DAY 01
TWO WEEKS WITH HONDA MARINE
from £220 / honda.co.uk/marine, urbantruant.co.ukWhen Honda offered James Day the chance to earn his powerboat wings, he couldn’t
wait... and soon discovered boat ownership can be cheaper than a foldable phone
You know in Spectre when Daniel
Craig speeds down the Thames,
first alerting thousands of people
to the location of MI6’s new
HQ then flagrantly endangering
innocent lives by blowing up a
helicopter over a heavily built-up
area? Stuff of dreams, isn’t it?
While Honda’s Marine division
won’t condone either act, they do
believe that gaining a powerboat
licence, navigating your way on
the water and owning your own
vessel is an achievable reality that
costs less than you think.
By partnering with boatbuilders,
Honda can supply its four-stroke
engines – developed since 1964
to reduce water pollution and not
disturb the poor fishies – as part
of a complete one-price package.
Working with companies like
Honwave, Highfield, Maxima
and Ranieri makes things more
manageable for first-timers and,
yes, affordable. An entry-levelHonwave T20-SE inflatable armed
with a river-ready 4hp engine is
priced at £1358 (maybe cheaper
if you shop around) – something
we now suspect Jim Bowen and
the Bullseye team knew all along.
And if that still feels too steep,
joining a RIB club with access
to way more powerful vessels
costs from £175 a year, with a
£150 boat hire fee.
If you’ve bought a boat, learning
how to drive it clear of swimmers
and icebergs feels kind of crucial,
even if the laws around requiring
a licence are woolly at best. So
without losing sight of the end
goal – become James Bond – I’vearrived at the Urban Truant
training school in Swanwick
Marina, Hampshire, to undertake
an above-board (and hopefully
above-water) RYA Powerboat
Level 2 course, combined with
a Marine Radio Short-Range
Certificate exam.
All in, that costs under £300
and, terrifyingly, means that in a
few days I should be free to take
a boat out, carry out high-speed
manoeuvres and issue a distress
call if it goes belly-up. We’re hitting
the Solent, just a few nautical
miles from the busy shipping lanes
of the English Channel. Nervous?
Why would I be nervous?Licence to keel
All in, the training costs under £300 and
means that in a few days I should be free
to carry out high-speed manoeuvresThe Highfield
660 has Garmin
navigation kit...
and a Bluetooth
sound system.