Absolute 56 FLY

The 56 FLY is the boat in Absolute's flybridge range where the accommodation stops making a junior partner of the second cabin. It runs 57' 10" overall on a 15' 9" beam, carries 687 gallons of fuel and 172 gallons of fresh water, and is certified CE category B for 14 people aboard.

The cockpit carries no fixed furniture at all, so it is fitted out with modular pieces to suit how you actually use the boat - dining one season, tenders and dive gear the next. Transparent panels in the cockpit and an open railing keep the sightline to the water from the main deck, and large electric windows in the saloon drop to bring the view and the breeze inside while you are sitting down. The hardtop can be specified with integrated solar panels, which is a quieter anchorage and fewer generator hours in the season you spend at rest.

Below, the layout runs to three guest cabins and a double crew cabin. The owner's suite is full-beam and forward; the VIP is also full beam; the third cabin takes single berths. There are no steps anywhere on the lower deck, so the cabins get the full height and volume of the hull, with large windows in each.

Docking is where the boat shows its intent. There is a side door beside the console panel on the main deck and a third helm station in the cockpit, so the person handling lines and the person handling the boat can be the same person.

Twin Volvo Penta D8-IPS800s at 2 x 600 hp are the base package, with D11-IPS950s at 2 x 725 hp above them. Both are pod drives with joystick control, and both come from a builder whose parts and service network you can check before you sign anything.

For fuel planning, ask for observed burn at your intended cruise rpm, in writing, from a boat rigged the way yours will be, and run your own arithmetic off the 687 gallons the boat carries. That number is worth more than any brochure figure, and a sea trial is the place to get it.

The engine choice is the decision to make early rather than late. The D8 package is the efficient one; the D11 package is the one to specify if you routinely load the boat heavy or cross open water on a schedule. Certification is CE category B with a maximum of 14 people aboard - confirm the people-aboard figure, and anything you intend to size a slip, a lift or an insurance policy from, on your own build documents.

Solar panels integrated into the hardtop are worth pricing at order time. They are the difference between a generator that runs through lunch and one that does not.

Three guest cabins and a double crew cabin fill the lower deck, and the arrangement is unusually even-handed. The owner's cabin forward is full beam, with large windows and transparent detailing between the cabin and its bathroom. The VIP is also full beam - a second owner's cabin in everything but name, rather than the narrowed room that usually sits in that position on a 57-footer. A third cabin with single berths completes the guest accommodation.

There are no inner steps on the lower deck. That sounds like a small thing until you walk it: every cabin gets the full ceiling height and the full volume of the hull at that station, and the windows are large enough that you wake up to a view rather than to a hatch.

Storage is treated as a feature rather than an afterthought, in the sleeping area and the living area both, and there is a dedicated space for a washer-dryer in the lower-deck hallway. The galley is full size and modern, which matters on a boat this size more than any other single interior decision.

On the main deck the saloon is glazed down both sides with large electric windows, and the helm carries the ergonomics and the visibility Absolute puts across the range. Fresh water is 172 gallons with the water heater included - that is the figure to plan your pump-outs and your shower discipline around.

The 56 FLY sits between the 52 FLY and the 60 FLY in Absolute's flybridge range, and the step up from the 52 is much larger than three feet of length overall suggests. Fuel goes from 475 gallons to 687 - a 45 percent increase in the tank on a boat that grew three feet. Beam goes from 15' 3" to 15' 9". The second full-beam cabin arrives. That is a different boat, not a longer one.

Going the other way, the 60 FLY takes fuel to 740 gallons, beam to 16' 2", fresh water to 193 gallons and capacity to 16 people, and opens the engine list up to 2 x 900 hp. If your season involves more people and longer legs, that is the honest place to spend the difference.

Against the wider market, a high-fifties flybridge with three guest cabins and a crew cabin puts a buyer in the same set as the Galeon 560 FLY and the Princess F55. What tends to settle it here is the second full-beam cabin and the empty cockpit: the 56 FLY hands you the volume and lets you decide what goes in it, where the alternatives arrive already furnished. If those two things are what you are shopping for, the shortlist gets short quickly.

The 56 FLY fits the owner who is bringing another couple aboard for a week and refuses to give them the small room. Two full-beam cabins is the whole argument. It changes who you can invite and how long they stay, and it is the reason to look at this boat rather than something three feet shorter with a better price.

It fits the owner-operator. The side door beside the console and the third helm station in the cockpit exist so that one person can bring the boat alongside without an audience or a second pair of hands, and the IPS joystick does the rest.

It fits a family that wants the cockpit to change with the season. Nothing back there is fixed, so it can be a dining room in June and a tender-and-toys deck in August, and the modular furniture is specified at order rather than lived with by default.

It is the wrong boat if you want the biggest volume you can buy per foot of dock - the 60 FLY has 53 more gallons of fuel, a wider beam and room for 16 aboard, and it is a short walk up the price list. It is also the wrong boat to buy without a sea trial: burn at your cruise rpm and the draft on your build sheet are numbers to have in hand before you configure, not after.