that followed. I was 12 at the time and we’re now on boat number 17.
The first couple of boats
The first of those boats was a small Shetland with a petrol inboard and an Enfield Z-drive. We had no real idea what we were doing. On our first trip from Sandwich Marina to the entrance of the River Stour, armed with little more than a Seafarer echo sounder (the one with two orange LEDs showing the depth), we learned about tides and running aground in the traditional way – by doing both badly. That was also when I started reading MBY.
What followed will be familiar to anyone bitten by the boating bug. We bought a Sterling Sabre 28 hull and superstructure and spent a year fitting her out on the front drive, my father and I working side by side. We installed a Mercruiser 888 180hp petrol sterndrive and, at the time, 28 knots felt extraordinary.
We secured a mooring in the newly redeveloped Ramsgate Marina, 15 minutes from home, and on our first trip, from Ramsgate to the Medway via Southend Pier, we got lost. It was clearly time for a navigation course at the Royal Temple Yacht Club. But just six weeks later, we upgraded to a Rampart 38 displacement twin-screw motoryacht (TSMY). One extreme to the other – but that’s boating for you!
The Phantom 50 was the sixth of eight Fairlines
The Rampart was where my fascination with technology really took hold. B&G electronics, Decca Super 101 radar, Neco autopilot, Sailor VHF/RDF – serious equipment for the early 70s.
I was hooked and that interest in technology has never left me. From the Rampart we moved to a Broom 37 Continental, then a Fleur de Lys 52ft TSMY, followed by a Silver TSMY. Around that time my father died, and boating went quiet, but it started again when I married Kate.
It resumed with a Fletcher speedboat, which was stolen on my birthday! That was followed by another Fletcher, then a Sealine 190; Maxum 2400SCR; Chris-Craft 320; Sessa 36; Fairline Targa 40; a replacement Targa 40 after a hull issue with the first; a Fairline Targa 43; Fairline Phantom 46; Fairline Targa 52; Fairline Phantom 50; Fairline Squadron 55; Fairline Squadron 58; and then a Princess 56.
Anyone who knows Boats.co.uk – and MD James Barke – will recognise how easy it is to keep upgrading when someone knows how to make a deal work. And so, 16 boats later, we arrived at the right answer. Two boats, two different roles…
Andrew’s Princess 56 was his last solo boat
The perfect pair?
When it was time to move on from the Princess, I knew I wanted something in the 60ft range: manageable for Kate and me, but not so large that we would struggle to get into marinas along the South Coast and Channel Islands.
The shortlist came down to the Princess S62 and the Pearl 62, represented by Berthon, where we keep the boat. Ben Toogood is an excellent ambassador for Pearl, and I travelled to Düsseldorf to see the newly launched model in person. It was not an easy decision. The Princess was the more familiar route, but the S Class offered little more interior space than our Princess 56. The Pearl, by contrast, thanks to its clever layout and Volvo IPS, was a significant step up in accommodation.
We took a leap of faith and have not regretted it. There have been issues — as there always are — but the five-year warranty, supported by the excellent team at Maritime Yacht Services in the Hamble, has dealt with them efficiently.
The Pearl is reserved for longer liveaboard trips
However, what the Pearl can’t do is the spontaneous lunch in Cowes or a quick run to Yarmouth for a walk. Getting her ready takes time, and berths need booking in advance. The gap in the fleet was obvious. We considered a Scorpion RIB with twin 350hp outboards, but then we met friends in Cowes who had crossed from the Hamble in a RIB and were standing on the pontoon in full wet-weather gear, looking as though they had just finished the Fastnet. That answered the question…
Rob Steadman at Berthon had a Nimbus T9 available and put together a deal that worked for us. Fitted with twin 225hp Mercury outboards, we named her Spontaneous, in honour of our old Sealine 190 and in recognition of exactly what she delivers: five minutes from decision to departure down the Lymington River.
She’s a well-built and capable boat: proper T-top, enough space for a crowd and a sea-kindly hull that asks very little of you. When we bought her, she had 20 hours on the engines. She now has well over 140, which tells you everything about how much use she gets. The two boats serve entirely different purposes, and owning both means we can almost always do what the day calls for – the Pearl for the longer trips, the Nimbus for everything else.
The T9 is great for easy ‘get-in-and-go’ boating
The family dimension
Kate and I have two children who grew up on boats. Neither had much say in the matter. Boating has always been part of our family life so both were properly trained through West Solent Sea School. I gave Tim the same instruction I gave their driving instructor: tell me when they are genuinely safe, not when they have simply done enough to pass a test.
On the water, with people you care about and conditions that can change quickly, there is absolutely no room for half-measures. The result is that both of my children can handle the Nimbus confidently and independently – and that matters enormously. It means Kate and I can occasionally be passengers. And more importantly, it means the boats are now being used by the next generation, which is exactly as it should be.
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