Tiara Yachts EX 54

The Tiara EX 54 is 54' 3" overall with its integrated platform, on a 15' 11" beam, and draws 4' 4". Dry weight is 48,400 lbs. Power is twin Volvo Penta IPS2-950 diesels rated 725 HP each, turning Volvo P4 propellers through 1.7:1 gears. Fuel is 650 US gallons, fresh water 135 and the holding tank 68. Deadrise at the transom is 14 degrees, and the hardtop stands 12' 5" above the waterline.

The aft cockpit is a decision you make at order rather than a fixed layout. Tiara builds the EX 54 with three module selections - a social configuration, an adventure configuration and a glass patio - so the back of the boat is set up around what you actually do out there. Twin terraces open the cockpit outboard to the water on both sides, and the swim platform carries integrated steps, which makes the whole stern the swimming and tender end of the boat.

Forward, the bow is easy to walk to and gives you a second exterior lounge away from the cockpit crowd. Inside, the salon and galley share the main deck and are laid out for dining and entertaining at anchor. The helm runs Volvo's glass cockpit with assisted docking and an aft-facing camera, alongside Garmin navigation - the package that makes a 54-footer a one-person boat at the dock.

Below deck are three staterooms sleeping six adults, with two heads. Three private cabins on a 54-footer you drive yourself is the whole argument of this boat.

Tiara tests its boats and publishes the sheet. The EX 54 on twin IPS2-950s was run at Stuart, Florida on 23 January 2024 with fuel, water and waste tanks all full, three people aboard and a weight as tested of 56,891 lbs. Wide open throttle is 38.7 mph - 33.7 knots - at 2,561 rpm, burning 74.2 gph. Idle to 30 mph takes 15.5 seconds.

The band to plan around is the optimum cruise: 26.0 mph at 2,000 rpm on 44.3 gph, or 30.6 mph at 2,200 rpm on 53.7 gph. Tiara's own arithmetic, worked on 90% of the 650-gallon tank, puts that at 299 nautical miles at the lower setting and 290 at the higher. Four and a half extra miles an hour costs nine nautical miles of range - a flat enough trade that there is no real penalty for running this boat at the top of its cruise band.

Noise at the helm is 71 dB(A) at 2,000 rpm and 72 at wide open throttle. One decibel separates loafing from pushing, which is a pod-and-diesel result you will hear the moment you compare it to a gasoline boat of the same length.

Deadrise at the transom is 14 degrees. That is a cruising number, and it is the correct one for a hull built to hold a flat, dry attitude in the high twenties rather than to punch a head sea at 40. Propulsion is pods, so slow-speed work happens on a joystick with the aft camera up on the glass cockpit. Dock it in a crosswind, in a slip the width of the one you keep, before you form an opinion about handling from the way it feels at cruise.

Three staterooms, two heads, six adults sleeping. That is the arrangement, and on a 54-footer it is the number that decides whether the boat takes another couple and the kids for a weekend or only your own family.

The salon and galley are on one level on the main deck, drawn for dining and entertaining rather than for a cook working alone out of sight. Sight lines run forward to the helm, which is the part that matters when you are the one driving - the person at the wheel stays in the room.

The glass patio module changes the character of the interior more than its name suggests. Ordered in place of the social or adventure cockpit, it extends the finished, glazed living space aft instead of leaving the stern as open deck, and it is the version to look at if your boating is long lunches at anchor in changeable weather rather than fishing or water sports.

Below, the three cabins are separated for privacy, with two heads serving them. Tiara's virtual tour is the fastest way to read the volume before you fly to see one - materials, finishes and the way the below-deck spaces divide are all easier to judge there than in a plan view.

The EX 54's first competitor is the boat on the next stand. The Tiara 56 LS is two feet longer, and it answers the same length question from the opposite direction: four Mercury 600 V12s on the transom, 54.4 mph, 1,000 gallons and two staterooms, against the EX 54's twin diesel pods, 38.7 mph, 650 gallons and three. Outboards or inboards, speed or cabins - Tiara has split the choice cleanly and expects you to pick a side.

Outside the range, the Sunseeker Predator 55 is the sharpest comparison available, because it runs the identical engine package: twin Volvo Penta IPS 950 at 2 x 725 HP, at 56' 3". The difference is what is behind them. The Predator carries 476 US gallons of fuel; the EX 54 carries 650. Same power, 174 more gallons - that is where the American boat spends its length, and it is worth quoting both boats' own performance figures side by side when you narrow the list.

The Princess V55 at 58' 5" comes at the segment with more engine, twin Volvo D13-1000s, and is the third boat most buyers at this size drive on the same weekend.

Where the EX 54 argues is documentation and configurability. A published test sheet with rpm, gph, decibels and calculated range at every step is a rare thing at this length, and a cockpit ordered in one of three configurations means the boat you take delivery of is the one you use, not the one the yard decided to build.

This boat fits the owner who is done with crew. Joystick docking, an aft-facing camera on the glass cockpit and assisted docking are all standard equipment on the theory that you and one other person put the boat away. If leaving on a Friday afternoon without coordinating anyone else's calendar is the point of owning a boat, the EX 54 is built around exactly that.

It fits a family of six who want three separate cabins. Three staterooms and two heads at 54 feet is a genuine three-cabin arrangement, not a bunk alcove counted generously, and it is the reason to look here rather than at a two-cabin boat of the same length.

It fits someone who knows how they use a cockpit. Choose the social module if you entertain, the adventure module if you fish or run water toys, the glass patio if you want glazed living space aft. Decide it at order - reconfiguring later is a refit, not an afternoon.

It does not fit a buyer whose first question is top speed. Wide open throttle is 38.7 mph, and the boat is happiest at 26 to 30. If the number matters more than the cabins, the Tiara 56 LS runs 54.4 mph on four outboards and gives up a stateroom to do it.

It does not fit anyone who wants an upper station - the EX 54 is a single-helm boat under a hardtop. And if you are planning a season around fuel, plan it off the published sheet: 44.3 gph at 26.0 mph, 53.7 at 30.6, worked against 650 gallons.