Wow! Take a look at this lovely vintage marine radio onboard Maximus, the PBO Project Boat. Marine surveyor Ben Sutcliffe-Davies does a double-take when he sees the RT144 radio, which he used to have on his fishing boat many years ago.

“They were amazing sets!” exclaims Ben. “They had the proper telephones and the beautiful serial numbers on them. Look, there are all the channels – P1, P2 – though the selector’s not working.”

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Sadly, after two years on the hard standing, the electrics aren’t working onboard our 43-year-old Maxi 84 – the boat is due a complete rewire – so it remains to be seen whether this radio actually works.

According to Radiomuseum, the set was made by S.P Radio, a Danish company founded by Simon Peterson (hence the ‘SP’) in 1930. In 1948 the company was renamed S.P Radio A/S.

The vintage marine radio onboard Maximus

As well as producing marine receivers and maritime radios under the Sailor brand, S.P Radio also built TV and radio receivers for home use. In 1965, this production was discontinued and partially taken over by Bang & Olufsen.

Marine radio technology is still being produced there today and S. P Radio is now part of the S.A.I.T – Radio Holland Group.

These vintage marine radios are a bit of a collector’s item, but there are probably more out there on people’s mantlepieces than actually still in use on boats.

Do you have a working Sailor radio onboard your boat? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at: pbo@futurenet.com

In the meantime, we’ll keep you posted as to whether we can get this vintage marine radio working again.

The PBO Project Boat was kindly donated to us by PBO reader Daniel Kirtley, and is currently at Dell Quay in Chichester, where she’ll stay until she’s had new seacocks, electrics, gas installation and a coat of antifouling. First we have to identify and plug the many leaks!

Thanks to our Project Boat Supporters

Dell Quay Marine, Osculati, Raymarine, Shakespeare Marine, TruDesign, Screwfix, Coleman Marine Insurance, MDL Marinas, Premier Marinas, seajet,, Clean to Gleam, West System, Farécla, Navigators Marine, RYA, Aqua Marine, Ecobat, Victron Energy, Scanstrut, T Sails and XP Rigging.

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