XO DFNDR

With its rollcage and tenacious-looking matt-black shell, does the Land Rover of the sea live up to its on-road counterpart?

There is a determined east wind barrelling across Poole bay and with the tide turning, it’s kicking up a shortly spaced, awkward chop ready to devour the 25ft hull of the boat we’re here to test. Ordinarily, if I were about to get behind the wheel of a boat of this size in these conditions, I would be making my excuses and rescheduling, but there’s no way the XO DFNDR is going to shirk a challenge. How can it? With a black, spotlight-fringed cage protecting the four helm seats, a jerrycan lashed to the forward end, suspension seats for helmsman and navigator and a snorkel sprouting from the deck, if there was ever a boat to take on what’s waiting outside the shelter of the harbour, it’s this.

The looks aren’t a total gimmick, either. That cage can be enclosed by canopies and heated (hence the snorkel, which is actually the exhaust for the Webasto heating and not purely aesthetic) to keep you toasty on windy winter adventures.