The Galeon 420 Fly offers a huge amount of customisation - including the choice between shafts, sterndrives and IPS pods - solid build quality and a keen price, we put it to the test in Southampton
With the 500 Fly scooping up all of the admiring glances at the Cannes Boat Show, this seemed a perfect time to test one of the more “bread and butter” boats in the range, the Galeon 420 Fly.
Galeon has an incredibly liberal approach to the amount of personalisation available to the customer even on a boat of this size.
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To give you an idea you can have two or three cabins, eight different types of interior wood, a dizzying array of upholstery and fabrics, four different engine options and the choice between shafts, sterndrives or IPS pod drives.
I challenge you to find another production boat in this market with that amount of choice.
Our test boat had quite a traditional set up with a pair of Volvo Penta’s D6 435hp motors on shafts, delivering a top speed of just over 30 knots.
Though not the most exciting drivetrain on offer, the shafts offer a good balance between sweet handling and that familiar solidity that so many people like about this method of propulsion.
I did find that from the lower helm the boat responded well to half tab to get the bow cutting nicely through the waves and lower the bow to improve the helmsman’s view out.
And though the one-piece windscreen is great, the large mullions either side needed to provide support obstruct the view either side quite badly.
Inside line
Our test boat had the three-cabin layout, which means the galley is forward in the saloon leaving a small settee opposite the dinette aft.
One clever party trick is that the aft end of the dinette pivots outboard to cross the threshold between the saloon and the cockpit and join the internal and external seating together.
The cockpit doors are also worthy of mention as they were developed and manufactured in-house and smartly slide across the door frame, pivot in the middle and stow away tidily on the starboard side to really open the saloon up to the elements.
Below decks the three-cabin version gets an ensuite master in the bows, a comfortable twin to starboard and a somewhat cramped, crawl-in double on the port side that shares the day heads with the other guest cabin opposite.
In reality this cabin is only going to be suitable for kids and adults for a short stay so if you don’t need the sleeping space opt for the two-cabin arrangement where the extra space is given over to a walk-in wardrobe.
On the flybridge, though the design isn’t exactly revolutionary, it works well and has a smart split wet-bar, which puts the sink and fridge on one side and the griddle and ice maker on the other. However, the whole area could do with a few splashes of teak to brighten things a up.
Finally, it seems with every new Galeon I get on board the quality is improved. The standard of the joinery really is excellent, as is the feeling of solidity throughout the boat; well up there with the big production yards like Prestige and Bavaria.
You can read the full report on the Galeon 420 Fly in an upcoming issue of Motor Boat & Yachting.
Pros
- Plenty of opportunities to customise
- Feels a quality product
- Two or three cabins
- Clever saloon seating
- Good value for money
Cons
- Some blindspots from the lower helm
- Rakish looks will divide opinion
- Flybridge looks plain
- Third cabin is tight
Price as reviewed:
£417,686.00 inc UK VAT
Verdict
Being able to offer customers so much choice in this part of the market is a real advantge for Galeon. Our test boat included a few bits not to my liking but nearly all of them can be changed on the spec sheet and, though you can't shift bulkheads around, you can pretty much design a boat that is tailored to your exact taste.
Details
Length: 43ft 5in (13.3m)
Beam: 13ft 6in (4.16m)
Draught: 2ft 6in (0.8m)
Fuel capacity: 242 imp gal (1,100 litres)
Water capacity: 99 imp gal (450 litres)
Displacement: 11.8 tonnes
RCD Category: B
Test engines: Twin Volvo D6 435hp
Top speed: 31 knots
