The Born Again Boat Owner

NICK BURNHAM: A couple of cracking winter days out on the water on a friend’s boat makes me ponder the logic of lifting my boat ashore for the chillier months… until Storm Emma arrives

My friend Rob bought a 1983 Sunseeker Portofino 25 last year. It’s a fantastic boat, a low, lithe classic of angular ’80s straight lines – an aquatic Lotus Esprit Mk I. Best of all, it was re-engined in 2002 with a Steyr-Puch straight six-turbo diesel pushing out 246hp in place of what was probably a V8 petrol originally.

The chap that sold it had owned the boat most of its life but it had spent the last few years beneath a tarpaulin in his garden so there was work to do. Rob had it delivered to his home on a low-loader and craned into his garden in May 2017. No stranger to a project, Rob set about the boat with gusto, confidently predicting a launch date some time in June. No stranger to Rob, his wife Cheryl confidently predicted a launch date somewhat later in the year – I think she was hedging her bets about which year.