COCKWELLS MOTOR LAUNCH

There can be very few boats that have appeared three times at the Southampton Boat Show and been sold off the stand each time.

IN BUILD: 2005 CURRENT PRICE RANGE: £190,000 £ 700,000

To be clear, we're not talking here about three different examples of the same product but the very same boat. This achievement is, to our knowledge, unique and that's very much like the vessel in question: the Cockwells Custom 32 - a gentleman's motor launch built in 2005 to a very particular specification by Falmouth-based Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding.

Cockwells has been delighting its customers with vessels of exceptional quality for the past three decades.

It describes its mission as preserving heritage and embracing innovation and there's no question that its Custom 32 fulfils that brief to a tee. Hand built with an epoxy-sheathed wooden hull and an interior finished in Cornish chestnut with black walnut trim, the boat gleams inside and out. In fact, it looks as exquisite today as it did the day it was launched.

The pilothouse is also constructed from timber-solid teak this time - and completing this woody picture, the remainder of the topsides, cockpit, side decks and foredeck are all teak-laid.

The bad news is that the Custom 32 is one of a very small and select band of wooden Cockwells motor launches.

The others are either 33 or 37ft in length so used purchasing opportunities are extremely limited. But fear not, for as sales and technical director Dave Cockwell explains, there's a very viable alternative.

"Selling the same boat three times at the show convinced me the demand was there," he says. "However, hand-building boats like these comes at a cost, which limits the market so we decided to go engineering in a semi-production boat tends to be more refined." Key models in the Duchy range are the 27 and 35, launched ten and five years ago respectively. Currently, there are 37 27-footers on the water and 20 35-footers and that significantly increases your chances of finding a quality used Cockwells motor launch.