Nick Burnham picks 4 of the best sub £500k motor yachts on the market now. It might seem like a lot of money but a £500k yacht is no longer the preserve of the super-wealthy
Half a million pounds. It sounds a lot, doesn’t it? Especially if, like me, you are from an era when being a millionaire really meant something. And it is still a lot of cash, but as wages, prices and asset values continue to spiral upwards, it’s no longer the preserve of the super-wealthy. And yet £500,000 still buys you a seriously big-league boat.
Stars of the half-million club on the used market currently include this beautiful Windy sportscruiser; a classic high-quality Princess flybridge; a rock solid, go-through-anything Aquastar; and a practical and easy-to-live aboard Beneteau Swift Trawler 41 Fly. Something for everyone – provided they have a spare £500,000. As ever, you pays your money and you takes your choice.
Beneteau Swift Trawler 41 Fly
Built: 2022
Price: £495,000
The might of Beneteau’s sizeable product range shines through with boats like the Swift Trawler 41 Fly. With the flybridge market already covered by the Antares line and sportscruisers taken care of by the Gran Turismo range, it leaves the Swift Trawler designers free to really lean into what makes this model range so popular.
And that is, in a nutshell, practical thinking. Swift Trawlers are for people who value functionality over style. They still want a decent looking boat that’s bright, spacious and comfortable to spend time aboard, often for days or even weeks at a time, but it also needs to be safe and easy to move around, with lots of storage and secure seakeeping.
The galley aft layout and step-free saloon is well suited to liveaboard cruising
Interior
The first Swift Trawler to have a galley-aft layout, the ST41 does, nonetheless, still incorporate all the Swift Trawler good stuff that makes these boats so popular, such as the side access door next to the helm and the big vertical wheel.
The helm seat itself will swivel aft to create additional seating at the dinette and the table opens to double size. On the lower deck the owner’s cabin is in the bow and gets plenty of ventilation from opening hull windows and an overhead hatch, and the heads and shower are split off into separate compartments. There are two guest cabins aft, one twin and one with a single berth, washer/dryer and extra storage.
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Exterior
Again shot through with practical detailing, the cockpit seating for example is on runners so that you can easily change between more cockpit floor space or more bathing platform real estate.
On the flybridge, there’s a central mast to support the radar rather than a goalpost-style, the side decks are easily navigated and there is a handy gate in the bulwark next to the helm door – making stepping ashore from
the helm quick and easy.
Performance
Twin Volvo Penta D4-260 or D4-300 engines were originally offered but the only choice currently on Beneteau’s website is the Yanmar 8LV320 320hp motors fitted to this boat, which should give a low to mid 20-knot top end.
Space and light are the top priorities in the owner’s cabin, as with the rest of the boat
Seakeeping
The semi displacement hull with its 3/4 length keel tracks accurately and “has a familiar Swift Trawler robustness to the way it tackles the sea” according to our sea trial.
Beneteau Swift Trawler 41 Fly specifications
Length: 41ft 0in (12m)
Beam: 13ft 9in (4.2m)
Draft: 3ft 9in (1.1m)
Displacement: 11 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,170 litres
Engines: Twin Yanmar 8LV320 320hp diesel engines
For sale: Ancasta
Princess 54
Built: 2011
Price: £525,000
London Boat Show 2006 saw the launch of Princess’s 54, the first sub-60ft boat from Princess to include the now ubiquitous full beam owner’s cabin. Unusually, it didn’t replace an existing model, instead slotting into the gap between the Princess 50 Mk2 and the Princess 57.
Despite being a popular model, it wasn’t directly replaced. It ran for six years before being pensioned off by the 2012 Princess 56 and the 2013 Princess 52.
The galley-down layout leaves the main deck free for a large saloon and dining area
Interior
Despite leading the charge toward full-beam owner cabins, the 54 was a transition boat in that it still had the galley on the lower deck rather than the galley-aft layout that soon became the norm. As a result, the third cabin has bunk beds rather than the side-by- side twins of the galley aft Princess 52 that followed.
Interestingly, this particular example was fitted out with an office, in place of cabin three, that can still be used as a single berth. The payoff for that comes on the main deck where, freed from the need to make room for the galley, there is space for a separate dinette alongside the lower helm, as well as a truly spacious saloon a couple of steps down and aft.
Exterior
Hull windows were also beginning to appear on this size of boat around this era, something we’d first seen on the Princess 67 two years earlier, but only the owner’s cabin gets them on the 54. All the other lower deck areas still make do with smaller oval portholes.
We’re also predating lift swim platforms, the passerelle being used to crane a tender onto the fixed platform. There are stairs to a generous flybridge and decent side decks.
Performance
Twin shaftdrive Volvo Penta D12 diesels of between 675hp and 775hp were offered at launch.
We tested it with 715hp D12s and achieved about 30 knots. A reader with 775hp D12s reckoned on 33 knots. This boat has the larger D13 800hp motors, which ought to add a knot or two more.
The full-beam owner’s cabin was quite a novelty when this boat launched in 2006
Seakeeping
A great hull and a capable boat but those high sides can catch the wind at low speeds, making the variable speed bow and stern-thruster upgrade to this boat a very welcome addition.
