BENETEAU ANTARES 36  

Beneteau Antares 36 Fly Bridge. Powered by Twin Volvo Diesels and shaft driven. Model year 2011.
Bow Thruster with Dock Master remote.

The hull, with balsa-cored sides and decks, is described as a semi-floating lower hull with a bell-vee bow and side stabiliser skids. But forget the translation manual, it's a modified-vee hull with a rounded stem or entry, big reversed chines giving an almost gullwing-stern profile, and pronounced spray rails.

More importantly, the result is a boat that is eager to get on top off the water, efficient to run at low to high speeds, whose forefoot slices the waves for a smooth ride, with an amazingly dry ride thanks in part to the big, flared hull. The performance really is a strongpoint of the badge and, after crossing the heads with a beam-on breeze, the windscreens were still perfectly dry.

The boat planes at 2250rpm and 10kts, maintains a low-speed cruise of 13.5kts at 2500rpm, and holds 16 to 17kts at 2750rpm with the tabs raised to about the halfway position. Cruise speeds were recorded at 19 to 20kts at 3000rpm and 21 to 22kts was very pleasant at 3200rpm with the boat running free. Top speed was about 25kts.

You can get the boat with twin 300hp Volvo Penta D4 diesels, but the above figures with the 260hp variants would do me. After all, 19 to 22kts cruise is a nice speed whereby you reel in the sea miles but don't break your boat or crew. And with common rail injection, no smoke, small fuel bills, and twin-screw handling with delightful electronic shifts, the boat was also fun off the wheel.

Beneteau is a huge multinational boatbuilding giant making greater inroads into the luxury boat world. What it does is provide a boat for the market, at different price points, that suits people's needs at just about every stage of their lives.

But the Antares 360 is a boat with very broad appeal. Big enough to spend serious time aboard, yet small enough to manage yourself, you could step up or down to this handy cruiser.