You can drive all five of these thrilling sportsboats in our exclusive reader sea trial in Portland Harbour
With just over two weeks to go until our exclusive reader sea trial event, we can now reveal the first batch of boats that will be making an appearance.
We will be giving 50 readers the opportunity to drive all these and many more in Portland Harbour on July 18.
Tickets cost £25 per person and places are allocated on the basis of those actively looking to buy a new boat.
So without further ado, here is our run-down of the first five star boats gracing the occasion:
Williams 520 Sportjet
The king of the superyacht tenders, Williams is one of the great British boating success stories and the jet propulsion system allows for sublime handling.
That’s without even mentioning the 45-knot top speed emanating from the 200hp Rotax 4-TEC in the rear.
One of the stars of our May 2015 Sportsboat special edition, this Finnish speed machine has a stepped hull that slices through the waves.
Fitted with a 250hp Mercury Verado engine, the model we’ve got for you to test drive is capable of a top speed of 40.7 knots and gets from 0-30 in just 10.7 seconds.
XO 250
Another Finnish flyer that starred in our Sportsboat group test, the XO 250 sports a sleek black exterior and the performance to match its stealth bomber styling.
When Dave Marsh tested this back in May he found that its 300hp Evinrude could hit 44.2 knots and accelerate up to 30 knots in 11.2 seconds. His verdict? “Hardcore, and then some.”
Shearwater 890S
Ratcheting up the velocity even further, the Shearwater 890S is a proper thrill ride, with a top speed in excess of 50 knots.
When the opportunity came up to test it on a glassy calm Solent in June, editor Hugo Andreae leapt at the chance and deemed it “a properly sexy bit of kit”.
Sealegs 7.7
And now for something completely different – with a top speed of 40 knots, the Sealegs 7.7 may not be the fastest boat in our fleet, but it is the only one that can drive on dry land.
This exceptional party piece is made possible by a combination of a 200hp Evinrude outboard and a 690cc Honda in-board – you’ve got to see it to believe it!
More boats are due to be announced next week, including Cobra and Ribeye, but for full details of how to apply to drive all of these boats on our exclusive reader sea trial day, click here.
