You can’t decide whether to get a luxurious villa by the beach or opt for a new boat? Let us make the decision easier for you. You can’t take a villa to visit distant ports, you can’t prep a meal or take a nap just 10 steps from your own private beach club, and you certainly can’t blast across the Bay at speeds in excess of 30 knots in any land-based abode. You can, of course, do all these things and more aboard the new Beneteau Gran Turismo 50.
The Gran Turismo 50 is Beneteau’s new flagship of the Gran Turismo fleet, and it’s a major update to the range. It sports far more modern looks than the traditional lineup, including design touches like a slightly reverse-raked nearly plumb bow, an extended cockpit-shading hard top, and extensive outdoors areas both fore and aft. In fact, despite its size and accommodations the Gran Turismo 50 has all the traits of a day boat that make being out on the water so much fun.
The aft cockpit is the best example; on many express cruisers it’s abridged and tight. In this case, however, it’s extended and can be extended even more at the press of a button. Both sides of the cockpit fold down to turn the area into a huge beach club surrounding a central sunpad big enough for several people, which transitions into a pair of settees and a dinette forward. There’s more beachy space aft, where a massive hydraulic swim platform with integrated tender cradles and an automatically deploying ladder extends back several feet. Ready to launch the tender and head ashore for lunch? Press a button and the platform eases back and submerges.
The cockpit transitions into the helm deck forward, where it’s capped off with a summer kitchen/wet bar unit. Swing open the door and flip up the aft bulkhead window to seamlessly connect the two areas of the boat. On beautiful days open up the side windows and sunroof to get a sea breeze into the cabin, and when it’s blazing hot keep them closed and swing that door and window shut and then crank up the air conditioning. Take two steps up to the elevated helm to find a comfortable flip-up bolster seat for the captain, room for three 12-inch MFDs along the dash, and a shelf to your right with the throttles, bow thruster controls, and joystick. Note that the shelf is positioned right next to the opening side window, so you can stand outside the cabin on the starboard sidedeck and still have the controls close at hand when docking.
To port of the helmdeck a companionway takes you down to the lower cabin, where there’s a private stateroom with an en suite head forward, a day head with separate stall shower, and a pair of private staterooms aft (one with twins or a double berth and the other with a single berth). All of the staterooms enjoy natural light streaming in thanks to large side windows with opening ports, and all have plenty of stowage. The forward master features a pedestal berth, gobs of headroom, and a flip-up vanity. And the en suite head also has a separate stall shower, this one with a “rain shower” style shower head integrated into the overhead.
The bow of the Gran Turismo 50 is another highlight, with a gigantic sunbed covering the cabintop. And we do mean gigantic—three people could feel lonely stretched out up there. Forward of that the boat has a bona fide bow cockpit à la bowrider, with facing fore and aft seating plus seating along the starboard side. The entire bow cockpit is recessed, so you step down into it and are surrounded by bolstered gunwales all around. The anchoring system is also quite unusual and inventive; rather than going with a through-stem system (which would break the reverse-raked bow’s lines), the forward center seat swings out to open up an anchor locker with a hidden bow pulpit. Press a button and the pulpit rises out of the compartment, swings down, and extends forward for handling the anchor and rode.
While the Gran Turismo 50 looks great and comes well equipped right out of the box, those who enjoy having a bit of extra bling will want to know about the optional Alpine version of the Gran Turismo 50. It upgrades eye-appeal from bow to stern, starting with a custom paint job and including Lumishore accent lighting, special door handles and fittings, and upgraded carpet and upholstery.
A seaside luxury villa? Yeah, sure that would be nice. A Beneteau Gran Turismo 50? We think that would even nicer—and a lot more fun.
By Lenny Rudow
Beneteau Gran Turismo 50 Specifications:
LOA: 52’4”
Beam: 14’8”
Draft: 3’10”
Displacement (approx.): 32,511 lbs.
Fuel Capacity: 344 gal.
Water Capacity: 106 gal.
Max HP: 860
To learn more, contact PropTalk supporter Chesapeake Yacht Center in Baltimore and Ocean City, MD, and Hampton and Woodbridge, VA, at (410) 823-BOAT.