Mark (Ricko) Richards – highly successful race boat skipper and CEO of Grand Banks – can sometimes come across as a man of few words. But what can at first appear as reticence or shyness is actually something else. It’s embodied in his facial expression, which implies simply: Well mate, it’s obvious, isn’t it? After all, when a boat speaks for itself, what is there left to say?
It was that exact expression and concomitant lack of words that filled the flybridge of the first Grand Banks 85 as we charged into the Bay of Cannes for a post-show sea trial in September, with the wind up and the sea capping white. With the throttles pushed home and the Humphree stabiliser fins helping keep her level and true, the 85 charged into the seaway like it was a glassy day on a lake.
