AQUAHOLIC

Nick Burnham: Having a superyacht is like having a private jet whereas my boat feels more like owning a Cessna at a local airfield - the joy comes from piloting it yourself

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It's been an interesting start to the season. First, the launch of Smuggler's Blues 2. We launched in beautiful sunshine and calm winds. Ostensibly, the plan was simply to pop down and move the boat back to its berth, but given all the work done to remove the antfoul, fill and fair the hull, and repaint, I knew that at the precise moment the hull kissed the water, that boat was likely to be as fast as it was ever going to be, with the inevitable slime growth you get even with fresh antifoul soon starting to create drag. And so a small detour was made, out of the river and along the coast in search of calm but unrestricted water (I didn't think the harbourmaster would take too kindly to a max speed test in the river!) A little bit of chop pegged the speed back very slightly, but