Princess 54 specifications
Length: 54ft 5in (16.6m)
Beam: 15ft 11in (4.6m)
Draft: 4ft 3in (1.3m)
Displacement: 24 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 2,500 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D13 800hp diesel engines
For sale: Princess Motor Yacht Sales
Aquastar 49
Built: 2013
Price: £495,000
A slightly niche market offering compared to the ubiquitous planing flybridge boats from the likes of Princess and Fairline, the Guernsey-built Aquastar range was based around super tough semi-displacement hulls.
Beloved of people who worked at sea irrespective of conditions – pilots, customs, harbour patrols and so forth – the idea was to fit these out with high quality handbuilt interiors and thus combine serious cruising ability with onboard luxury.
Handcrafted cabinetry in the galley looks as good today as it did when it was built in 2013
Interior
The concept made perfect sense for a while but by 2010 it was starting to fall behind due to the relative lack of light and views in the cabins. Whilst Sunseeker and Princess were introducing ever-larger glazing into the hull and superstructure, Aquastar customers were still having to peer out of comparatively smaller apertures.
The 49 was Aquastar’s attempt to counter this. Based on the 48, with its aft-cabin layout and wide beam (for a semi-displacement craft), it added three panes of glass to the transom (the centre one opening) and big side windows, transforming the slightly cave-like ambience.
There’s a separate heads and shower back here too. The saloon windows are bigger too and there’s a high-gloss finish to the mahogany and maple cabinetry throughout. Forward are two further cabins plus the galley and heads. But traditional offshore details remain, such as the handrail built into the headlining to aid moving around in rough weather.
Exterior
On the outside, the wooden cladding on the topsides was deleted but the chunky D-section rubbing band remained. The bathing platform was extended slightly and a new hardtop with opening glass sections was introduced over the aft deck.
Performance
This boat has the same 500hp Volvo Penta D9 shaftdrive diesel engines as the one we tested back in 2013. In exceptionally blustery conditions off Southampton we achieved 26 knots, finding the boat happiest at 20 knots, although a 10-knot cruise was equally comfortable.
A glazed hardtop over the raised aft deck adds shelter without sacrificing light
Seakeeping
One thing that couldn’t be improved upon was its hull dynamics. We described it as, “solid as a rock, tracking straight as an arrow and biting deep into the water as it ploughs a deep furrow towards the horizon.”
Aquastar 49 specifications
Length: 49ft 0in (14.9m)
Beam: 15ft 0in (4.6m)
Draft: 4ft 0in (1.2m)
Displacement: 15.5 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 2,200 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D9 500 500hp diesel engines
For sale: Ancasta
Windy 48 Triton
Built: 2014
Price: £499,950
Launched in 2008 and fitting into the Windy range between the 52 Xanthos and the 41 Typhoon, the 48 Triton was an expensive, high-quality boat that appealed to the connoisseur prepared to pay the circa £150,000 extra that it cost over competitors like the Sunseeker Portofino 47.
Slide-out floor and lifting throttles allow you to drive with your head out of the sunroof
Interior
Hardtop sportscruisers are often built with a fully enclosed saloon and galley on the main deck rather than a full-length cockpit to make room for three cabins on the lower deck, rather than the two-cabin layout they usually have when the saloon and galley are on the lower deck.
Interestingly, this boat has a lower deck saloon and galley yet still manages to sport three sleeping cabins. It does so by putting the owner’s cabin forward, with its own ensuite and using the space amidships that is usually reserved for a full-beam master to offer two further cabins side by side that share the day heads.
Exterior
The Triton does still have a fully enclosed deck saloon but this is set up and furnished more like an outside space with teak decking and wipe-clean GRP mouldings rather than carpets and lacquered wood cabinets. Beneath the opening sunroof, a false floor slides out from under the helm seat, allowing you to drive with your head out through the roof. Another button raises the plinth that the throttles sit on.
Windy eschewed the usual tender garage with sunpad, opting instead to take the seating all the way back to the transom to increase cockpit space. The tender lives on the (optional) high-low bathing platform.
Performance
Another unusual feature of the Triton was the availability of sterndrive power as an alternative to the IPS fitted to this boat, probably because Windy was hedging its bets as IPS had only been available for three years when this boat launched.
At the time, the maximum power with sterndrives was 370hp whereas the IPS600 installation gave 435hp a side. There was less than a knot between them, Windy quoting 34.5 knots with twin D6-370 sterndrives and 35.3 knots with IPS600.
Three cabins and a lower saloon is a rare find on a sub-50ft sportscruiser
Seakeeping
It’s a Windy, so you know it’s going to be good. The Triton’s Cat A RCD rating says it all, given that most of its competitors only offer Cat B.
Windy 48 Triton specifications
Length: 47ft 7in (14.5m)
Beam: 13ft 9in (4.2m)
Draft: 4ft 0in (1.3m)
Displacement: 13 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,500 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta IPS600 435hp diesel engines
For sale: Berthon International
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