BMB 35 HT Sport

 

Issue: April/May 2006

POWER PACKED PERFORMER

It's a hardtop, but guests can still soak up the sun.

WORDS + PHOTOS ANDREW RICHARDSON

Sydney Harbour is regarded by many as the most beautiful harbour in the world. And what a superb backdrop it provided for this BMB 35 HT Sport test.

The Modern Boating team's been out on soft -top and open Bavaria Motor Boats plenty of times and has always been impressed. Bavarias are great value European production boats offering style, solid performance and impressive layouts, all at a fair price.

This Hard Top 35 is a sports boat with a cruising twist. You can order the 35 as an open-sport boat and save a few bucks, or go for the more popular hard top.

"We've sold all of our BMB stock (except this one) and she won't last long," reckons Andy Howden from BMB Clontarf Sydney, who joined us for the ride.

The advantage of a hardtop is it extends your boating season, because the cockpit area is undercover. The trade-off is the loss of open outdoor areas, which we all enjoy on sunny days. To combat this, the Sydney BMB dealer is adding a custom-made aftermarket extended swim platform to all local BMB HT 35s. The extra 80cm out the back is great and you don't even realise it's an after factory add-on because the local work has been done so well.

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The extended swim platform combined with the reversible aft lounge (that also converts into a sun pad) makes the 35HT a super sunny day boat.

LAYOUT
Another feature that adds pizzazz to this vessel is the settee and beautiful timber table in the cockpit area.

All up, there's cockpit seating for about 10 people, a wet bar with 12V fridge and an array of creature comforts including swim platform shower and ladder, extra bright halogen cockpit lighting and plenty of drink holders.

Moving forward on this boat is easy thanks to the teak inlaid step-ups and generous sidewalks around the main cabin. The high, extended bowrail is an excellent safety feature. Once forward there's a place for a sun pad and half a dozen drink holders. Anyone for a party?

One feature most Bavarias have is an open bowrail, allowing passengers to board easily. Andy dropped me off on rocks close to The Heads with all my camera gear using the split bowrail.

The helm has twin adjustable bench seats which allow the skipper to stand while driving. There are instruments covering all the required engine data and all new Bavarias have an excellent panel for the control switches. Some of the standard gadgets include bow thrusters, hydraulic hardtop sunroof, an ICOM 45 VHF radio, GPS and speedo. The windscreen did get a bit of salt spray on it and there was a windscreen wiper, but no freshwater spray to wash the salt off.

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