Motor Boat & Yachting — November 2017

YOURMBY

Have your say in print and online

CONTACT MBY

Email [email protected]

Write Motor Boat & Yachting, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road,

Farnborough Business Park, Hampshire, GU14 7BF

NAME THAT BOAT
I sympathise with Nick Burnham on his
difficulty in settling on a suitable name
for his new Jeanneau Leader 805. I recently
decided to rename my magnificent craft
(it’s actually a Viking 26 cabin cruiser
but I wouldn’t be reading MBY if I didn’t
dream). Her previous name was Grymps,
which I thought unattractive, so I set about
coming up with loads of clever ideas based
on where the money to buy her came from,
my lifestyle, family, old girlfriends, puns
and all sorts. In the end, I realised that
I would be the only person to understand
the significance of such a name so my
ingenuity would be lost on anyone else.
So I called her what I always refer to her
as – The Boat. It raises a few smiles and
does confuse the marina at times but it
does what it says on the tin and saves a
lot of explaining! Regards from the boating
Mecca that is Croydon. Crispin Williams
Funnily enough, when my brothers and I
bought our first speedboat, a faded brown
Fletcher 14 Arrowflash, we could never
settle on a name so we simply referred
to it as The Speeder. In the end, the name
stuck, and even when we upgraded to a
Sea Ray 180 a few years later, we renamed
it Son of Speeder. Happy days! Hugo

The shots the MBY team

would rather you didn’t see

BEHIND

THE

SCENES

OUTBOARD OUTRAGE

A few years ago, I purchased a new

3.5hp outboard made by a market-leading

manufacturer. To cut a long story short,

the ownership experience has been a total

travesty due to continual carburettor issues.

When discussing its total lack of reliability

with a local marine engineer, he informed

me that this wasn’t the most unreliable

motor, and named another brand that was

actually worse. Obviously within the marine

industry it is well known which outboards

are more frequently in the workshop than

others. A trawl of the internet will also give

you a picture, but not one I personally trust.

So after becoming totally exasperated

with my current outboard, I thought I’d cut

my losses and trade it in for a more reliable

model. But what to buy? Over the years I

have been interested in the various reviews

you have undertaken and made a mental

note of your results and recommendations.

To be fair, your review is purely based on

assessing the new motors that are available

at the time but the bit of information that is

missing for me is a long-term reliability test.

Therefore it would be very interesting to

survey owners and marine engineers two

years or more on to establish if your findings

on the day have actually transpired after

being used in its true environment for

some considerable time. Chris Cleaves

You don’t say what brand of engine you had

troubles with but

I have to say I’m

surprised, not least

because most

of the big-name

brands claim to

offer warranties for

the first few years. I

am equally wary of

internet reviews on

the basis that there

is always one bad

egg who makes lots

of noise without mentioning that they’ve

laid it down the wrong way up or failed to

flush it through etc. I ran a 2.5hp Suzuki for

five years with very little trouble and am

Edited by Hugo Andreae

LETTERS

16

The new Williams 345 is

so good Hugo can drive

it with his eyes closed

STA R

LETTER

WINS A BOTTLE OF

PLYMOUTH GIN

Plymouth gin is proud

of its maritime heritage

and its partnership

with Princess Yachts

WINS A BOTTLE OF

PLYMOUTH GIN

of its maritime heritage

with Princess Yachts

What’s in a name? More

than you might think for

many boat owners

Art ed Neil

reporting for

duty, sir!

Jack pretends to fi lm

the new ST35 while

taking another selfi e

Production ed Mia

keeps her social

media updated

Nick was too busy polishing

his new boat to send us any

photos of himself. Again!