PRESTIGE M7

Looking for a comfortable cruise-friendly 75-footer? How about a 60ft cat instead?

- WORDS: Alex Smith

Ease of movement on board is outstanding

The principle behind Prestige's M Line is simple. Build a boat that delivers the deck space and volume of something much larger, alongside the running efficiency of something much smaller. A wide-beamed powercat is of course the perfect solution to that kind of brief and Prestige has done its best to make the customer benefits behind their approach very explicit. The flagship M8, for instance, is a 65-footer that claims to offer the space of an 85-footer; the entry-level M48 (soon to be renamed the M6) is a 48-footer that brings 60ft volume to the table; and in spite of its 58ft LOA, this new model is named the M7 to reflect what Prestige deems to be its natural place among 75ft monohulls.

The starting point is a beam of nearly 25ft – around 43% of its overall length and about 9ft more than you would tend to expect of a comparable monohull. As you might anticipate, that feels pretty good on the external decks. The slightly sunken aft cockpit stretches across the full beam, with steps down to aft platforms on both sides and a big hydraulic central platform that can be raised to deck level to extend the cockpit out over the water.

You can spec this space with a large central C-shaped dinette that faces aft through a central gate toward that deck extension or you can trade that for the test boat's asymmetrical arrangement instead. That uses a corner lounger on the port side, a large L-shaped seating unit to starboard and a single central set of steps (rather than a pair of lateral ones) to ascend to the raised saloon level. Either way, ease of movement here is outstanding, thanks to a transverse run of open deck behind the superstructure – and that's a feature that's broadly mirrored up at the bow.