Writing about new yachts can be a funny game. I often catch myself writing that a boat a little short of £1m represents ‘very good value’. Given my own boat cost £5k this doesn’t seem to stack up. Yet it is, of course, often true. There aren’t that many boatbuilders out there that are absolutely stinking rich after all. I don’t see Elon Musk quaking in his boots over the launch of the latest range of Bavaria Yachts.
Given all that, I must admit to being somewhat surprised when I walked past the Viko stand at the Southampton Boat Show last year (2021) and spotted a price tag at that time of £65,000 or so for its S35.
Now, it’s hard not to be cynical when confronted with a price tag of this nature. I even heard someone mutter ‘what’s the catch’. Yet I had reason not to be cynical – largely because a few years back I tested the similarly
