After almost a year of research (I admitted we’re boat nargs) we had a solid favourite boat, but to check our hearts weren’t over-ruling our heads we produced a detailed evaluation matrix spreadsheet with twelve criteria, each weighted relative to its importance to us – ie the most important were scored out of 20 – less important out of 10. Then we evaluated a shortlist of boats from the lightest and mid weight sectors.

The matrix really highlighted what mattered to us and put each boat’s pros and cons into an overall perspective. A couple of boats offered amazing accommodation, but their performance would have frustrated us. One was a bit too skinny and just didn’t give the step up in space we’re after… although it was stunning to sail! I don’t think it would be helpful to post our matrix. The criteria and scores reflect our personal priorities and preferences – but if you’re choosing a boat and an analyser like me, I reckon it’s a great exercise to create your own. 

Also, I don’t want to suggest that one boat is better than another – most have been well designed and built to suit the market they target. It’s just important to cut through the blurb, understand the compromises associated with each aspect of boat design, work out the features you’d like and how important they’ll be to you in the real world.

Anyway, getting to the point, the boat we chose was the least well known – a CM46.

The new CM brand has been developed by South African boatbuilder Julian Kneale of Current Marine, in conjunction with Schionning Designs who are well respected in the southern hemisphere although less well known in the north. The CM46 is built from higher spec materials than any of the other boats on our shortlist and that allows weight and performance-potential towards the fastest, but with more space. Crucially for us, competitive production costs in SA allow it to fit our budget.  http://www.currentmarine.co.za

There will be pros and cons to working with what is a relatively small company. To be honest, having built the RS sailboat brand from scratch, I can’t help but identify with Julian and Current Marine’s aspirations and challenges. I think I prefer being part of that, over being smoothly processed within a bigger business. Hope that won’t prove too naive! CM only plan to build a few boats each year, so they won’t challenge the mainstream brand’s volumes and, right now, we’re happy to be getting our hands on one before lead times extend.