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The 4200's helm is well thought out, with the electronics console located so you can glance and pilot simultaneously—no head bobbing. The console is positioned so you don't have to look through or around the wheel at the displays. By simply looking forward, your eye can catch a view of the screens while also taking in the view of what's ahead. Just below the console, switches for the horn, wipers, tabs, and engine synch are within arm's reach. To starboard of the helm seat, fuel level, battery level, and rudder-angle gauges are easily read on the fly.
"Look natural" must have been Tiara's motto when constructing the 4200's bridge deck and cockpit. The L-shape lounge, just aft and to port of the helm, features a glove-like fit for guests to enjoy the ride and keep in close contact with the captain (and, of course, the standard wet bar just abaft the helm). The cockpit's aft-facing benchseat blends into the area, and a tackle center is optional here if you wanted to fish your 4200. Don't worry about losing the seat, as another benchseat folds out from under the transom.
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One thing I didn't care for in the cockpit was the optional lockable rod stowage. I had difficulty getting my finger under the latches to open them, and the positioning and curve of the lockable covers allows water to run down the rod holders and collect at the covers' base near the screws. Everse later told me that there are typically two drainage holes here and that our boat would be corrected.
Like the wide-open feeling on the bridge deck and cockpit, the below-deck accommodations are airy and expansive. The lounge to port converts into a berth for two and is a great place to view the standard 22-inch flat-panel TV to starboard. The back of the lounge forms a Pullman berth for one more. To starboard, the galley featured the optional teak-and-holly sole (teak is standard). I liked the teak and holly, and Everse says most customers go for this $1,140 option. The interior was all standard teak, but honey ash veneer is also available for $5,850.
The head, just forward of the galley, has access to the saloon, and a second door leads to the master forward, which features a pedestal berth and innerspring mattress. A 13-inch flat-screen TV is also here. Two-zone air conditioning, a 16,000-Btu unit in the saloon and 6,000-Btu unit forward, kept below decks just cool enough to remind me it was about time to catch that flight home.
Maybe it was the vitamin D from the sun shining down on me all day or the fact that I had just spent time on a flat-calm ocean running a power-packed, sloping-sheerline, multipurpose express cruiser, but I didn't even notice the torrential rain when my plane landed in New York that evening. My mind was focused on an endless day at the helm, running over South Florida's teal-tinted water. After all, endless days are what boating is all about, and it's what Tiara Yachts has provided with the 4200 Open—at least for this reformed grouch.
Tiara Yachts
(616) 392-7163
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This article originally appeared in the February 2003
issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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