THE BOATAHOLIC

Nick Burnham: I don’t regret my ridiculous car or my expensive boat

- Nick Burnham

Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK I treated myself to a beautiful gleaming black Mercedes Benz SL400. It’s an incredibly high-specification Edition model, limited to 130 vehicles of which only 42 had the Luxury Package. Which is why mine has such pointless yet strangely brilliant features as power closing doors, seats that massage you as you drive and suspension so sophisticated that it can be made to gently lean the car into a turn as you take it. It even has Level Two autonomous driving. It is utterly fantastic in every way, the best car in the world, but is currently quite useless. It sits on my drive, gathering dust and depreciating, stymied by the coronavirus lockdown.

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away,