PEARL 60
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generation's awareness design as much as the Habitat founder. But one isn't used to hearing his name mentioned in the context of 60ft production motor boats, so when it was announced that Studio Conran were getting together with Sealine to hatch a completely new interior for one of Sealine's best boats, the T60, plenty of eyebrows were raised. After all, isn't it the Italian boatbuilders who are supposed to be at the cutting-edge of avant-garde styling, inside and out? And yet it's fair to say that Sealine have been catching the eye with some radical powerboat designs of their own in the past couple of years. Tucked away in Stratford-upon-Avon, only 40 miles from Sealine's Kidderminsu i factory, lies another UK boatbuilder, Pearl Motor Yachts. They, like Sealine, take design seriously, and indeed they can claim to have changed the face of modern boat design, albeit in a specialist constituency. Time was when aft-cabin boats were considered the preserve of a more conservative cruising crowd. But Pearl decided this crusty image was passé, so they teamed up with Bill Dixon to produce the Pearl 50 and Pearl 60 - two aft-cabin boats with modern styling that's every bit as sharp as any Ferretti. Nor does Pearl's shot across the bows of the mainstream boatbuilders end there. Inside the Pearl 60's bespoke heart is an interior so exquisitely crafted that it leaves some of the similarly priced mainstream production boats looking a little rough around the edge*. With their impressive interiors and similar prices, the Sealine T60 Aura and the Pearl 60 are natural rivals for those prepared to ponder the divergent pros and cons of such different design approaches. And with their avant-garde style, these British

boatbuilders are set to go head to head with the ItaJian yards, too. Take a look at many alt-cabin boats and they have'north European temperate climate cruising' written all over them. This is the first preconception you need to overcome with the Pearl 60. As a sunny Med boat, the 60 makes just as much sense as a conventional ait-cockpit boat like the Sealine. Take the aft deck, for instance. Raised about a metre above the level of the cockpit on an aft-cockpit boat, it provides far more privacy, whether tied alongside a pontoon or moored stern-to in the archetypal Med marina. Either way,...

platform forward of the tender. Plus, instead of locating the passerelle in the middle or over the steps as usual, Fearl have a separate opening on the opposite side to the steps. So the passerelle (yet another standard item) can stretch out over the tender onto the dock, or extend over the water as a diving platform and still leave the steps clear. Kasy movement around the boat is obviously one of Pearls priorities. Deck stowage can be another aft-eabin Achilles' heel. No question, the Pearl 60s stowage can't hold a candle to a boat like the Princess 58, with its capacious full-beam...

SEALINE T60 AURA & PEARL 6C have transformed the saloon more comfortable and sociable First things first: is the dramatically different Studio Conran- inspired Aura interior a triumph of style over substance, a victim of involvement from designers who arrive completely inexperienced in marine matters? The answer is a resounding no. The iifoe r-cool interior - in my opinion an effortless match for anything that the best Italian yards arc producing - is very apariment-like, especially in the saloon and the owner's cabin. But the overhead handrails in ihe saloon have not been stripped out, and...

j1 HEAD-TO-HEAD SEALINE T60 AURA & PEARL 60 ~--.;; -• MBY JUNE 2009 93

like' for some, and there's little space for adding gear. limitations compared with the more versatile Pearl 60,1 couldn't help feeling that the Aura's saloon is the one I'd prefer to hang out in and to cook in. It's a fabulously stylish place, bright and breezy inside thanks to (he large overhead skylights up front, very comfortable to loaf around in, and its rangy, open-plan gallev allows the cook to employ helpers without them getting in the way. And so to bed. And at last, an owner's cabin with a genuinely different style - a resolutely pared-down style that manages to be simple yet...

SEALINE T60 AURA & PEARL 60 Datafile Sealine T60 Aura v Pearl 60 If you tot up who scores the most victories in our head-lo- head categories (see table below right), the Pearl 60 is the winner. But it's unlikely, of course, that anybody goes around ticking just the same boxes as these and then making a decision without adding a huge dollop of emotion and opinion to the mix. Some buyers will never countenance an alt-cabin boat, however stylish and well built; others may never buy anything else. Still, what the crude'first past the post'tally does highlight is just how incredibly well an...