Ask anyone who has walked a boat show what Galeon does differently and you will get the same answer. The balconies. Beach Mode, Terrace Mode, the sides of the boat folding down into a terrace over the water. It is the brand's signature and it is genuinely good.
So the 680 FLY takes some explaining, because it does not have them.
The one FLY without the balconies
There is no Beach Mode and no Terrace Mode on this boat. Beam is 17' 3" under way, and it is 17' 3" at anchor. The 620 FLY opens to 27' 2" and the 640 FLY to 24' 3"; the 680 does not open at all.
That is not a defect and it is not a downgrade - it is a different boat with a different argument, drawn with the Tony Castro Design Studio. But it is the single most important thing to know before you spend a day travelling to see one, because if the fold-down terrace is why Galeon is on your list, this is not the model.
What you get instead: the standard sheet
Here is where the 680 earns its place, and it is the part that does not photograph well.
Four cabins plus a crew cabin, standard. Not an option. A full-beam master with large hull windows, a vanity station and serious wardrobe space; a bow VIP; two twin guest cabins flanking the hull, each with its own bathroom; and the skipper cabin aft. If you would rather have volume than the fourth cabin, Galeon offers a three-cabin version with the port cabin converted to a utility room, still with the crew cabin.
Humphree interceptor trim tabs with autotrim and automatic list control, standard. On the 620 FLY the standard is Zipwake and Humphree is the upgrade. Here it is on the base sheet, with coordinated turn control as the only thing left to add.
A laminated carbon hardtop with an electric soft roof, standard. Galeon builds the whole top structure from carbon, which on a boat carrying this much upper-deck furniture is weight in exactly the right place.
Raymarine VHF with AIS and antenna, and a Raymarine Evolution autopilot with two control heads, standard. Plus a bow thruster with joystick, an electric vertical cockpit sunshade, a hydraulic bathing platform rated to 1,543 lbs, a Bose soundbar and an electric 50" television in the master.
Anyone who has ever reconciled a delivered price against a base price knows what that list is worth.
The deck that replaces the balconies
The 680's answer to opening the boat up is vertical rather than lateral. The flybridge beam extends out over the sides of the hull, and Galeon fills it with a C-shaped sofa it says seats fifteen, a dining setup, a bar forward for evening service, twin sport seats at the helm and a sundeck running forward to a venturi windscreen.
On the main deck, the sides open even if they do not extend: slide-down windows port and starboard, and folding doors between the galley and the cockpit so one galley serves the cockpit bar and the flybridge bar without anyone carrying trays around a corner. Forward of the C-shaped sofa and its teak table, the sundeck converts into four separate seating zones with twin dining tables that rise automatically.
And there is a piece of planning here that is easy to miss on a walkthrough: the main deck has entrances at both the bow and midship, so guests reach the guest cabins from one end and the owner reaches the master from the other. On a four-cabin boat that is worth more than another few inches of saloon.
The engine ceiling to settle before you sign
This is the one thing on the 680 that needs care.
Twin Volvo Penta D13-1000s are standard, with twin MAN V8-1200s as the listed option. Galeon quotes the maximum engine power between 2 x 1,200 and 2 x 1,300 hp.
A hundred horsepower a side is not nothing at this displacement, and it is exactly the sort of thing that is easy to settle now and impossible to argue after delivery. Put the engine package on your build contract in writing, named and rated, rather than carrying it in your head from a specification you read once.
The performance homework
Galeon quotes the 680 at up to 30 knots. Ask for observed burn at cruise in writing, from a boat that has run, and calculate your own legs off 878 gallons - and off two-thirds of it, not the whole tank.
The numbers to plan around
Length overall 72' 0", beam 17' 3", draft 4' 0" without propellers. Fuel 878 gallons in two tanks, fresh water 211 gallons, a 87-gallon grey tank and a 79-gallon black tank. Displacement 85,010 lbs in light craft condition with base engines, with a maximum load allowance of 13,647 lbs. Bridge clearance 25' 9" from the waterline at minimum draft and height to transport 30' 2". CE Category B, crew limit sixteen.
Two of those are worth confirming for your specific hull rather than for the model. Length overall is quoted at 72' 0" and you will also see it given about ten inches longer, which matters if a berth is measured to the inch. And the draft is quoted between 4' 0" and 5' 1" - plan a lift and a shallow approach off the deeper figure, because thirteen inches is the difference between clearing a bar and not.
Power and cooling: three decisions to make together
Save this one for the first build conversation rather than the last.
The standard generator is a 9 kW Onan, and Galeon rates it as not sufficient for air conditioning. Air conditioning at 89,000 BTU is an option. The 17.5 kW and 22.5 kW generators are separate options again.
On a four-cabin, sixteen-guest, 72-foot boat, none of those three are really optional. They are simply not in the base price, and they need deciding together and early. A Seakeeper 18, a watermaker, a dishwasher, a washer-dryer and a wine cooler are on the options list too.
Where it sits
Between the 640 FLY and the 800 FLY, and the comparison with the 640 is the useful one. Take the 640 if you want the Beach Mode balconies and a choice of three lower-deck layouts. Take the 680 if you want four cabins plus crew as standard, the carbon top structure, Humphree stabilisation on the base sheet and separated owner and guest circulation.
Four feet of length separates them. The philosophies are further apart than that.