This is the Saxdor 200 Sport, and it's a rare beast because this is a brand-new motorboat
that you can buy for under £25,000. The boat is 5.9m long, 2.3m wide and weighs 780kg without
an engine. Engine options are all single outboards from 100 to 175hp, the top of the range 175 should
be good for 45 knots, and they're attached to a twin-stepped hull with the 22.5-degree deadrise
at the transom. Let's have a bit of a closer look at the deck then, there is an option to have an
A-frame back here over the engine, that's on the other boat, we'll have a look at that in a second,
and you have some storage either side here for your fenders, and obviously it's a completely
open transom, so you can step straight on, there is no bathing ladder, which is a bit of a strange
omission, you sort of have to pull yourself out using the handle here or the A-frame. I think
a bathing ladder would go a long way, not a hard thing to retrofit, and then under here, as I said,
you have proper storage for your fenders, it's quite nice that that's properly lined, nice smooth
finish on those lockers, and you can see it's got a drain in it as well, synthetic deck makes
perfect sense on this boat as you are gonna get water washing in onto the deck and then it just
swills out again, you don't have to worry about the teak getting wet, and it's nice and grippy
as well, it sort of matches the aesthetic of the boat, it's actually an extra to have this bit of
synthetic up here to give you a bit of grip as you step on and off, and you can actually as an
option have some glass up here, so you have a glass panel that connects these two here.
Now in this version this is your main seating area, you can have four seats, two side-by-side,
but this is obviously more Jet Ski-like, and this is what it comes with as standard, this
is also where you have some storage, personally I'd like to see some proper metal catches there
that lock in place, not these straps, it opens on the hinge like that, so you have some dry storage
underneath to chuck the bags etc. But, yeah these are a little bit flimsy for my liking,
probably proper metal locking catches would be more appropriate, and yes the helm station, you
have proper hard buttons here for lights and your horn, bilge pump, you have this little area down
here, which is a really good place to put your phone bits and bobs, detaches from here as well,
so you can take it away with you, you've also got cup holders on this side and on the other side,
and you have the central wheel, and you have all of your engine information, chart information all
through the Simrad MFD. The 150hp boat comes as standard with trim tabs, the 100 doesn't
have that, but you can add them as an option, to be honest not something that we've used today,
and you can spec the boat up so you can have a T-top over this area if you want, and you can
have boosted AV, and here this whole section lifts up, you put down the bow cushion inside that area
and then you have a sleeping space, if you spec that then you get a glass panel in here and you
get a tent arrangement as well, so you can have that panel up and sleep underneath if you want to.
So this is the windscreen and a slightly higher position, we can see it's giving good protection
to the helm, if we move down to the 150hp boat that's got the windscreen in the lower position,
you can see it's a bit stubbier, a little bit lower down, this boat also has got the A-frame,
which is an option, £700 pounds, again you can add wakeboard racks to that, and that's
another good way of pulling yourself out of the water, because, as I said, you haven't got a
boarding ladder. The idea behind this boat is to produce a quality, entry-level, good value for
money sportsboat. The man behind it, who's been involved with Paragon and XO and Axopar, didn't
think that they're shipyards building and really good entry-level boats. You know, this boat is
£23,000 with a 100hp engine, and okay, that's got a pretty light spec on it, but the idea is to get
people out on the water and have some fun maybe for the first time. It's designed in Finland,
built in Poland and it's going to be fascinating to see how it performs out on the water.
We've got two versions of the boat here today, I'm on one with the 100hp engine and the editor Hugo's
on one with a 150, that's more like £30,000, but that comes with trim tabs as standard.
This is the 100hp model and what you notice the moment you sit down at this
helm is how engaged you are with it, you're very close to it, it's upright,
the wheel is bang in the middle the throttle just to the right, a little bit of a stretch
away actually when you've got a buffer at the far end of its reach it does start to
hurt your arm a little bit, but you're nice and close, you're well supported by the seat,
in fact you can actually stand if it's not too choppy you can stand in this helm position and
hold on to the railing, but you haven't got great control of the throttle when you do that, if it's
choppy you want to be sat down so you can have control of the throttle, you can rest
your hand on the hub and adjust the throttle with your thumb. It's actually very clean,
everything is presented in this Simrad MFD, your engine information and your chart information, you
have some proper buttons down here to port, for the lighting, the horn, and also the bilge pump.
Now this 100hp version is topping out at around 30 knots, cruising speed probably somewhere between
22 and 25 knots. At the speed you're probably doing about 22 litres an hour on the engine.
The difference between the 100 and the 150 is that this is topping out at 30 knots and
you're really working this engine quite hard, staying high up in the revs,
whereas the 150, that will do 37-38 knots and in calm conditions you can
cruise very happily at 30 knots, so your cruising speed is much higher on that boat.
Right I've jumped into the 150hp one now, let's hear what that is like, if anything it only feels
right to give this thing a bit of a launch, so come out of neutral, trim down, floor it.
Whoa! And we're off, bit of trim, wow, that is quick! 37 knots,
just like that. 36-37 knots. Yeah, that shifts!
God knows that it would feel like with the 175hp engine, the UK dealer Ideal Boats thinks that the
115 will be quite popular in it, I think it probably will, with the 100hp 30 knots feels a little
bit lackluster, the 150 at the top end here is a little bit edgy, I think the 115hp
would be a real sweet spot, but what's nice about this engine is you can cruise at 30 knots, so in
calm weather you can make really good progress and quite easily too, and I've no doubt in real calm
you could do 40 knots without too much fuel on board, but that acceleration with this 150 is really punchy, wow!
Handling on the 150, you get a bit of cavitation, if you really chuck it in,
it really will heel, this thing, it's got a very sharp hull, if you do a really hard turn
you will just start to lose power, so you've got to be gentle, you've got to feed the power in, but if you do that,
you will get a good tight secure turn, it starts to cavitate, so it's worth
keeping the trim down
and just feeding in the power quite gently, if you do that, you will get some nice tight turns
give it too much though and you'll start to
lose grip at the stern
You are a little bit too close to the helm, your feet start to go numb after a while,
it's great to have the upper part of the helm so close to you, but you want a little bit more legroom, I think
and what you could really do with is some angled footrests in the corners of the deck here
so you can brace yourself in rough water and in hard corners.
In summary the Saxdor feels like a bit of
a sports car for the water, and the way you sit on it, the way you drive it too, what you
can do in it, you use it in a very similar way, you go out only in good weather, you might go
to a local beauty spot you, might go to the pub for lunch, and then you go home again, and that
is what this boat is about, great day trips out on the water, whether that be for water
sports, or going to the beach, going to the pub, or a local marina, but what is impressive is
that for the money and the size, how proper it feels, it doesn't feel like a glorified Jet Ski,
it feels far more sophisticated than that, and it is more usable and more practical, and the
hull especially stands out, with both engines , okay you're getting more out of it with the
150, with the 100 it's still a really impressive ride for a boat that is less than 20 feet long,
very smooth, very assured and commendably dry, for something that is of such low freeboard and not
a huge amount of protection. Yes, there are tweaks they can make here and there to improve things, and you can see
where they're saving the money, but that's hard to argue with when it is the value for money that it is.