Windy’s celebrated sportscruiser range is not really a range of sportscruisers at all. It’s a range of sporting weekenders, with acutely angled hulls, traditional sterndrive propulsion and slick, puckered foredecks that put the emphasis squarely on performance rather than volume. Over the years, the modern Windy fleet has of course been infiltrated by outboard options and there are also a couple of parallel “SR” open boat and Tender lines. But what Windy is famous for and what purist Windy fans continue to demand are premium Nordic weekenders that can take you across rough seas at pace with soft-riding agility and then accommodate you for a night or two when you reach your destination. The much-loved 34 Khamsin was just such a boat until it was cruelly discontinued in 2013, and a decade later, conscious of a physical and financial void between the 32 Grand Zonda (£338,000) and the 37 Shamal (£650,000), Windy has introduced a stepping stone that, in principle at least, has the potential to outdo them both.
On first acquaintance though, the new 34 Alizé looks
