Every month we take a look at some of the best second hand motor boats on the market. This month we take a look at the best shaft-drive motor yachts
I’ve never held with the ‘devil’s egg whisk’ theories about not buying boats with outdrives because, provided they are maintained correctly, they are generally reliable and bring many tangible benefits to smaller boats compared to shaft drive. Specifically, packaging (as they position the engines much further aft), performance and economy (they create less drag) and provide sportier handling as you’re steering with propeller thrust, not water deflection via rudders. You can also throw lower noise levels into the mix.
However this year, when my admittedly 20-year-old boat came out for servicing and antifouling, I was told my outdrive needed two new propellers (it’s a Duoprop) and new steering rams. And then when it was launched, it immediately broke down due to a problem with gear engagement, which required the boat to be lifted again due to the gearbox being inside the outdrive. So this month, we’re looking at shaft-drive boats, which tend to be simpler and easier to maintain…
Princess 36 Riviera
Built: 1991
Price: £49,999
The Princess 36 Riviera is the perfect example of all that is great, but also what’s not so great, about shaft drive compared to outdrive, particularly in a sportscruiser. Because its biggest competitor back in the late 1980s, when this boat was in production (it ran from 1986 to 1991), was the Mk1 Fairline Targa 33, a slightly smaller outdrive-powered vessel.
The galley may look dated but it’s actually quite practical and sensibly located by the stairs
Interior
We’ll start off with the negative. Although this was a larger boat than the Targa 33 (the LOA was 37ft) and had a broadly similar layout of a forward cabin, saloon and galley in the centre and then a mid cabin aft with a double berth that burrowed transversely beneath the helm position, it was actually slightly smaller in here than its more compact opposition. The flat foredeck also pinched the headroom slightly, at about 6ft. And the reason is simply that the shaft drive configuration pushes the motors a lot further forward in the hull, impacting the cabin space.
Exterior
The payoff comes, in part, in the cockpit because this is far larger than the Targa 33, mostly in length. There’s also a useful lazarette beneath the feet of those on the portside twin forward facing seat (there’s another twin seat at the helm), and a wet bar and a transom door, all goodies denied the Targa owner of the era.
Headroom in the saloon dips a bit as you head forward to the main cabin and heads
Performance
But the real advantage is beneath that long cockpit floor. Huge hatches lift to reveal a pair of Volvo Penta TAMD 61 306hp diesel engines. At the time, the largest diesel engines on outdrives were the TAMD 41 200hp motors that the Fairline used. The result is a very satisfying shove onto the plane as the turbos kick in and a top speed when new of over 30 knots.
Seakeeping
And the final bonus of those lovely big engines, positioned so much further forward in order to make room for the gearboxes behind them and the stainless steel shafts they spun, is weight distribution. The 36 Riviera is a wonderfully balanced boat that slices through big waves with its forefoot rather than bouncing through them with the nose up like the original Targa 33 did.
Princess 36 Riviera specifications
Length: 35ft 10in (10.9m)
Beam: 12ft 1in (3.7m)
Draft: 2ft 6in (0.8m)
Displacement: 6.4 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 818 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta TAMD 61 306hp diesel engines
For sale: Boat Shop
Galeon 510 Sky
Built: 2022
Price: £1,125,000
Galeon might lack the heritage of competitors like Princess and Fairline but it also lacks old-school thinking, bringing to the market some really fresh ideas and taking the fight to the establishment with an entire Swiss Army knife of innovation and clever thinking.
Huge sliding side doors and a sunroof make this one of the airiest saloons of any boat
Interior
The smart thinking begins the moment you step through the saloon doors and discover that the floor-to-ceiling window behind the starboard sofa is actually a massive sliding door that, via a moveable backrest and a drop balcony outside, allows you to face out over the water.
The galley opposite has a similar arrangement, allowing it to become a bar. This boat has a high-gloss eucalyptus finish, one of about ten options, all available in gloss or satin finish.
There’s an opening roof above the helm, sportscruiser style, and the helm seat swivels to become saloon seating at rest. The lower deck is a three-cabin, two heads arrangement with a guest cabin in the bow sharing the day heads with a bunk-bedded cabin three, and a full beam en suite cabin awaits the owners.
Exterior
Innovative cockpit seating is mounted on a turntable so that, as well as facing into the boat, the entire sofa can be rotated to face outwards. There’s a garage big enough for a tender and more hull glazing than a greenhouse. Despite the sportscruiser styling and that opening roof above the lower helm, there is actually a low-level flybridge on top! When the seat backs are lowered, a sliding tonneau powers across it to enclose it when not in use.
A full beam mid-cabin is a rare luxury on a 50ft shaftdrive boat of this length
Performance
Twin Volvo Penta D11 725hp engines are fitted to this one, but again Galeon has been clever because, although it is on shafts, vee drive gearboxes enable the engines to be sited much further aft than usual. You lose some of the weight distribution and simplicity advantages but you gain hugely with interior packaging – those engines would be in bed with you otherwise.
