LINSSEN GRAND STURDY 500 AC VARIOTOP

Linssen’s forensic pursuit of refinement is crucial when designing a boat this quiet

There is a common perception that Linssen’s boats are only suitable for navigating inland waterways. That certainly is not the case with the Grand Sturdy 500 AC Variotop (catchy name, huh?) lying before me on a hammerhead pontoon in East Cowes Marina. The boat made the journey over to the Isle of Wight via the North Sea and swept along the English south coast to where it sits now; catching the evening sun, light dancing off its polished stainless steel. This is hull number one of the new 500, the flagship of the range and, though it may not look like it, an all-new design. Most of the work has been done below the waterline; above it the boat doesn’t look radically different to the 500s that have been coming out of the Maasbracht shipyard since 1996.

Every tweak to the hull shape has been done due to a borderline obsessive attitude towards