Benetti B.NOW 52M

The B.NOW 52M sleeps 12 guests in six cabins, each with an en-suite head, so you can host three couples without anyone drawing straws for the smallest stateroom. Benetti lists crew accommodation for 10 in six cabins.

In practice Tony expects most owners to run six to eight full-time positions: captain, engineer, chef, stewardess, deckhand, and a second engineer or deckhand depending on use. Inside, Valentina Zannier's asymmetrical saloon creates distinct zones without chopping the deck into rooms, and floor-to-ceiling glass keeps natural light through the day. The sundeck adds a second dining setup and a sky bar.

The Oasis Deck on the 52M is 1,400 square feet of uninterrupted outdoor space at main deck level. The pool is large enough to swim in rather than pose beside, and a sliding cover converts it into a flush entertaining area when you want floor space instead.

The layout around it is tight in the good sense. Dining table for twelve facing forward, bar to starboard, beach club access aft, and everything within about 20 feet of everything else, so crew are not running laps to clear plates. The flow from saloon to Oasis Deck to swim platform has no awkward transitions or wasted corridors.

Staying under 500 gross tons simplifies regulatory compliance in some jurisdictions and opens up cruising grounds and berths that larger-tonnage yachts have to work around. On a 169-foot yacht that is a deliberate engineering result, achieved with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure rather than by trimming the accommodation.

Draft helps for the same reason. At 8 feet 6 inches, or 2.6 metres, you are not sneaking into skinny water, but most of the Bahamas, the Keys and the Caribbean stay open to you. Tony rates the tonnage class as one of the real advantages this boat has over rivals a few metres longer.

The B.NOW 52M covers 4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots, which is Miami to the Mediterranean without stopping, or the Bahamas to the Grenadines and back with range in hand. Maximum speed is 15 knots, produced by twin MAN V12 diesels rated 1,400 horsepower each.

One caution on fuel figures: Benetti does not publish a tank capacity for the 52M, so treat any number quoted elsewhere as approximate rather than official. The range is the figure that matters anyway. This is a steel displacement hull that rides predictably in moderate seas and is built to hold 11 knots all day rather than sprint between anchorages.

The B.NOW 52M suits the owner who plans to be aboard 60 days a year, not six, and who has worked out that 200 feet of boat often means 150 feet you never use. It fits families cruising the Bahamas in summer and the Keys in winter, and owner-operators who keep a small crew.

Its specification is deliberately conservative, with no hybrid propulsion in the mix and no experimental naval architecture, which is exactly the appeal for some buyers and the reason others will look at the 60M instead. Tony's read: buy it to use, not to make a statement or flip in three years.

Tony's estimate is $1.5 million to $2 million a year for moderate use. Crew accounts for $600,000 to $800,000 of that across six to eight positions once you count salaries, benefits, training and travel, and fuel, maintenance, insurance and dockage add another $1 million to $1.5 million.

These are his figures, not Benetti's, and running the boat hard or keeping it in high-cost marinas year-round pushes them up. What the number buys is availability. The boat is ready when you are, provisioned the way you want it, with a crew that knows your preferences, rather than working around a charter calendar.