Welcome to Yachting Monthly’s brief round up of what’s new at this years PSP Southampton Boat Show. If you didn’t follow us on Twitter, here’s what you missed.

Let’s look at some boats, it’s a boat show afterall!

First off is the little Elan 210, a trailable pocket rocket of a boat, with T keel and twin rudders she should offer the same sort of performance-with-control that her bigger sister the Elan 310 demonstrated when we tested her in December 2009. She also been nominated for 2011/12 European Yacht of the Year. Prices start at €23,990 +VAT Elan Yachts

If the Elan is a bit too racy, how about something pretty in plastic, the Rustler 33

This new Stephen Jones Design caught my eye as soon as I walked onto the pontoons. Her long overhangs are pleasing to the eye, as well as the marina manager. Inside she’s small by modern 33ft standards, but you don’t buy this boat for interior volume. Below the water line she has a sleek lead fin keel and a fully balanced rudder operated by a link system.


£99,500 Ruster Yachts

Also on the water was the Gunfleet 43

A new boat from a new yard. Built on an industrial estate in Colchester, her white hull and blue cove line, shot from a cannon on the hull, are similar to another East Coast based luxury boat builder. It’s no wonder when Gunfleet’s Richard Matthews used to head up Oyster Yachts. Her starting price of £538,000 inclues items like sprayhood, lee cloths, an electric windlass and B&G instruments, but more importantly 3 bottles Bollinger champagne – 1 to launch 2 to drink Gunfleet Marine

For the same £538,000 you could get 4 foot more of shoal draft cruiser in the shape of the New Southerly 47, but you’ll have to buy the extras yourself.

Like the Rustler 33 she’s designed by Stephen jones and has all the hallmarks of the Southerly brand. The 47 has the saloon raised allowing you to take advantage of those big coachroof windows. Southerly Yachts

If all these “plastic” boats are are too much, let’s round off this boat section with something wonderful and wooden, the stunning Spirit 50DH.

With her gentle sheer and smooth teak decks, she really is a pleasure to behold. The sweeping curve of the deck house is a work of art in it’s own right. This 50DH is available, but I don’t want to ruin the moment by mentioning money. Spirit Yachts

Onto the gear and gadgets.

Both Raymarine and B&G used the Southampton Boat Show to launch new instruments displays. Both are colour LCD and have 4.1 inch diameter displays.

The Raymarine i70 has lost it’s battleship grey surround in favour for a more automotive style metallic silver and black fascia. The display can show a number of different screens, from single number to tradition analogue style or combinations. It’s also possible to display an AIS “radar” on the display, but you’d have to be quite close to the instrument to see the targets.

The preproduction B&G Triton instruments had all it’s displays on show, but weren’t available to play with. The text font has to be smoothed out and the B&G logo will be moved to the bottom of the display. The LCD screen is laminated to the scratchfree glass so condensation should be a thing of the past. B&G

To compliment the new style i70, Raymarine have also introduced their new e7 Hybridtouch multifunction display, sounds fancy eh?

It’s a touch screen display with a mini joystick and buttons, and the e7 will display information from a number of different sources. Primarily it’s a chart plotter, but can be a fishfinder, radar, instrument repeater etc. at once or all at the same time. The e7 and i70 are both viewable with polarised sunglasses, previous displays could black out when viewed through polarised glasses when you tilt your head or the boat heels over. The e7 can be used to operate a compatible stereo system and is bluetooth and WiFi compatible so can transmit the display to an iPhone 4, ipad 1&2 or be controlled by another WiFi device such as Raymarine’s WiFi remote.

Lastly from Raymarine were their new range of thermal night vision cameras the TH32 and TH24. Note they are thermal imaging, not infrared, so they will work in no light. They can also be used in daylight and bright sunshine, unlike infrared.

The TH32 (above Just less that £2,000) can see a boat at a distance of 1.23km and a MOB at 450m,
while the TH24 which can be had for less that £1300 can see a boat at
895m and an mob at 320. A press on the magnification button doubles the
magnification of image, and the image can be set to red to retain night visibility. The lighter something appears in the viewfinder, the warmer it is. Sadly I only had a chance to use it in daylight, but it would pick out the warmest jounalist around the stand with ease.

Raymarine

Something more affordable now, the tiny Standard Horizon GX1600E Explorer

If fitting a full depth VHF isn’t an option, you must be able to find a place for this little DSC radio. Coming in at just 3.55in deep it’s shallower that two Reed’s almanacs are on top of each other. It might be small, but it has the features found on larger models. Standard Horizon

Still on a communication theme, the KVH TracPhone V3, just 15 inches in diameter, smaller than a lot of modern radar antenna, has download speeds of up to 2Mbps. The V3 can be fitted on deck, on the mast or on a pole.

A number of air time packages are available 50MB/month for $50, 250MB/month for $250, 500MB/month for $500 and 1000MB/month for, go on have a guess…nope it’s $999! Voice calls are from $0.49/min and data over your package is $1.99 on every plan except the 1000MB bundle when it’s $0.99. You can also have 2 land based numbers, so anyone phoning you will just pay for a land call to that are. It’s small, lightweight (at less than 12kg) and running it is affordable. Buying it is £15,000 though CA Clase

Digital Yacht had a number of new items on show. Not new as such, but their BOATraNE is now up to Version 2.

It’s the same WiFi hotspot for your boat running on a linux based system. Think of it as a server for your boat, that you can access via a WiFi web browser. You can access a Navionics based chart plotter, store all your boats instruction manuals in PDF form and read them from your iPad, it will control your stereo, do automatic log readings for you that are viewable on Google Earth and store your MP3 music library.

Lastly they have added a Twitter feed on there so if your boat is within range of a shore based WiFi provider (or you have something like the V3), it will tweet the NMEA data. Which could be handy for keeping tabs on charterers. Prices start at £500 + VAT

If you have a NMEA 0183 WiFi transmitter like Digital Yacht’s iAIS or their WLN10 and you’d like to view the NMEA information onto your iPhone or iPad, iOnBoard is the app for you. £4.99 buys you a repeater for your instruments in your pocket, or handbag if you have an iPad.

Lastly is a neat solution for those who travel from boat to boat with their laptop navigation system, such as delivery skippers, or those who was AIS with the minimum of fuss. The uAIS is a USB AIS receiver, taking all it’s power from the USB port. £175 + VAT

Well that’s that, a quick round up of some of the new gear at this years PSP Southampton International Boat Show. There will be a full write up of these products and more in the November 2011 issue of Yachting Monthly untill then, Cheers!