Beneteau Flyer GT 49 Main

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Let’s get something out of the way for all you naysayers and dedicated fossil fuel loyalists: Yes, Beneteau, a company with a 125-year history, is known as a builder of sailboats, garnering a loyal and dedicated following due in large part to its unfailing resolve never to cut corners on its construction or service. However, when the company introduced the Swift Trawler 42 in 2004, it opened the floodgates. The Barracuda, Antares and Monte Carlo lines followed, and now the Flyer Gran Turismo series in lengths of 34, 38, 44 and 49 feet in express and flying-bridge models shows that the company is very serious about what it can offer in this highly competitive market segment.

“You can especially see how important the commitment the company has undertaken is, with the significant amount of R&D money Beneteau has put into the launch of the GT series,” said Alex Wilkes, part of the Denison Yacht Sales group.

A boat’s cockpit is its welcome mat, and the one aboard the GT 49 seemed adequately large, its table and transom seating leaving plenty of room to move around. An optional helm station is available here, as well as an outdoor grill. The hydraulically operated swim platform helps in launching the 11-foot tender from its garage under the cockpit. I inspected the engine room via the cockpit hatch before going into the accommodations and noted the ease of checking fluids prior to casting off.

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A few minutes later, we left the dock and began idling along the upper reaches of Fort Lauderdale’s serpentine, and often quite narrow, New River.

The normally busy waterway was already in the throes of a rip-roaring incoming tide. Steering at the lower station without having to do any throttle jockeying, courtesy of the fast reaction of the twin 435 hp Volvo Penta D6 IPS600s, made navigating the quickly changing nautical pinball game just a bit more relaxed. The lower station’s big forward windows and those to either side provided me with excellent sight lines, adding to the feeling of control that comes with pod drives.

By the time we had motored downriver to where the waterway opened, I noticed that the wind was blowing at a constant 30 knots. When we arrived at the channel markers indicating the Port Everglades Inlet and poked the GT 49’s bow seaward, we got a peek at the horror show going on out in the ocean.

After a very brief discussion, we agreed to confine my testing to the Intracoastal Waterway. We headed south toward Dania, where we had enough running room outside of the no-wake zones to get accurate performance numbers.