Astondoa 52 Motor yacht review in Hong Kong.
In 2014 we delivered a Astondoa 52 ft motor yacht to Hong Kong, this yacht is a true millionaire’s toy. Priced some where around HK$ 9million, US$ 1.16million. The boat fulfills it’s promise of being fully functional and beautiful. The overall length of the yacht goes up to around 17 meters and it’s width up to 4.6 meters. A yacht this size generally weighs around 24 tons. The Astondoa 52 here has installed 2 x 800 hp MAN inboard engines, these take the yacht to the maximum speed of 30 knots. The factory provides smaller engine options as well for better prices. Its entirely up to the owner. The hull of this yacht is designed to take hard beating from the sea and heavy vibration from the engines. I personally recommend smaller engines because I don’t give so much importance to speed. There is a old saying that “if you are in a hurry to get somewhere on your luxury yacht, then you shouldn’t be on it”. Also a point to consider is that inboard diesel engines unlike petrol outboard engines are not recommended to go on full throttle often. If you frequently put heavy load on the inboard diesel engines it is easy for it to have a lot of wear and tear and soon require repairs. Another reason for having smaller engines on a yacht this size is that you will get more spacious engine room which can be a lot easier to carry out any repairs if needed. Like every new motor yacht after a month of sitting on a shipping vessel enduring rain and rough weather and after being carried up and down several times. It requires some adjustments. If any yacht dealer tells you otherwise, it’s not true. In this boat we also required to do minor adjustments like adjusting the door lock, the flybridge seats needed adjustment of the cushion holder, we needed some minor wiring work on the helm and the side windows needed a new silicon reseal. The reason I am mentioning this is because many people expect to turn the key and get a perfect boat. But in reality there is some time required to tune things, to figure out electrical systems to check the engines and ensure they are in good condition.
-The first thing that welcomes you is the beautifully teak laid cockpit and a nice entrance to the interior of the boat. Its good to see a sensibly sized cockpit because many yacht builders are focused in stretching the interiors to create a selling point and shorten the cockpit. In fact when generally boating the outdoor deck space is the place that you will mostly hang around in. You will rarely closed the door sit on the sofa and watch TV on your motor yacht, so I don’t see a great reason why many manufacturers love to stuff a huge pop up TVs inside a yacht and creating a smaller seating space. I think a 30 inch TV installed on a wall with general DVD and sound system is more than enough. The surround speakers installed all around the yacht are good for putting on loud music during your day trips if you wish.
-The saloon of the boat looks beautiful, the yacht has wooden interior floor which makes a lot of sense compared to carpeted floor, especially for Asian countries, because Hong Kong’s high humidity just creates wet carpets which adds to the misery. However if you have a wooden floor you always have a choice of putting rugs or carpets on top of it during winter. Another great thing about the saloon are the big windows that let the natural light in, the designer has chosen light colors through out the interior which makes the yacht look grander and more spacious. The Galley of the yacht is also down, this gives more open space in the saloon and the light travels smoothly. Below is the picture taken by a wide lens camera to see the full saloon. The small feature of the table going up and down electronically is rather a nice thing to play with and useful when you can adjust it for your size.
-The galley of the boat is equipped, when I say that I mean it has electric cooker, microwave, big fridge, wash basin and plenty of storage to keep your dishes and cutlery, you can put another coffee maker on the galley top if you like. But importantly it is not made too big. Again, you require a right sized galley area, which is functional, anything extra will take the space away from your cabins or the saloon. This galley gave ample space to two people standing and doing their kitchen chores, like making a salad and a coffee. If you really require heavy duty cooking in your yacht, yes this galley can do it too. It has a 3 head electric cooker which can cook you a freshly caught fish the way you want it. Galley has enough storage for your general supplies and wine etc. It’s easy to wine and dine at least 15 people here. Being passionate about cooking and dining, I tend to test the functionality of galleys in yachts more than normal.
-A full beam master cabin is rather spacious, not to mention the boat has 3 cabins, one master cabin, one forward cabin and a side bunk bed guest cabin, all come with their own washrooms. So 3 washrooms with 3 cabins and an extra crew cabin at the back with it’s own little washroom and shower for the crew. If you like staying over nights on your yacht while cruising the waters, then this accommodation will be very useful and comfortable, especially the captain having his own cabin. If the cabin is not used, the captains normally store things like inflatable toys and kayaks or fishing equipment there. But having a separate washroom behind the yacht for the crew helps so they don’t intrude your privacy and come inside the owner’s or the guest’s area when need to use a washroom or take a shower.
-The flybridge of the Astondoa is well designed to have a rather large gathering, after all the cushions were put on, the seats become extended to a sunbed. Remember people spend most of the time here when they are going on a day cruise. So it’s important people have space to sit and to lay down comfortably while facing each other and talking. The flyrbridge also has a small refrigerator and a barbeque stove as an option, although seems like a small addition but your friends are always going to remember that time they were having a laugh while drinking wine and doing bbq upstairs on your yacht. All in all, the Astondoa 52 is a well functioning beautiful yacht. The generator of around 17 KW provides enough power to run your cookers, Air conditioning, pumps, showers, entertainment systems, navigation systems all at one time. This is something that you will seldom do. But it’s good to know that your generator can handle it. The yacht comes equipped with latest raymarine navigation system like radar, GPS, autopilot, VHF, depth sounder. Generally all yachts of this size and caliber come with a bow thruster which helps your yacht move side ways while berthing it in a congested marina club. Most importantly the yacht is well built, it can handle high powered engine and rides smoothly through rough waters. Hong Kong’s waters are never really quiet, and when we had our cruise the yacht had a smooth run, like always I did a number 8 turn on the sea, the yacht proved to be handling the waves well. I stopped the engine in the middle of the cruise for around 10 minutes to see how it handles. There was very little wobbling in the deep waters, not near the shore. The yacht proved to be very stable and sturdy. Finally this yacht surely goes into my wish list and hope I can get one for myself soon.
Until then Happy Boating
Baggy Sartape
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