Korea Move Pays Off

Having led the construction and UK delivery of four hybrid tankers from the Far East, former Royal Fleet Auxiliary crewman shows how experience can be invaluable

- Adam Porter

It’s almost certainly true to say that most people who choose a hybrid drive system for their new boat have relatively little experience of them. While there are more and more hybrid boats being built, they are still vastly outnumbered by diesel-powered versions. But when Andrew and Liz Ford chose a hybrid, they knew exactly what they were doing – because Andrew used to work for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and oversaw the building of four hybrid tankers. He watched them being constructed in South Korea, and was responsible for bringing them back to the UK, giving him probably more experience of hybrid boats than almost anyone else on the inland waterways.

Liz and Andrew have made plenty of other well-informed choices too. One of the joys of having a boat built to your own design, is that you can move things around. So here’s a boat which is reverse layout – but rather than having the galley at the stern like most reverse layout boats, they wanted the saloon there instead.

And there’s plenty more which makes this boat a bit different. Stannator is built by Ortomarine, who are specialists in electronics and monitoring, so there’s plenty of clever kit on board. Plus there’s an unusual bed arrangement in the cabin, and a composting loo in the bathroom. In short, it’s pretty individual.

Exterior

Stannator is built on a 58ft 6in shell by Tyler Wilson. It’s one of their Mike Christian shells, which means it doesn’t have some of the flourishes of their more expensive boats; for example, rather than complicated scrolls in the handrails, there are simple curves – which still look good. What you do get though, is a pretty bow and the same underwater shape, which means long swims and therefore excellent handling.