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May 1987: The very first issue of Motor Boats Monthly, led by launch editor Emrhys Barrell. Fairline’s 50 is on the cover; it’s the biggest boat yet from the Oundle-based builder – but as we now know, it was just the beginning… *
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September 1987: MBM’s first appearance at Southampton. Group classified manager Kim Hollamby and technical assistant Mark Turley reputedly build the stand from scaffolding, a Portakabin, bits of string and canvas and a few sheets of highly dissolvable chipboard from B&Q. Stars of the show (apart from us, obviously) were the Princess 330 and Birchwood’s aft-cabin TS37.
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December 1988: MBM has always been at the forefront of marine equipment testing… though styles have changed somewhat over the last 20 years!
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October 1989: Photographer Will Payne joins the MBM team. He’s still with us today, making him one of the biggest influences on the magazine’s look and feel over the last 20 years. Thanks Will!
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March 1989 : Despite 214,000 visitors to Earls Court, MBM slams facilities at Earls Court and suggests a future change of venue… to Birmingham’s NEC.
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August 1989: MBM updates readers with the very latest electronic ‘navaids’ – but looks forward to the days when a Global Positioning System will be operational.
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March 1990: Kim Hollamby takes over as editor; Alex McMullen – MBM’s associate editor until 2006 – joins the team at the same time.
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June 1990: Part one of Alex McMullen’s ’25 years of motor cruising’ – which lasts a staggering 25 parts in all, making this one of the most comprehensive guides to used boat models ever produced
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August 1990: Alex joins the ‘Dunkirk little ships’ on their 50th anniversary celebrations. The 75 boats risk Force 6 winds to make the crossing. They all make it!
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September 1990: MBM announces the draft regulations for the Commission’s ‘CE standards’, drawing attention to some difficult areas for boat builders, but generally welcoming the new regulations.
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December 1990: MBM claims that Kevlar is set to replace GRP as the boat material of the future. Still waiting for that one…
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February 1991: Our test of the new Fairline Phantom 38 claims the boat ‘marks a watershed for one of Britain’s largest motorboat builders’. We find ‘improvements apparent everywhere’ and conclude that this boat will ‘be produced … well into the 1990s’
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