CORMATE UTILITY 27

We head to Oslo for some purist powerboating, Cormate style.

- Alex Smith

You almost have to force yourself to dismiss what you know about modern market trends when you come across a boat like this. Forget volume. Forget expandable decks. Forget crowd-pleasing toys. What we have instead is something far simpler and more purposeful. A clean, slippery, stepped hull with a fine entry and a subtle bow flare; a gently swept sheerline lined with smooth teak rails; and an elegant open transom with a beefy inboard engine tucked out of sight beneath the deck. Throw in some duck-egg blue gelcoat, some stitched leather furniture, an empty teak foredeck and some gleaming steel accents and you have a surefire recipe for a fantastic looking boat. But of course, that's nothing new to Cormate. For a long time, this race-derived Norwegian brand has been about the creation of purist driving machines that are simple, lightweight, fast and premium. And whether you're looking at the 23, the 32, the 35 or this new 27, each boat continues to stick very closely to that proven formula.

PARED BACK BUT POSH

When you step on board, the subtle, understated luxury of the Cormate ethos shines through. Elements like the metallic glint of the subtly silvered gelcoat on the internal furniture and the lovely teak work leave you in no doubt about the calibre of this boat. And it's also good to see how hard the deck arrangement works to make proper use of limited space. The aft sunbed, for instance, sits in the centre of the deck, directly on top of the engine bay, with a clever triangular backrest that hinges forward and aft. That enables you to rig it as a large aft-facing lounger or as a pair of benches, one facing forward into the cockpit and the other facing aft over the elegantly angular swim platform.