Seakeeping
Galeon reckons it will achieve just over 30 knots flat out, and plenty of size and weight should help with seakeeping.
Galeon 510 Sky specifications
Length: 53ft 2in (16.2m)
Beam: 14ft 8in (4.5m)
Draft: 3ft 3in (1.0m)
Displacement: 23 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,800 litres
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D11-725 725hp diesel engines
For sale: Argo Yachting
Fairline Phantom 40
Built: 2007
Price: £184,950
Whilst some boats might be slightly compromised by a shaft drive layout, and others modified via vee drives to free up internal volume, there are those that just seem tailor-made to fit a shaft drive layout, such as the classic 40ft flybridge boat.
Shaft drive doesn’t just optimise seakeeping and lower maintenance requirements, it simply fits well, with the engines snuggled up beneath the saloon floor leaving room for a useful lazarette beneath the cockpit sole.
It’s hard to believe this saloon is nearly 20 years old given how smart it still looks
Interior
Through the 1990s and 2000s, everyone from Princess to Sealine was laying out their 40ft flybridge boats like this, and so being launched in 2003, the Fairline Phantom 40 followed suit.
A double berth in the forward en suite owner’s cabin, a twin bedded guest cabin with access to the day heads, galley on the lower deck, and saloon with a double helm on the main deck. What really elevated Fairlines of this era was the quality finish – the high-gloss cabinetry still looks great today.
Exterior
Accessed by big chunky steps, the flybridge comes in for special praise on this boat. At 40ft, the double helm and the dinette are a given, but the wet bar, complete with barbecue and fridge certainly isn’t. And although there are smaller flybridge boats on the market, 40ft is where the profile starts to gel, as opposed to the rather top heavy look of shorter flybridge boats.
No room for a full beam mid cabin at this length but it is a decent forward owner’s cabin
Performance
Early examples got Volvo Penta’s TAMD 63L and 63P engines at 316hp and 370hp respectively, while Caterpillar 3126 in either 355hp or 385hp were a rarer option. But in 2005, Volvo launched its D series engines, gaining electronic control and lowering emissions due to modern high pressure common rail technology. The twin D6-370 engines should give close to 30-knot performance.
Seakeeping
The shaft drives push the weight forward for a more balanced ride, as well as giving good manoeuvrability by placing the props under the hull rather than behind it for more leverage. A bow thruster was a helpful option; this boat gains that and a stern thruster for the ultimate shaft drive docking cheat code!
Fairline Phantom 40 specifications
Length: 41ft 2in (12.5m)
Beam: 13ft 0in (4.0m)
Draft: 3ft 3in (1.0m)
Displacement: 12 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 1,000 litres
Engines: Volvo Penta D6-370 370hp diesel engines
For sale: One Marine
Fairey Spearfish MK3
Built: 1989
Price: £85,000
Fairey Marine dates right back to the 1950s, but it was in the 1960s that it started producing boats like the 23ft Huntress, designed by the legendary Alan Burnard. Built out of cold-moulded mahogany, it was followed up by the 28ft Huntsman and the 33ft Swordsman.
Back then, boats were designed as sea boats first with accommodation a distant second, rather than the other way around as so many are today, and they were massively successful in offshore racing. And of course, they had proper shaft-drive engines.
The Spearfish came about in 1970 as the first attempt at a GRP boat, but a very successful one. So successful that in 1986, a company called Tarrant Marine (surely no coincidence that Tarrant was the fictitious town that 1980s classic series Howards’ Way was based around) recommenced production of the Spearfish under licence at Northshore Yachts. This is one of those boats.
The open cockpit is focused on the driving pleasure that legendary deep-vee hull gives
Interior
The Spearfish was conceived by Burnard unashamedly as a dayboat with overnighting accommodation. So down below you’ll find a tiny galley opposite a tiny heads as you enter, and then a vee-shaped convertible dinette. And that’s about it. That’s what fitted inside of this low narrow high-performance boat, so that’s what you get. Galeon will not be losing sleep over it!
Exterior
But a little like putting up with two seats and a tiny boot of an Aston Martin Vantage, the payoff is outside because this boat is drop dead gorgeous! A faithful reproduction of the original, from the outrageously flared bow to the low swept wooden gunwale, it’s just perfect. The cockpit has helm and navigator’s seats and a bench aft – exactly as it was back in the 1960s when this boat was first conceived.
This convertible dinette is all you get for sleeping as it’s really a glorified day boat
Performance
A pair of Ford based straight six Sabre diesels fire 225hp down lovely solid reliable stainless-steel shafts for a top speed of 34 knots.
Seakeeping
It’s important to note that it’s not what it does, but how it does it. Because that incredible hull means that in seas that would see most 30ft sports boats backing off, the Spearfish is in its element.
Fairey Spearfish MK3 specifications
Length: 30ft 0in (9.1m)
Beam: 9ft 3in (2.8m)
Draft: 3ft 6in (1.1m)
Displacement: 5 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 873 litres
Engines: Twin Sabre 225hp diesel engines
For sale: Nicolle Associates
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