Some years back I was invited by the West Sweden Tourist Board to take a press trip to that area which would involve cruising around the area in a Swedish built Maxi yacht, sampling raw herrings, sweltering in saunas, whacking other journalists with bits of birch, eating Ryvita and generally discovering what a wonderful country Sweden was – especially if you aren’t paying. On the eve of departure, our hosts came to us with a look of extreme anguish and announced in funereal tones that, due to financial turmoil at the Maxi factory, Maxi Yachts could no longer supply a boat and it was to be substituted with – a Bavaria.
Yes, it was clear that the word Bavaria upset this earnest man. But why? Perhaps because there seems little sense in the incontrovertible fact that Bavaria Yachts, a company based in a particularly landlocked corner of the Black Forest, has become one of the biggest yacht manufacturers in the world. Think of all those proud craftsmen in Sweden with centuries of tradition in boatbuilding being usurped. The same applies to the UK; not so long ago one of the biggest manufacturers in the world and now…
So what has been
