Boat Tests

Sports Boat and RIB sent Simon Everett to check out the latest version of one of Beneteau’s most prolific sporting cuddies - the Flyer 650.

Cuddy cabin boats are all the rage now and you can understand why. They offer more comfort than a regular open boat but without the need to increase the size of craft. So it’s good to see a boat like the Beneteau Flyer 650 providing not just an open cockpit for summer entertainment but also a small cabin to enable you to put your head down for a few hours. This neat treading of the line between the two forms is likely to have great appeal for a wide range of users, particularly as it involves surprisingly little compromise of the boat’s sporting credentials.

What’s the point of the Flyer?
The main focus of the 650 Open is likely to be simple dayboating, with the odd overnight stop and the odd weekend away. The boat's cabin is fairly cramped but, provided you are sensible about what you take away with you, there is more than enough room to go coastal hopping for a few days.
To keep things dry down below, the sliding cabin door (which can be locked in behind the dash panel) is given an all-round water channel to direct rainwater away from the joints and onto the self-draining cockpit. It’s a useful space but what is particularly noticeable is that, despite the below decks accommodation, the Flyer 650 still manages to offer a complete walkaround deck and a deep internal freeboard. It’s a measure of additional security that will appeal greatly to young families.

To read more pick up a copy of the August issue of Sports Boat and RIB magazine or subscribe today.

Revenger, the famous and much-loved British RIB builder, has launched its biggest ever boat in the form of the 32-footer. Mike Pullen heads for Southampton to get the official UK exclusive.

In recent times, there has been a trend towards larger and larger RIBs, with ever more complex layouts. Many RIB builders are even beginning to incorporate larger ‘tube-top’ cabins, but Revenger has remained true to its roots and produced yet another performance RIB with the familiar layout of the tried and tested Revenger open boat.

I already feel quite honoured that Sports Boat and RIB is the only magazine to have been given access to this boat, due to her being delivered to her new owner just a few days after our sea trials. Despite some fairly grotty weather then, we were always going to jump at the chance to take a look at this craft. But on arrival, we had an additional treat in store. Not only did we have the new 32 with a pair of Yamaha ME422 High Output sterndrive engines, but we were also greeted by the outboard version of this RIB, resplendent in teak and looking eminently purposeful with a pair of Verado 300s on the transom. It was most definitely time for a play . . .

First impressions

The new Revenger 32 is immediately recognisable as a craft of inherited bloodline. You get that traditional Revenger shape, with a sleek, angular profile and radically tapering tubes giving a knife-like outline. However, the hull has been treated to some serious performance-enhancing modifications, including two steps to reduce the wetted area and aerate the water on either side of the keel line.

This all sounds pretty high-tech, but let me assure you that stepped hulls go back to the very beginnings of planing boats. Even the flying boats during the war years had stepped hulls to help free them from the surface tension of the water, so the efficacy of a stepped hull on a fast performance craft remains just as valid today as it has always been.

For more, see the August 2010 issue of Sports Boat and RIB magazine . . .

Can so many rich people be wrong? Mike Pullen visits the Williams test lake in Oxfordshire for a look at the baby version of the superyottie’s pin-up totty . . .

It has been said that Williams make toy boats. Not the kind of toy you play with in the bath or on your local duck pond, but big boys’ toys, designed for keeping on big boys’ boats. In that respect it is all true. Toy boats is exactly what they make. But the compact 385s is a very serious piece of equipment too. I’ve got a whole load of analogies prepared. It’s a lightweight with a heavyweight punch. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s like chewing a chili or inhaling an Absinth. And as such it is kept as a bit of a trick up the Williams sleeve. It is essentially an ace they can pull out of their hand to trump any other tender in the world. And as luck would have it, it is British too . . .

Built in the Oxfordshire countryside by an enthusiastic band of craftsmen, the quality of the build across the entire Williams range is equal in all respects to the quality of the best superyachts. In order for a boat like this to be successful, it has to be that good. It has to catch the same wealthy eye that is courted by Azimut, Ferreti and Sunseeker. Naturally then, the fact that this is a compact RIB does not deter its creators from putting as much effort into the design and build as was no doubt put into its future mothership.

To read more pick up a copy of the July issue of Sports Boat and RIB or subscribe right here.

Here, in a landmark first for Sea Ray, is a Hard Top sports boat for those dodgy British summers. Simon Everett takes a look . . .

Sea Ray has been building boats since 1959 and in that time it has always been associated with the setting of trends. For instance, when they started out, they were one of the first companies to embrace the new technology of fibreglass for building their boats. But now, in the form of its very first Targa Top craft, Sea Ray has followed the trend, rather than setting it. That isn’t always a bad thing of course. After all, witnessing the mistakes of others can allow you to tweak your design to avoid the same failings. My hopes for the new 305HT are therefore, justifiably high . . .

To read more pick up a copy of the July issue of Sports Boat and RIB or subscribe right here.