The following review was written by John Page Williams, Editor-at-large, Chesapeake Bay Magazine. John, senior naturalist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, has been a regular contributor to Chesapeake Bay Magazine for 30 years, specializing in environmental issues, nature, wildlife, fishing and boats. He has been testing new and used boats for the magazine's Time-Tested and New Boat News departments since 1998.

Length overall  45' 3" Beam  13' 4"           Draft  3' 9" Displacement   26,500 lb Fuel  290 gal  Water  106 gal          Base Price  $683,200

This year, Beneteau USA brought the parent company’s series of Monte Carlo Motorboats to our shores. The MC4 is the smallest of the series, but she gets all of the big-boat technology and fittings of her larger sisters, while offering spirited performance and better efficiency from her twin 370-hp D6 Volvo IPS 500 pod-drive power systems.

Beneteau’s design, engineering and construction systems produce boats that are bold without being bizarre, strong but light, and elegant without being outlandishly expensive. Thus the MC4 gets touches like stitched leather on the saloon table, superyacht LED indirect interior lighting, Alpwood laminate with matching grain in the cabinetwork, and self-closing drawers. The full-width midship master cabin offers a king-size island berth with extensive storage, comfortable seating and a private head. The guest cabin offers a queen-size island berth with private access to the day head.

The single-seat lower helm offers good sightlines and electrically articulated windows for fresh air. The bright saloon, with galley-up opposite a dinette, sits on the same level as the cockpit, with hefty sliding glass doors that can open to blend the two spaces. An ingenious flat screen television hides on a slider behind the galley’s spice rack. The foredeck offers a pair of huge sunpads, while the flybridge offers another sunpad opposite the helm and a summer galley with a U-shaped dinette.

Engineering shows in a hydraulic swim platform that can launch and retrieve a dinghy weighing up to 770 pounds, an after helm (with IPS joystick) for docking, and deck hardware with rotating fairleads. The compact engine room offers generous access all around the engines, including the robust 13.5 kW Onan genset. Our test day didn’t offer seas to challenge the MC4’s dramatic, sculpted chines and sharp bow entry, but our test boat showed reasonable fuel economy and quick handling from 11 to 35 mph, meaning that on rough passages, it will be easy to find her happy speeds in a wide range of seas.

Base price for the MC4 is $683,200. Beneteau USA, Annapolis. 410-990-0270; www.beneteauusa.com.

Local Dealers: Annapolis Yacht Sales, www.annapolisyachtsales.com