Galeon builds a 44' 2" hull and sells it two ways. That is the single most useful thing to know before you start comparing dimensions, because it means the choice between the 405 HTS and the 425 HTS is not a choice about size. Both are 44' 2" long on a 12' 10" beam. Both take the same slip. Both carry two cabins and two en-suite bathrooms below. What separates them sits above the waterline and on the engine beds - and the 405 is the one built to be opened up.
The deck plan is the argument
Start with the roof. The 405's cockpit roof slides back, and when it does the cockpit stops being a covered space and becomes an open-air lounge. That is a different proposition from a fixed hardtop with a sunroof panel in it, because the opening is large enough to change the character of the space rather than just let light in.
Then look at the helm. There are opening sections in the side windows beside the driver. It is a small piece of hardware and nobody ever leads with it, but it is the difference between a hardtop that feels sealed at the wheel and one that has air moving through it at 20 knots on a hot afternoon. If you boat somewhere with a real summer, that detail will matter more to you over five years than a knot of top speed.
The aft sofa converts. Facing forward, it is seating for the run out. Turned around, it faces the water for the hours you spend at anchor, which on most boats of this size is where the day actually happens. Forward, the bow carries large sun pads. Aft, a hydraulic swim platform handles the tender and the toys and makes recovering both a one-person job.
Below deck
The steps down open into a lobby and galley finished with soft LED lighting, recessed lights, curved woodwork and high-gloss lacquer. The galley is compact rather than generous, but it is genuinely equipped - modern appliances, worked-in storage, a layout one person can cook in without a second person getting in the way.
There are two cabins. The bow cabin has an en-suite bathroom, a full-size bed, upholstered side panels and a portside wardrobe, finished to a choice of interior palettes. The full-beam cabin aft runs the width of the hull, and its berths slide together into a double or apart into two singles. That flexibility is what lets a two-cabin boat serve a couple one weekend and four adults the next, and it works because it was designed in rather than bolted on.
One thing worth settling on the layout drawing before you choose fabrics: which of those two cabins is designated the owner's suite on your build. Confirm it rather than assume it - it decides which bathroom and which wardrobe you are specifying.
Bathrooms are properly done, with premium fittings and a separate shower rather than a wet-room compromise. Fresh water is 119 gallons, which on a boat that sleeps four is the tank most likely to call time on a long weekend at anchor.
Performance, and the figures to pin down
Top speed is 28 knots. The number you will actually run at is one to establish at sea trial: take the boat to the rpm you would genuinely hold all day, hold it there, and write down the speed and the observed burn before anyone starts talking about range.
Power is twin diesels with a maximum rating of 2 x 440 hp. Treat that as a ceiling rather than a description of the boat in front of you. A given hull can be built below the maximum, and the rating that matters is the one written on your build contract.
Two more figures deserve attention before you sign anything. Draft is 3' 3", or 3' 11" with running gear - size a berth and a lift off the deeper figure, and get the number for your exact drive package in writing. And unladen displacement is 22,708 lbs, with 251 gallons of fuel and 119 gallons of fresh water still to go aboard on top of it. Do that arithmetic before anyone books a travelift.
Where it sits
Inside Galeon's hardtop line, the 410 HTC sits below at 40' 11" and the 450 HTC above at 45' 10". Alongside, on the identical hull, sits the 425 HTS - enclosed main deck, rated to a maximum of 2 x 480 hp, 30 knots, and a 3' 7" draft. If what you want is the open-air argument with a flybridge on top instead, the 420 FLY is 44' 11", close enough that the decision is genuinely about the upper deck rather than about length.
Against the wider 44-foot hardtop diesel market, the 405's case is narrow and real. Most boats in this class make you decide once, at the order desk, between weather protection and open-air feel. The 405 leaves the decision open every morning.
Who it is for
This is a boat for the owner who would take the roof back nine days out of ten, and who wants a hardtop for the shoulder seasons rather than as a permanent enclosure. It is a boat for couples who take guests: two cabins, two en-suite bathrooms, four berths, nobody sharing a bathroom, ten guests aboard for the day. It is a boat for an owner-operator, because the low hardtop keeps weight and windage down and the opening helm windows keep the driver connected to what the hull is doing underneath.
It is the wrong boat if the hull has to sleep six - there is no third cabin. And it is the wrong boat if your season runs through the cold months, because on the identical hull the 425 HTS is the one that encloses the main deck.
Go stand in the cockpit with the roof back. That is the whole thesis of the 405 HTS, and no set of numbers is going to settle it for you.