The Beneteau Flyer 32 makes it easy to enjoy the outdoors lifestyle, without giving up a cabin.
What’s the biggest problem with most of the cruisers in today’s market? They do such a good job of providing you with a monstrous cabin that there’s not much open space left to enjoy the great outdoors. Tiny cockpits and unusable bows may be okay for some folks, but what about those of us who want to feel the sunshine and breathe in the salty air, rather than be bottled up belowdecks? If that’s how you feel, you’ll take one glance at the Beneteau Flyer 32 and realize it was designed with your outdoorsy attitude in mind.
Beneteau reclaims the entire foredeck of this boat by utilizing an asymmetrical design with a portside walkway (called the “smart walkaround concept,” in Beneteau-speak). That allows them to expand the forward lounger, which caps the relatively flat cabin top all the way to the starboard gunwale. The net result? You have a triple-wide lounger with fold-down armrests and cupholders up there, rather than the usual double-wide. Added bonus: using the port-only walkaround also allows for a larger cabin, since no space is lost to a recessed walkway on the starboard side of the boat.
The second area in which Beneteau extends your outdoor access is in the cockpit. For starters, the entire galley has been moved outside into a module behind the helm seating. It has a sink, refrigerator, and two-burner stove-top. If you’d rather grill, that’s no problem; there’s a pedestal mount on the swim platform for one—have at it. Once the grub’s prepped, pop the filler cushion out of the aft sunpad, raise the table, flip up the aft seatback, and you have an outdoor dinette.
One of the best things about the Flyer 32’s design is that the boat accomplishes providing all of this outdoor space without cramping up the cabin. It has a fully enclosed head with a separate stall shower, and the expected convertible V-berth/dinette forward. But it also has a surprisingly spacious, private mid-cabin with plenty of room for a couple. Beneteau gooses the size and accessibility of the area by building it up into the base of the abovedeck passenger’s double-wide seat base, so there’s a lot more headroom at the entry than many mid cabins can offer. There’s also a port mounted into the side of the seat base, so you get some natural light belowdecks.
Wait a sec—what exactly did we mean by “private”? Countless boats in this class close off the mid-cabin berth with a mere privacy curtain (oxymoron alert—a curtain doesn’t provide much privacy at all). But not in this case, because there’s actually a solid closing door at the entry.
Like others in the Flyer line, this is an outboard-powered boat, and Beneteau offers it with your choice between twin 300 or twin 350 horsepower powerplants. With max power you can plan on top-end speeds in the mid-40 mph range, which is quite spiffy for a 32-footer. Part of the reason is the Airstep2 hull, which is unique to Beneteau. Unlike stepped-hull designs, the Airstep2 system actually ducts air through the hull and pipes it out underneath the boat. The section of the running surface behind the vents comes up behind a step that runs aft towards the corners of the transom as opposed to bringing in air via the usual steps that run out to the hullside, and this segment of the bottom doesn’t have strakes but instead is smooth.
By utilizing this design Beneteau introduces drag-reducing air under the aft segment of the boat, and having run several different models with the Airstep2, we think it has a somewhat similar feel to running a regular stepped-bottom boat: light on its feet, a bit faster and more efficient than one would expect, and it also seems that the air under the hull provides a slight cushion when hitting waves.
Put all of these factors together, and you get a cruiser that’s also a day-boat, a weekender, a bowrider, and it even comes with a hint of sport-boat. You get the Flyer 32.
By Lenny Rudow
Beneteau Flyer 32 Specifications:
LOA: 32’8”
Beam: 10’11”
Draft: 2’7”
Displacement: 11,556 lbs.
Max HP: 700
Fuel Capacity: 212 gal.
Water Capacity: 42 gal.
Price (MSRP): $212,700