Largest in their range of great value trawlers
What is it?:Bénéteau’s take on the ever-popular trawler
genre, a 55ft 9in-long (17.00m), three-cabin boat with a palatial full-beam master cabin, and which can zip along at 23 knots.
Worth seeing because:Building trawlers suits Bénéteau extremely well. Thanks to the efficiency of their high-volume production engineering techniques, they have few rivals when it comes to producing value-for-money boats, though this area of boatbuilding is normally served by smaller bespoke yards producing excellent but unavoidably expensive trawlers.
Bénéteau always excel when it comes to producing large, practicality-first boats, as evidenced by their Antarès 13.80 and Swift Trawler 42. This also bodes well for trawler owners, whose number will not tolerate form overcoming function in any way. In most areas, the ST52’s layout is straightforward and relatively conventional. A big U-shaped galley sits forward of the big U-shaped settee. Up four steps from here is the pilothouse, largely separated off from the saloon, as is the case on most hard-core cruising trawlers such as the boats that Nordhavn produce.
More unusual is the owner’s palatial full-beam amidships cabin, complete with its large ship -side windows- an unusual and welcome find on a trawler.
At a glance
Length: 55ft 9in (17.00m)
Beam: 16ft 2in (4.92m)
Top speed: 23 knots
Engines: Twin 575hp Volvo D9
Price: £649,298 inc VAT
Contact:Dickies International.
Tel: 44 (0)23 8021 1398.
Website: More information on the Beneteau Swift Trawler 52
