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It’s official, open is the new closed. Four years ago you couldn’t find a large open sportscruiser for love nor money – nobody was building them, it was all about the hard top. The irony that you then needed to add air-conditioning and fancy doors that disappeared into the floor or folded up to the ceiling to keep the damned thing cool and ensure you could still see the water from time to time seemed to be lost on everyone. Then some bright spark realised you could achieve the same thing and create an even better connection with the water by getting rid of the hard top altogether. Now everybody seems to be launching open boats again.
The Cannes show was awash with them – RIVA, WALLY, PARDO, WINDY, PALM BEACH, EVO, SOLARIS, FAIRLINE – the list goes on. About time, too, even in our colder climes I much prefer being on an open boat unless it’s tipping down, in which case I’d rather be at home. To celebrate this return to open boating we’ve been sea trialling as many of them as possible to see if they really are as much fun as they look. As far as I am concerned it’s an open and shut case!
DON’T MISS OUT!
The Cannes boat show also provided a perfect opportunity for us to whip out our Gopros and shoot walkaround tours of the best new boats at the show so that you can see for yourself how the layout works and all the sexy little details we haven’t got room for on the printed page. Go to youtube.com/ybwtv and enjoy our virtual tours of the BENETEAU ST41, OUTER REEF 640,
VAN DER VALK BEACH CLUB, GREENLINE 45 FLY AND FERRETTI 720 among others. And don’t miss the video of our F//LINE 33 sea trial.