Before she was Saltlog’s test boat, she was the first chapter in one of British yachting’s great stories.
By Steve Harding, founder4 min read
Every boat has a story. Some just have a bigger one than others.
If you’ve read anything about how Saltlog was tested, you’ve met Baby Blush. She’s the motor boat that carried the first Quick Logs, the first connection to a boat’s own instruments, and more than a few late-evening experiments in Poole Harbour. But she didn’t begin life as a test boat. She began as the first chapter of one of British yachting’s most remarkable stories.
Where it started
In the late 1980s, a young Eddie Jordan walked into Sunseeker’s yard in Poole and bought a Mohawk 29, swearing, as he later admitted with a grin, that he’d never go bigger.
He went bigger. Nine boats bigger, in fact, ending with Blush, a 155-foot superyacht that became one of the best-known yachts in the Mediterranean.
But he never forgot where it started.
When Blush arrived, a Mohawk 29 came with her. Not left behind, but brought along as tender and chase boat, running in the shadow of the giant she had inspired. That little boat earned a name of her own: Baby Blush.
Baby Blush alongside Blush in the Mediterranean.
A Poole friendship
Eddie’s relationship with Sunseeker was also a friendship, with Robert Braithwaite, the founder who built the brand from a Poole boatyard into a global name. Two men who shared a love of the sea, a passion for craftsmanship, and a belief that life is better lived on the water.
Eddie Jordan and Robert Braithwaite, aboard a Sunseeker.
It’s a very Poole story. The same harbour that turned out some of the world’s best-known motor yachts is still full of the boats that started it all, and the people who still love them.
Brought back to life
We bought Baby Blush directly from Eddie Jordan, and then gave her the restoration she deserved: a complete overhaul, stem to stern, carried out with the same attention to detail that defines her heritage.
She’s original, she’s immaculate, and she’s back on the water where she belongs.
The engine bay, after a stem-to-stern restoration.Baby Blush at anchor, close to home.
Why her story matters to Saltlog
Baby Blush is a good reminder of something I believe about every boat: the story is part of the boat. Who built her, who owned her, where she’s been, and what she’s done since. Too often that history ends up as a few lines in a notebook, or lost altogether when a boat changes hands.
That’s a big part of why Saltlog keeps a page for every vessel: her photo, her details, and every trip she’s made, building into a record that stays with her. Baby Blush’s page now holds hundreds of trips, and every new one adds to the story.
The story is part of the boat. Saltlog keeps it on the record.
Does your boat have a story? I’d love to hear it, whether she’s a classic with a famous past or a family boat with thirty summers behind her: hello@saltlog.co.uk.
See you on the water.
Steve HardingFounder, Saltlog
Every boat has a story.
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