One decision on the Galeon 520 FLY outlasts every other choice on the order sheet: the volume aft is built as either a crew cabin or a tender garage, and the two versions of this boat live very different lives. Start there - before the colour schemes, before the electronics list, before anything else.
The decision that defines the boat
The 520 FLY's accommodation is three cabins plus one - an optional crew cabin, or a tender garage in the same volume. That is the most consequential option on the boat.
Specify the crew cabin and you have a boat that somebody can run, clean and maintain for you, with a place for them to live that is not your third guest cabin. Specify the tender garage instead and you have a boat you drive yourself, with the dinghy and the toys out of the cockpit and off the platform. Same hull, same three guest cabins, completely different ownership experience.
It cannot be revisited once the boat is built, so it is worth deciding properly rather than defaulting.
Below deck
Three cabins sleep six. The master is full beam, amidships, with a private entrance and its own bathroom - which is the layout you normally start seeing a size or two up, and it is the single feature most worth going aboard to experience. A separate entrance means guests reach the day head without passing your door.
Forward, the VIP takes the natural light. The third cabin has a sliding bed system that converts between a double and twins, so the same boat works for a couple travelling with friends and a family travelling with children. Galeon lists three en-suites and a day head.
The interior comes two ways: a designer choice version, or a Mediterranean package developed with the design studio Insitu & Partners, running five colour schemes - Ivory, Pearl, Ocean, Amber and Terra - over high-gloss lacquered surfaces. Choose with samples in your hands, not from a screen.
What happens when you stop
On the main deck, galley and dining share one open space with the saloon and flow straight to the cockpit. Above it, the flybridge is built around one large sofa and is intended as the primary social zone rather than a place to send the overflow.
Then there is Beach Mode. The aft end of the main deck opens to sea level as a terrace-style space, and with the balconies down the beam goes from 15' 3" to 21' 10". That transformation is what people remember from a boat show, and it is the reason a lot of Galeon owners are Galeon owners.
The numbers
Length overall is 56' 5", on a 48' 4" hull - the difference is bathing platform and pulpit, and dockage, haul-out and many insurance policies price on the overall figure. Fuel is 476 gallons in two tanks, fresh water 172 gallons, and top speed is quoted at up to 30 knots on a maximum engine rating of D11-725, 2 x 725 hp. The honest source for how the boat behaves at your intended cruise is a rigged boat and a fuel-flow reading.
The quoted weight - 57,757 lbs light craft - is the weight with base engines, so the weight you plan a lift around should be tied to the engine package on your own order. And draft comes three ways: 3' 5", a second figure of 5' 5", and 2' 11" for the hull without propellers - plan to the deeper end.
This is a boat you buy on written confirmation, and the list is short.
How to buy one properly
Four things in writing, for your exact build, before you sign.
Length overall as built, so your marina quote and your insurance are priced on the real number.
Draft with running gear, not the bare-hull figure and not an average of the three quoted numbers.
Base engine and rigged weight, so the weight you size a lift from is defined against the engines actually in your boat.
Crew cabin or tender garage, decided deliberately and early, because it is the option you cannot undo.
Get those four settled and the rest of this boat is a pleasure to buy. The full-beam master with its own door, the flybridge built around one good sofa, and the moment the balconies come down and the aft deck becomes a terrace - those are the parts that sell the 520 FLY, and no specification sheet was ever going to do them justice.
If you want help configuring a 520 FLY, or comparing it honestly against the 480 below it and the 560 above it, reach out at TS@MintedYachts.com or +1 (404) 805-9819, or send us a note through the form on this page.