Split but splendid in its personality, the 243 becomes a study in both long-term value and immediate gratification. The 243’s appeal to the emotions is obvious in its graceful beauty, its luxury afloat in the comfort, the convenience of amenities chosen for enjoyment pure and simple. The 243’s embrace of enduring value comes in combining spread-out spaciousness for captain and crew with ubiquitous storage, easy movement stem to stern, and a masterpiece of a sliding companionway door that enables both wide-open access to the cabin and a separate cockpit entrance to the head compartment, itself roomy and well-optioned. Here is a boat bringing sumptuous textures and well-dressed surfaces together with hard functionality in the newish suggestion that cuddy owners really can have it all. The cockpit an entertainment center and the cabin a private retreat, the 243 means appointments rich and thoughtful, with a set of options that maximize value: a dinette table, filler cushions, a television and DVD player, a heater, terry-cloth seat covers – whatever a boating poet might ask, all that an accountant might find, a decade down the river, worthwhile.

Base Suggested Retail Price: $85,168