During a tour of Northern Ireland, Irving Stewart gets happily distracted by a rather striking family cruiser from the Finnmaster stable.

I was on a flying visit to Hanna Boats in Northern Ireland to test a couple of Yamarin craft, when my dear friend Ivor Hanna suggested that I might like to use a new Finnmaster as a camera boat - and perhaps test it. My mind shot back five or six years to my first experience of the Finnish marque, when I tested a remarkable Finnmaster 640MC1B Cruiser on Holy Loch in the company of Robin Morton, its highly delighted owner. Without hesitation, my visit was extended and plans were made to take the new outboard-powered Finnmaster down the Lower Bann River and over the bar for a sea test.

This typically Scandinavian looking boat (full of logic and common sense and expedient precaution) is predictably easy to access. You may board either over the stern via the tough swim ladder or over the bows between the equally substantial pulpit rails. Taking the stern route, you enter a cockpit that is nicely uncluttered with high sides, excellent grab rails, a self-draining deck and a comfy seat either side of the engine.

Under the low mounted radar arch is a very wide sliding doorway into the cabin/wheelhouse. It can be locked either in the open or closed position and as you traverse the single step (which hides the battery) you reach a very sensibly appointed living area. To the rear of the wheelhouse, on each side, there is a comfy double side seat. The port one hides a Porta Potti and fresh water container, while its opposite number provides stowage for the infill cushions.

Further forward the co-pilot’s seat is box-mounted and hinges forwards to reveal a small sink and provision for a similar sized hot plate or burner. The seat also incorporates a locker and has sufficient space for a shallow drawer (for cutlery or similar), which is oddly enough not utilised. Opposite this, the extremely comfortable helm seat is similarly box-mounted and slides backwards and forwards to adjust legroom or standing space. Again there is unused stowage space beneath the seat but under the helm itself there is a large locker and a housing for the inevitable sound system with which everyone seems determined to ruin the peace of being at sea . . .

The skipper gets an excellent stainless steel wheel, dashboard, engine controls, and an armrest - and the co-pilot is not short changed either. He gets a chart table, grab handle, and a stunning all round view, plus simple access to the slide-in berth beneath the deck. There is also a capacious and handy hull side shelf to port, with cup hooks provided, but oddly enough with little to prevent things sliding off. Curtains are fitted all round the wheelhouse, and in our test boat the optional ‘modesty curtain’ was rigged for those using the Porta Potti.

In contrast to the traditional British concept of putting the main berths below decks (claustrophobic and with no outward visibility) this Finnmaster has a double, high-level berth in the wheelhouse, formed from the side seats and an infil, from which you can see out all round. There is also an occasional ‘slide-out-of-sight’ berth below deck.

Similarly those in the cockpit can clearly see the bows through the wheelhouse, and vice versa. But before we venture aloft let’s just consider the bits that truly distinguish the Scandinavian common sense of the Finnmaster from its few, but far less sensible, conventional European competitors. The wheelhouse is fully trimmed and lined with oak detailing. There is a large sliding wheelhouse sunroof, so you can be ‘outdoors’ while remaining indoors. The configuration allows you to take a nap below deck or else sleep up top with a 360-degree field of view. And a single step up (hiding the sea cock) in the wheelhouse brings you to a second sliding doorway leading to the foredeck. It’s the ‘walk-through’ concept taken to a logical extreme and rather beautifully executed.