Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

Tiara 50 Coupe

That Tiara’s new 50 Coupe represents a design departure for the Holland, Michigan-based boatbuilder becomes evident the minute you enter the cabin. This boat’s accommodations are bright, airy and heavy on the feng shui. The dark-panel, teak-bedecked club look is gone, like so many bubbles in a wake that streams back across the years. But this new cruiser hasn’t given up what we consider one of Tiara’s hallmark trademarks. What is it? Read on and find out.

I may be overstating the point. I believe one will find a hint of teak in each and every space aboard the 50 Coupe. This might be the electric table that rises from the cockpit sole, the locker doors in the salon, the vanity counter in the head or the trim ringing the guest berth belowdecks. In effect, the longstanding Tiara DNA is there, but this new generation replaces bulkheads completely paneled in wood with some upholstered in light fabric, offering an elegant hand and a bright look. Drawer pulls, and other hardware, are square-shaped and stylish; the locker doors they operate are no longer louvered and proud. Instead these solid doors and drawers fully overlay the frames upon which they hinge. The nautical coziness offered by a cabin with old-school ports and hatches has been replaced with the fresh, energizing feel resulting from the torrent of sunlight that streams through the hull side windows and an atrium forward of the helm.

Aboard the 50 Coupe, both heads and both staterooms are belowdecks. (An optional three-stateroom plan is available.) The galley and salon, along with the helm, are “topside,” under the hardtop. The cockpit is naturally aft, but know that Tiara has equipped this space with flexible furnishings, like the electric table and convertible, movable ottoman-seats and a retractable sun shade, so that it serves as well for al fresco socializing as it does as a staging point for water sports to be enjoyed off the capacious swim platform and dinghy handling system. With “heads and beds” belowdecks and such amenity-rich topside areas, the 50 Coupe delivers extraordinary privacy for the owner while simultaneously providing an entertaining experience that’s rare to find at this length overall.

With the galley located centrally and the salon surrounded by windows and graced with an electric skylight overhead, crew can mingle and mix easily yet find the privacy to split into naturally occurring smaller groups: the men, the women, the kids, the deal makers, etc. From the helm, you can converse with those around you. The helm area and the eight-person dining lounge beside it are raised a step above the balance of the salon and cockpit and provide excellent vistas, a fact I discovered while running this boat through whitecapped 4-footers on a very rough Lake Michigan.

Tiara provided its new cruiser with a blue-water hull shape, the same one with which its 48 Convertible cleaves the seas. Tiara powered it with twin 725 hp Volvo Penta IPS II 950s, and by using a jack shaft to connect the engines to the drives, the weight of the engines is at the center of gravity — just like on an inboard fishing boat. In so doing, the 50 Coupe achieves a balance unlike most cruisers’, many of which are fine in calm seas but show the bad habits of being stern-heavy when the going gets rough. The 50 Coupe shouldered aside the big ones without having its bow knocked around. It also remained easy to keep on course despite 5-foot waves acting like they were generated by a washing machine. Running in beam seas, it rolled predictably, rather than yawing wildly. It provided a comfortable ride and stellar efficiency at 32 mph, turning 2,250 rpm and netting 0.59 mpg. And it did so heavily loaded, with full tanks and carrying a crew of 11. My opinion? The more experience you have, the better you’ll appreciate the 50 Coupe’s merits as a sea boat.

If you are shopping, see the Sea Ray 540 Sundancer ($1,736,614 with twin 684 hp Cummins diesels). It offers hull side windows and is of similar size, though with its galley and salon belowdecks it has a shorter house/hardtop.

I filled my notebook with construction and rigging highlights on the 50 Coupe. These range from the deep gutters that keep water from flooding into hatches, as at the massive anchor locker in the bow, to the robust hinges of the also massive lazarette at the transom. Even in those places boaters rarely look, we noted the neat application of biaxial fiberglass; all wiring was tinned copper and the wire runs are organized, labeled and robustly supported. With this new model, Tiara reinforces its position as a boatbuilder working to the highest standards.

Confidence is the one feature for which I have always lauded Tiara. The 50 Coupe delivers a confident ride, construction that inspires confidence, and the assurance that comes from a boatbuilder willing to change with the times but averse to give up the core attributes that demand respect.

Comparable model: Sea Ray 540 Sundancer