http://www.boatinternational.com | April 2016PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY. ILLUSTRATION: PING ZHU
TOY OF THE MONTH
The newly founded diving board designer Molono, set up by
Charlie Richards, the CEO, and his wife Lauren, has announced
its arrival in some style. The Gracie Bird board, named after
Princess Grace and inspired by the classic Riva and Chris-Craft
runabouts of the 1950s, is without doubt the chicest board on
land or at sea.
These ultra-sleek, bespoke, carbon fibre and wood diving
boards come in a variety of pinstripe finishes, from bubinga
and holly to ash and SikaFix, all made to blend beautifully with
your beach club.
Thanks to some clever engineering (Molono’s engineer,
Nicholas Spens, spent 13 years in the boating industry, building
lightweight composite racing yachts and bespoke components
for superyachts) this board can take up to a hefty 250kg and
still provide a powerful spring.
After helping you make a splash, the board can be
detached and stored in its robust bag in the tender garage.
All you need now is film-star-worthy swimwear.
Gracie Bird diving board, from £35,000, molono.co.ukS
ummer is on its way and your
superyacht is almost ready to
receive you. It’s time to ponder
which wines you are going to
drink on board. As we’ve discussed here
before, it’s something of a challenge
stocking a sea-going cellar, although
you will, of course, be drinking the best.
The best doesn’t necessarily mean
the oldest. More than 85 per cent of
wine bought in the UK is
drunk within 24 hours of
purchase, but an alarming
amount is spoiled by
being kept too long. The
French drink their wines
much younger than
we British do, possibly
because the myth was
that our cellars were colder and thus the
wines took longer to mature.
At a birthday dinner the other night,
a friend opened a 1999 Meursault
that he had been keeping for a special
occasion. It was shot to pieces and
oxidised. There was fruit there – just- hinting at past glories, but he should
have opened it years ago.
Part of the problem with the fine-
wine market is that folk aren’t drinking
enough – merchants have warehouses
full of wine.
I’ve just had a bottle of 2005 Ch.
Calon-Ségur. It was far too young
according to the vintage charts but
absolutely spot on as far as I was
concerned. A quick double-decant and
it was ready to go: rich, ripe, earthy,
robust and still crammed with vibrant,
concentrated fruit and barely any
sediment to speak of, useful
on a superyacht when wines
can get churned up in the
bottle. I even broached
a 2009 Ch. Montrose, quite
striking in its brooding
adolescent beauty.
Even a fine vintage port
can be drunk young while
it still boasts maximum expression of
fruit and body, such as the exquisite
2009 Taylor’s I had the other day. Of
course, if you keep it for 30 years you
will get something magnificent in a
different way. Keep it for 40 and it might
collapse on you.
Open your bottles young and chart
their progress over the years. After all,
that’s why the good Lord put 12 bottles
in a case.Open secret
Don’t leave great wine all bottled up.
Uncork and enjoy, says Jonathan RayOnly 100
bespoke
Gracie Bird
boards
are being
producedA friend’s 1999
Meursault was
shot to pieces.
He should have
opened it
years ago