Bavaria 32 DC
Lacks the sheer depth of quality
of the Windy and isn’t as fast,
but it is more voluminous, not
to mention cheaper. Prices start
at £55,000 for a 2006 boat.Hunton XRS37
Longer, sleeker, terrific hull and
very fast. A less social cockpit
but the real go-faster deal
out on the water. Prices start
at £95,000 for a 2007 boat.Jeanneau 30 S
Trades performance and build
quality (perfectly acceptable
if not to exquisite Windy levels)
for space and value. Prices start
at £60,000 for a 2007 boat.Date 2007 Price £92,995
Located Lymington
Featured here. Twin Volvo Penta
D4-260s, teak-laid cockpit, bow
thruster, holding tank and plotter.
Contact http://www.berthon.co.ukDate 2006 Price £94,950
Located Swanwick
Twin Volvo Penta D4-260s, plus the
Ivory White Luxury Vinyl cockpit
upholstery and full camper canopy.
Contact http://www.solentmotoryachts.comDate 2011 Price €139,000
Located France
A 2011 boat, so one of the last built,
with the largest 300hp engines and
good specification.
Contact http://www.partonyachting.comand a Hans Jørgen Johnsen hull that
makes the most of every scintillating
horsepower.
‘The Porsche of the pontoons’
screamed the headlines of the Feb
2005 Motor Boat & Yachting, as we
got our hands on one of the very
first to leave the factory. “30 knots
feels like dawdling,” extolled the text.
Similar praise was meted out for
the handling. “Trimmed correctly, no
amount of abuse can upset it.” Also
noted was an interesting corollary
between performance (we touched
almost 47 knots) and economy. After
all, an easily driven hull benefits fuel
consumption too. At 36 knots and
fitted with KAD300 engines (less
efficient than the latest common
rail D4 series), the boat was burning
about 14 gallons an hour for about
2.5mpg. It compared very favourably
with the 1.95mpg from the similarly
styled, sized and engined Bavaria 32
DC that we’d tested just a couple of
months earlier.
It’s a benefit not lost on Marcus
Perkins, owner of the boat you see on
these pages, which is fitted with twin
D4-260 common rail diesels. Marcusran an 8.5m RIB previously, fitted
with a single Yamaha 225hp
outboard engine, a significantly
smaller, lighter package. To his
surprise, he saw little difference
in fuel costs. In fact, the Windy may
even be slightly cheaper. But of
course, you don’t run a Windy to save
money, you run a Windy for the way
it drives. “We’ve had great fun in the
Solent, finding it easy to access all
the usual haunts we enjoyed in the
RIB, plus very easy hops to Studland,
Chichester and beyond. A Force 6
with wind over tide merely meant
trimming in, maintaining circa-
20 knots and marvelling at how
confidence-inspiring the hull is.
We wanted something we could
weekend on but without losing the
sporty handling, which on the Windy
is highly impressive – plus you don’t
get wet when it blows! The cockpit
is very sociable for fun with friends
and family, and we fell for the looks!”
Darrell East also moved up
from a RIB and has kept his Grand
Tornado 32 in Port Solent for the
past three years. “I loved the agility
and compact nature of the RIB butwanted overnight accommodation
without losing those attributes. I
liked the brand and the Scandinavian
heritage; to my mind, the Windy
range is the Roll-Royce of the water.
It’s a very manageable boat, very
easy for two to handle and I can take
it out on my own if the conditions are
right. We use the boat mainly in the
Solent although I’ve been as far east
as Brighton and I plan to take it to
the Channel Islands this year. I find it
a sociable boat with plenty of cockpit
space yet still with enough cabin for
comfortable weekending, and I’m
very impressed with the handling.”SIX STRONG YEARS
The 32 Grand Tornado ran virtually
unchanged for six years, with only
trim and hull colour choices altering
slightly. Then in 2011, the Windy
Zonda usurped it. And although
the basic concept of a low, sleek
30ft driving machine remained,
the execution was surprisingly
different. Gone was the sleeping
area beneath the cockpit, halving
overnight internal capacity. But
interestingly, gone too was the cosydinette layout. Instead, the Zonda
features a central double bed, far
more comfortable, but leaving the
cockpit as the only social space
on the boat. In many ways it is a
superior machine and it absolutely
nails Windy’s core attributes of
performance and handling. But for
all the advantages of that permanent
bed and full-width cockpit, there’s
something to be said for the dinette
and side decks of its predecessor,
the 32 Grand Tornado.VALUE
BUILD QUALITY
ACCOMMODATION
PERFORMANCE
OUR VERDICT 90%Next month Haines 350RIVALS
WHAT’S ON THE MARKET
Classic Windy styling
still looks the part 13
years after its launchUSEDBOAT BOAT MASTER