Is this the most important design moment of the year?
The London Boat Show has delivered a genuinely exciting, historical even, moment in boat design. As ever with the best designs, it’s so simple it hurts, but the new Jeanneau Prestige 38’s clever aft cockpit is probably going to be the single most important thing to happen to sportscruisers this year…and maybe ever.
Tender garages are fashionable and hide ugly dinghies away quite neatly but, let’s face it, they’re also crap. You lose shed-loads of usable boat and end up with a big ‘bussy’ stern. Ok, you do get a sunpad but how many of us really ever use it?
What Jeanneau has done, is sink a proper aft seating area into the garage. A 2.1m dingy still hides away under the seats in the picture, the only difference is that you now get to use and enjoy the space above it. A large teak table will drop to make up a sunpad but most of the time you can simply sit out, in the open, right by the water – rather than tucked inside the hardtop – and enjoy the day. Perfect.
