CLASS ACT

Sometimes only takes one word from a salesman to swing a deal. Or in my case, to endear me to the boat being reviewed. When I asked Prestige importer and director of Sundance Marine, David Beck, if he would encourage owners of the Prestige 460S to venture away from their home ports, the word that impressed me was “yes”.

That might seem strange but, over the years, not every sales representative of capable offshore cruisers has recommended their customers should head to sea. And if I hear correctly, many owners in the forty to sixty-foot range spend most of their time on the waterway of their home port. In Sydney they’re on the harbour, in Perth out to Rotto, in Melbourne and Brisbane it’s the Bay and so on.

Perhaps it’s David’s sailing background, but whatever the reason, it was a refreshing change, because the Prestige 460S deserves a better life than swanning around the Swan or hooking up to broadband on the Broadwater. It must yearn for the open water because it’s built right by the wilds of the Bering