Britain’s hardest-hitting motorboat magazine

When you’re blessed with the quick reactions, steady nerve and unshakable conviction that make you a six-time World Champion in one of the world’s most extreme sports, you’re not easily taken aback. But we almost managed to rattle Britain’s offshore powerboat racing legend Steve Curtis this month.

There he was, turning up in Hamble to test our pick of the best 35ft-37ft sportscruiser hulls on the market, gagging to be let loose on the Windys and Fairlines of this world and compare their handling, seakeeping, manoeuvrability and cornering…and one of the boats sitting patiently on the pontoons stuck out like Handy Andy at a debutantes’ ball.

With no plush sunloungers, no electric sunroof, no stylishly raked radar arch, a windscreen that’s swept forward rather than back, and a curious little upper helm perching precariously above a utilitarian wheelhouse, surely the Botnia Targa 35 wasn’t one of the chosen few? You could sense what Steve was thinking: that we’d dialled the wrong boatyard when we were asking to borrow a Targa.

But we hadn’t. To read the full story of one of the most revealing tests we have ever done, you’ll have to turn to page 26, but suffice it to say that the flying Finn more than held its own — in company that included the promised contenders from Windy and Fairline, plus a modern-day Fairey and the reigning MBM Sportscruiser Of The Year.

We never expected anything less, actually. At Motor Boats Monthly, we have always believed in championing substance over style.

Hugo Andreae, 20 May 2005