Galeon 650 SKY

The Galeon 650 SKY is the 640 FLY's hull with a different roof over it. Galeon developed the two boats alongside each other and calls them twin models. Length overall is 68' 3" on a 60' 5" hull, beam is 16' 5", and every tank, cabin count and speed figure matches its flybridge sibling. What the SKY adds is a top deck concealed beneath a carbon hardtop that can be opened in moments or closed off completely, plus a glass sunroof over the saloon. Up top there is a central helm station and an L-shaped settee with a table.

Beach Mode is the exterior headline. The balconies run 19' 8" fore and aft, have partly glazed floors, and carry a breakfast bar on both sides. Opened, the usable beam goes from 16' 5" to 24' 3", and with the side windows retracted the galley serves both bars from inside. The cockpit settee is U-shaped and can be shaded for privacy or for watching a concealed television that rises out of the galley top. Aft of it a hydraulic bathing platform gives access to the skipper cabin. The bow is not an afterthought either: the middle section of the windshield retracts to make a front entrance onto a transformable sundeck and seating area, with a wine cooler alongside and carbon supports to run a bimini over it.

The numbers. Draft is 3' 4" without propellers, fuel is 991 gallons in two equal tanks, and fresh water is 211 gallons. Mass in light craft condition with base engines is 83,687 lbs, with a further 13,669 lbs of rated load. Bridge clearance is 24' 0" and transport height is 27' 2". Power runs from 2 x 900 hp to a ceiling of 2 x 1,200 hp, top speed is up to 30 knots, and the hull is CE Category B with fifteen aboard. Accommodation is three or four cabins plus crew across three heads, and there are three lower-deck layouts to choose between.

Galeon quotes up to 30 knots for the 650 SKY. Ask for observed burn at your normal cruising rpm in writing at sea trial and do the range arithmetic off 991 gallons yourself - it is a fifteen-minute job on the day.

The most useful performance fact about this boat is not a speed. It is a weight. The 650 SKY and the 640 FLY are the same hull with the same 991 gallons of fuel, the same 16' 5" beam and the same 30-knot maximum, but light craft condition on the SKY is 83,687 lbs against the FLY's 78,264 lbs. The carbon hardtop, the enclosing top deck and the glass sunroof cost roughly 5,400 lbs of the boat's rated capacity before you have loaded anything into it. Maximum load here is 13,669 lbs. That is a real number to weigh if you cruise loaded, and it is the honest price of being able to shut the top deck.

Power runs from 2 x 900 hp to 2 x 1,200 hp - a 600 hp spread across the pair, and a wide enough one that a demo boat at the top of the range tells you little about a boat at the bottom of it. Drive the specification you intend to order, loaded the way you intend to cruise.

Two dimensions for your berth and your yard. Draft is 3' 4" measured without propellers, which is shallow for a 68-footer and genuinely useful in the Bahamas or the Keys. Bridge clearance is 24' 0" from the waterline at minimum draft. And treat 83,687 lbs as what it is - a light craft figure with base engines and nothing aboard. Get a rigged, loaded weight for your own hull before you commit a lift.

Three lower-deck layouts are on the table, and they are genuinely different boats rather than trim levels. The standard arrangement runs three cabins each with a private bathroom. The second replaces that with a super master cabin amidships. The third is the four-cabin arrangement, which is the one for larger families or for hosting. Three heads throughout, with a skipper cabin aft entered from the hydraulic bathing platform rather than through the accommodation - so crew come and go without walking through the boat.

The main deck is organised around a master cabin with its own independent access, which also puts a separation between the galley and the forward entertainment space. The dining area seats a crowd and carries a concealed pop-up television. Panoramic glazing runs down both sides, and there is a starboard side door beside the helm so whoever is driving can be on the side deck in two steps for docking.

The cockpit is the room that gets used most, and it has been designed that way. The U-shaped settee can be shaded for privacy or for watching a second concealed television that rises out of the galley top. With the side windows retracted, the galley serves refreshments to both Beach Mode bars without anyone going around. The balconies themselves run 19' 8" fore and aft with partly glazed floors, which is a genuinely different sensation from standing on a solid platform.

The bow is the surprise. The middle section of the windshield retracts to open a front entrance from the main deck, so the foredeck stops being a place you climb around the side to reach. Out there is a transformable sundeck and seating area with a wine cooler nearby and carbon supports that put a bimini up quickly. On most boats this size the bow is the space nobody uses under way; here it is a second cockpit.

The comparison that matters is in-house: the 650 SKY and the 640 FLY were developed alongside each other on one hull, and Galeon calls them twin models. Same 68' 3" length overall, same 16' 5" beam, same 24' 3" open beam, same 991 gallons of fuel, same three-or-four cabins plus crew, same 30-knot maximum. Choosing between them is not a size decision or a layout decision. It is one question: do you want a top deck that closes?

The SKY's carbon hardtop can be opened in moments or shut completely, which turns the upper deck into usable space in weather that empties a conventional flybridge - and gives the boat a sport-coupe profile the rest of the time. The 640 FLY is the open, conventional answer and is 5,400 lbs lighter in light craft condition for it. Neither is the better boat. They are two answers to the same question, and the weight is the price of one of them.

Against the wider 65-to-70-foot market the 650's strongest cards are the bow and the balconies. Balconies 19' 8" long with partly glazed floors and a bar on each side is not a common specification anywhere in this class, and a retracting windshield section that turns the foredeck into a room you walk into is rarer still. Where the established names in this class push back is on published performance data and on how long they have been building at this size. The Azimut Fly 68 at 68' 10" and Princess S65 at 67' 7" sit either side of the same argument - one conventional flybridge, one sport profile.

Two build-sheet decisions to settle early rather than late. The lower deck comes three ways - three cabins, a super master amidships, or four cabins - and that is chosen once. And the cockpit can take a rotating sofa with a 10' 6" tender garage beneath it, which is where your tender decision gets made before anything else makes it for you.

The 650 SKY fits the owner who wants the upper deck to be usable in more weather than a flybridge is. The carbon hardtop opens in moments and closes the top deck off completely, which means the central helm and the L-shaped settee up there stay in play when it is raining, blowing or simply too hot - and the boat wears a sport-coupe profile the rest of the time. If your season includes months where a conventional flybridge sits empty, that is not a styling feature, it is extra boat.

It fits people who live at anchor. Beach Mode balconies 19' 8" long with partly glazed floors open the beam from 16' 5" to 24' 3", with a breakfast bar on each side and the galley serving both through retracted windows. The bow adds a second social space entirely, reached by walking through a retracting windshield section rather than climbing round the side decks.

It fits a family that has not settled its layout yet. Three lower-deck arrangements are available - three cabins each with a private bathroom, a super master amidships, or four cabins for hosting - across three heads, with a skipper cabin aft entered from the bathing platform so crew are not walking through the accommodation.

It is the wrong boat if you cruise heavily loaded and count every pound. The enclosing carbon top costs roughly 5,400 lbs against the 640 FLY in light craft condition, out of 13,669 lbs of rated load. And it is the wrong boat if what you actually want is an open flybridge, because that boat already exists on the same hull and weighs less.