We spoke to three brokers who had listings for a Tiara 5200 Express online. Here’s what they had to say about these forward-thinking express cruisers and the people who buy and sell them.
Tom Pilkington, Prestige Yacht Sales ; www.prestigeyachtsales.net
“I can honestly tell you this boat is about as perfect a used boat as you’re going to find, with all new electronics, night vision, and everything else. If you’re lucky enough to find an owner that has updated the boat and kept it up the value of these things is just astronomical. When I look at the 5200 that boat was basically probably ten years ahead of its time anyway. The open living space on it and the accommodations are really what’s selling now. Everybody is really gearing toward boats that are a combination of dayboat and entertaining platforms as well as accommodations down below. Maybe you could introduce it at a boat show now and no one would think it was a 10-year-old model. It’s just one of those boats: This guy kept a beautiful boat, upgraded everything, engine room’s spotless, it just represents an incredible value right now.”
Mike Brill, Export Yacht Sales ; www.exportys.com
“The Tiara is a fantastic boat both cosmetically and as a sea boat. Our boutique brokerage handles all aspects of our listings, so I personally ran the boat from Jupiter down to our docks in Miami in fairly rough seas. It was blowing about 25 to 30 knots out of the northeast, and she cut right through the chop. She never pounded and there was very little spray. The Tiara 50 has a really flat running angle, which is much safer because you never lose sight ahead of you. My listing is a 1999 and she was ahead of her time. This was the first Tiara that had the hardtop meet the top of the windshield for a modern look that didn’t come out on the rest of the fleet for a few years. Tiara put every bit of new technology that they had in the boat, and it shows. It looks and feels like a 2008. As on all Tiaras the interior woodwork is beautiful. Everything in the Tiara is built on a big scale compared to a lot of express boats that are European and very compartmentalized. My listing is the two-stateroom model creating a huge saloon with a large guest cabin, guest head, and the galley aft. The master is forward with an en suite head. There is plenty of headroom throughout, much more than other boats this size. Engine-room access is from the cockpit or through a hatch in the center of the bridgedeck. There is great access to the engines and the other mechanical equipment as well as standing headroom. Boaters passing by in the canal have stopped to ask if the 1999 was a misprint on our sign. I had one person turn around and ask if they could raft up and come see it. They said, ‘We never would have thought it was a ’99.’ I try to get as many Tiara listings as possible because they’re my wife’s favorite.”
Bill Watson, Bartram and Brakenhoff ; www.bartbrak.com
“Tiara is known as a top-tier boat so people appreciate that type of quality. Tiara made this Express and they also made the Sovran, and the difference between the two of them is in what I’ll call the bridgedeck-helm area. In the Sovran they sort of brought the interior to the exterior of the boat. The cherry finish and things like that. And they enclosed the bridgedeck with hard windows and a door, and of course air-conditioned it and finished it with a teak-and-holly sole. Different boaters like different things. The express model may be more attractive down here in the Florida area because it’s all open in the back. Maybe in the Chesapeake or Long Island Sound or the Great Lakes, the enclosed design extends the season at both ends with the air-conditioning and with reverse cycle. Belowdecks, the express has an open layout, and it’s very rich with the fabrics and soft goods and the teak-and-holly and the cherry joinery. It’s got enough horsepower to get out of its own way—you need the horsepower in order to get her up on plane and skip her along. I find that with boats like this, in this price category, the buyers are not as concerned about fuel economy as obviously if they were buying a Kadey-Krogen or something along those lines. It’s the couple who decides to buy a boat and go cruising, and it’s the woman who decides which boat it is. If that boat doesn’t speak to her, it’s on to the next boat.”
