Let joy be unconfined - it's that time of the year again, and I love the Southampton Boat Show... clearly someone else does as well as we were also blessed with unseasonable warmth, good breezes, and the rain when it finally arrived was after we'd left.. good result! My sis and I attended this year...
This is the three master
Kaskelot [clicky], which despite her aged appearance was only built in 1948 - she's Danish and one of the largest wooden three masters still afloat.. somewhat surprisingly she's also privately owned (not a charity), and she isn't a sail training vessel.. used mostly for private charter and film work... and beautiful - major refit in 2014 and it shows.. clean and shiny as a new penny...
....those of you who check my other blog will know I have an interest in things historical and military so straight from Kaskelot to this one which was moored just behind and caught my eye... I originally thought this was WWII era, but it's actually Cold War era instead, the last Rhine patrol boat of the US navy.. one of 17 built by a German shipbuilder just after the war, and handed back to the German navy at the end of her commission..
She's also a film star and appeared in the recent "Dunkirk"... unusually again, she is also privately owned (not a charity or heritage lottery funded)
Put me in mind me of the boat in "Apocalypse Now"
So on to the real boats... at the show I have two things I look for - the big sailing boats for bling, and anything my boat's size to see what's coming along.... I would say it was an OK year, but nothing as good this year as the
Haber 620 [clicky] we saw last year...
This one was rather nice though... lovely clean lines - day sailor - this one was electric driven... not sure about the transom though - wasted space??
Next - this was an
X-Yachts X6 [clicky] boat on the outer pontoon - no way I was going to be able to get on her, but what caught my eye was those hard top bimini's - look like carbon fibre?? Seem to have a rebated drop down blind on the side... either way, ugly as sin, but on a beautiful boat...
Just for fun - and because the Jolly Boys cruise is on a 342 - I thought I'd have a closer look down below at the Halberg Rassy 40 (next) - a quantum difference in space is the answer... a whole extra cabin between saloon and fore cabin.... that would solve the "problem".. !
Build is the same though (excellent) but they've also raised the head room on the rear cabin so it's no longer a crawl in double coffin...
...and looks sensational of course...
So we were chatting to the salesman and I mentioned we chartered a 342 and he said, "oh, you need to go and have a look at the latest version of that hull size" .. and as she was next door it seemed foolish not to....
First main difference -drop down swim platform/transom... second main difference wheel not tiller, in fact two wheels, on a 30 footer...?! HR weren't the only ones to do this - yacht'y equivalent of go faster stripes???
Track still in the middle of the cockpit - just not on a bar between the two seats...
Instruments same place, windscreen same, opening struts same....
Spectacular difference on lay out below though (next) - kitchen is on the opposite side, and on the 342 there's a heads there with the nav station in front of it.. note the big windows above and in the hull - much lighter! Aft cabin is bigger - main cabin is ooch'ed backwards making room for the heads to shift forward and alongside the mast.. on the whole it's better than the 342 - the aft cabin is bigger, the main cabin is lighter...
More "small one's" (next) - another Dutch boat builder - elegant lines - a day sailor - not sure I fancy trying to get into that cuddy though!
6.5Mtr [clicky] so she's about the same size as Sparrow.. self tacking jib (that would make life easier when short taking in the narrow Emsworth channel!) small size of which compensated by a big main... oh, and you can also fly an asymmetric... no good for me.. fin keel though...
..another one with electric drive - diesel also available... but nowhere to put an outboard... asymmetric flies from a small bowsprit that's retracted on this one... lovely lines..
..bigger hull, 8Mtr (26 foot) same basic design, but a different layout... weekender style this time.. if I had the cash this is the one I'd go for... good review from PBO
here [clicky] again though - fin keel and inboard only...
..and the last one from the same boat builder - this was mad (in a kind of good way) - all that orange and brown was like stepping back into the late seventies..
She was certainly something else - looked super fast -
a 33 foot day sailor [clicky] - would
love to have a go!!
...onwards and upwards - last big boat of the day - this one took my prize for the most luxurious - Swan 50... details details... forecabin - leather handles on drawers - light woods throughout, and how nice not to have the universal brown with thin white stripe flooring...
Second cabin.. this was bunks on the HR40..
Lovely flat unencumbered deck going on and on for ever....
Not much to hold on to forward though...
...and cockpit - twin wheels each with mahoosive plotters... Harken throughout (naturally
).. if you have to ask you can't afford her....
Fantastic.. by this time it was Guinness o'clock so we duly partook, and then had a long wander round the halls to look at all the stuff you didn't know you needed (12v individual aircon units was my "blimey moment"!) before heading over the road to the
Woolhouse [clicky] for a couple of pints of (excellent)
"Bone Dry" [clicky] and wending our way home...
So what did I buy? Other than the Guinness and a new sweatshirt, nothing.. I was looking for idea's this year - want to improve my tacking speed and I think the answer is stand up blocks for the genoa sheets.. I reckon it's a couple of these I need... "stand up single block"...
...the search starts here..
