BOAT REPORT Bolster and foot plate


mean you can see over the top of the windscreen


It’s this versatility that explains why Sunseeker has sold 30 of these already


Flush-fitted helm switchgear looks the part


A


t the launch of the Predator 57 at the London Boat Show just gone, aside from the papping of ‘that bird off the X Factor’ Nicole Scherzinger, a Queen cover band


and excellent video showing various Thunder and Superhawks skipping off the crests, it was easy to forget that there was actually a brand new Predator being shown to the world for the first time. You couldn’t really see it, for a start, such was


the size of the crowd that flocked to Sunseeker’s stand but, despite not being a pop princess nor ex-girlfriend of Lewis Hamilton, the Predator 57 actually has plenty to shout about. The standout feature is the way the boat


transforms from fully enclosed, cosy winter wafter to a wide-open suntrap at the touch of a button. Well, two actually. First you slide the starboard side of the two-piece cockpit door to port and, once both panes are together, push a button just inside the door and the whole lot disappears into a void below the deck, leaving a totally open aft end with just the seatbacks of the saloon and cockpit meeting to make a half- height partition. The door mechanism needs a dash of refinement as it juddered its way down rather than slipping smoothly into the deck but this is hull number one, which has taken a good old boat show battering, with the doors going up and down more in a week than hull number two’s will in a decade. Next, head to the dash, press button number


two and the vast GRP roof recedes over the fixed aft section in around 30 seconds to create one of the largest roof apertures I have seen on any boat. It’s quite staggering how different the boat looks and feels with the doors down and roof peeled back. And it’s this versatility that explains why


Sunseeker has sold nearly 30 of these boats already. In a warm climate you can keep the saloon beautifully air-conditioned in the day then open everything up for evening cruises when the temperature has dipped, and in chillier climes the saloon can be heated into a cosy cocoon, perfect for winter adventures. It’s easy to see why a good handful of these 57 orders are heading up to Scandinavia. You really do get the best of both worlds; a


spacious cockpit which manages to include a sunpad (over a tender garage large enough for a Williams 325), a big wrap of seating around a teak-topped table, and a wet-bar with griddle,


fridge and icemaker, as well as a saloon with comfortable dinette seating around another table with a flatscreen TV secreted in the sideboard opposite. You could make the saloon and cockpit blend together even more cohesively if you were to remove the carpet from the saloon.


LIFE ON BOARD No area feels pinched or compromised apart from maybe the small lower dinette which could only really serve three for breakfast, but then why would you use that when you have a much more spacious seating area, not to mention better views, a few steps away? You could lose the lower dinette altogether, if you think it’s going to be redundant, and replace it with an ensuite for your pals in the third cabin that also acts as a spacious day heads. Personally, I think the lower dinette is worth


keeping, especially if you are going to be cruising with just two of you as, sited opposite the galley, one person can sit and read the paper while the other poaches the morning eggs. The galley opposite, though not enormous


and lacking a full-size fridge/freezer, is helped out enormously by the headroom and light allowed by its location beneath the windscreen. There is also an opening port to provide more light and quick ventilation during cooking plus bags of countertop, which is always handy. There is a good variety of storage and all cupboards are held in place with robust catches to stop pots and pans escaping. Your crockery will be perfectly safe thanks to everything – even the salt and pepper shakers – getting their own bespoke fiddles within the eye-level cupboards. It’s been a while since my last Sunseeker test


and it was good to see that beneath the rakish lines, funky glazing and irrepressible brand image, the Poole yard really knows how to put boats together well. The joinery is exceptional, even in the places you can’t see, and there is an air of quality that extends to such touches as the way the doors close with a satisfying clunk, the cupboards clack into place and how solid the flooring feels under foot. The master cabin is a real jewel, well within


the realm of being a place where you spend time instead of just slumbering, changing or, well, you know… It has masses of headroom, is bursting with light thanks to the hull windows and the small breakfast dinette to starboard is infinitely more useful than a stylish yet rarely used chaise longue. Why wouldn’t you make a coffee, grab the iPad and


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