Motor Boat & Yachting - January 2016 UK

We bought Temptress, our Stevens

1180 , in 2004 after she was featured in

Motor Boats Monthly. We wanted to go

back to steel, having previously owned a

Pedro 36. We saw her at Windsor Racecourse Marina and bought her on sight.

We’ve made quite a few upgrades, including adding LED lighting, GPS and

an inverter, and replacing the curtains in the saloon with blinds. We also

designed our own cockpit cover, which Smelne made up for us, and it turns

that area into a mini conservatory.

Our boat is one of only three that Stevens made with twin engines and

props, which makes the handling superb; you don’t even need the bow

thruster to turn it on its own length. Only once have we had to run her on one

engine, when an exhaust got blocked, and it was amazingly easy to handle, it

didn’t drag at all.

We’ve been all the way down the Thames and over to the Medway, but never

across the Channel, although we have friends through the (now defunct)

Stevens Owners Club who have travelled to France in an 1180.

Even when we go tidal, it just ploughs through the water like a battleship. It’s

not as fast as some boats, but we wanted the comfort. It will do 14 knots, but

generally in tidal waters we do about 10-12 knots. Fuel efficiency is very good,

we only use about three quarters of a tank in a four-month season cruising the

Thames. Peter and Diane Brown

I BOUGHT ONE!

Look past this slightly dated angular styling

and you’ll reap the rewards of a spacious and

eminently practical liveaboard cruiser

Smelne’s flexibility of design and

construction means that no two

models are identical, with the interior

upholstery, wood panelling, lighting and

even windows down to the original

owner’s discretion.

FUNCTION OVER FORM

The first thing you’ll notice is that the

exterior design is functional rather than

flamboyant with barely a curve in sight,

apart from the sweeping steps at the

transom (a £3,500 optional extra), and

even they serve a practical purpose.

However, look past this slightly dated

angular styling and you’ll reap the

rewards of a spacious, hard-wearing

and eminently practical liveaboard

cruiser. The smart and conservatively

styled saloon boasts plenty of

headroom, acres of teak panelling, vast

windows and a large C-shaped settee

to starboard with seating space for six.

The broad beam means that there is

enough room left for an optional

two-person seat on the port side and a

clever convertible table that can be

raised up on lockable hinges for dining

or folded down to knee-height to serve

coffee. A more traditional folding leaf

table was offered as an alternative.

However the star of the show is the

aft cabin. Owners get a queen-sized

double with plenty of room to get out of

bed on both sides, along with a plethora

of lockers, including gas-strut assisted

access to a huge storage bin

underneath the bed. The practical

mentality can also be seen in the choice

of a split heads compartment – the

shower is situated to starboard and is

ensuite to the owner’s cabin, with a

folding glass panel that serves as a

splashback to protect the wooden door.

THROTTLE LEVER

The original ZF electronic controls

had failed on the model we viewed

and were too expensive to replace, so

the owner fitted Morse mechanical

controls instead The standard fit on the transom TRANSOM STAIRS

is a stainless steel ladder, but

many owners chose to fit a

curved staircase, which was

available as a £3,500 extra

ENGINE ACCESS

There is plenty of space in the engine

bay, even on the twin-engined model

we viewed, but accessing them

requires moving 18 cushions and

lifting five hatches

HYDRAULIC STRUTS

Two of the hydraulic struts on the

companionway hatch had been

replaced on the model we viewed and

the portside strut on the engine bay

hatch was on the way out