Two French yards, two coastal cruisers, and a decision that comes up in every second brokerage discussion on the Atlantic and Med coast. The Beneteau Antares and the Jeanneau Merry Fisher share a segment, a customer profile and even a parent group, but they were drawn for different owners. If you are cross-shopping them, the question is not which one is "better". It is which set of compromises fits how you actually use a boat.

Two boats on the same shelf, drawn to a different brief

The Antares line, in its current form, is a classic walkaround family cruiser with an emphasis on the aft cockpit, bathing platform and open sociable layout. The Merry Fisher line pushes further toward the wheelhouse cruiser idea, with a fully enclosed pilothouse, side doors and a layout that leans North Sea rather than Côte d'Azur. Same length ranges (roughly 6 to 12 metres depending on the model year), similar price bands, very different feel underway.

Put simply: the Antares assumes you will spend most of your season in shorts and the Merry Fisher assumes you will spend part of it in oilskins. That single assumption drives most of the design choices below.

Hulls and behaviour at sea

Both ranges use planing V hulls with moderate deadrise. On paper the numbers are close. In practice, the Merry Fisher tends to carry a slightly deeper forefoot and more freeboard, which gives it a drier ride into a short chop and better manners when you are punching home against a building westerly. The Antares, sitting lower and lighter in some sizes, planes earlier and feels livelier in flat water, which is what most owners actually experience 80% of the time.

If your typical day is a run from La Trinité to Houat and back in 15 knots, you will not notice a meaningful difference. If your typical day is Cherbourg to Alderney with the tide against the wind, you will. The wheelhouse layout on the Merry Fisher also lets you keep the helm dry and the crew inside, which changes the sea state at which you decide to cancel.

Layout and liveability

This is where the two boats really diverge, and where most buyers make the call.

  • Antares: open aft cockpit, sliding door to the saloon, large sunpad options, generous bathing platform. Better for swimming, apéro at anchor, kids jumping off the transom. Weaker in cold or wet weather because the helm is semi-open and the cockpit is exposed.
  • Merry Fisher: enclosed wheelhouse with 360-degree glazing, sliding side door at the helm (a genuinely useful feature when berthing single-handed), aft cockpit that is smaller but often more usable in bad weather. Better for shoulder-season cruising, fishing in the rain, or anyone who actually uses the boat from March to November.

Below decks, both offer surprisingly liveable interiors for their length. The Merry Fisher generally gives you a more usable galley and a proper saloon table you can eat at with the door closed. The Antares tends to prioritise berth count and cockpit flow. If you charter the boat out, the Antares photographs better; if you cruise it hard, the Merry Fisher earns its keep. For fleet operators weighing this trade-off across a whole marina, our notes on choosing motorboats for a charter fleet go deeper into what actually pays back.

Engines, fuel and running costs

Both ranges are typically offered with single or twin outboards on the smaller models and inboard diesel options (single or twin sterndrive, sometimes shaft) on the larger ones. The Merry Fisher has historically leaned harder into outboard configurations across the range, which is now the dominant setup on new boats regardless of yard.

A few practical points worth knowing before you sign:

  • Outboard packages are cheaper to service, easier to swap and lighter, but you lose stern locker volume and pay more per litre at cruise.
  • Diesel inboards on the older Antares boats can be excellent long-term buys if the service history is clean, but parts and labour add up quickly if it is not.
  • Fuel burn at a 22 to 25 knot cruise is broadly similar between comparable configurations. What actually moves the needle is hull cleanliness, prop pitch and how disciplined you are with throttle. If fuel matters to you, our roundup of the most fuel-efficient motor boats is worth reading before you commit.

On engine hours, the usual advice applies: a well-serviced 1,500-hour engine is a better bet than a neglected 400-hour one. If you are not sure how to read a used listing properly, what engine hours really tell you about servicing covers the ECU data points that matter.

Build quality and what ages

Both yards build to a price. Neither is a semi-custom builder. That is not a criticism, it is what makes these boats accessible in the first place. But it does mean the ageing pattern is predictable.

On both ranges, watch for:

  • Deck hardware bedding: cleats, rail stanchions and hatch surrounds are the classic leak points on 8-to-10-year-old hulls.
  • Headliner staining: usually a sign of a deck fitting leak rather than a hull issue, but worth chasing to source.
  • Sterndrive bellows and gimbal bearings on inboard versions: expensive if ignored, cheap if caught early.
  • Wheelhouse door seals on Merry Fisher: the sliding side door is a genuinely great feature and also a wear item.
  • Cockpit upholstery: sun damage is faster than most owners expect on southern moorings.

Gelcoat condition tells you a lot about how the boat was stored. If it is chalky at eight years old, the previous owner was not diligent. Our note on when to polish your boat covers what "well kept" actually looks like.

Who should buy which

After walking a lot of pontoons and talking to a lot of owners, the pattern is fairly consistent.

Choose the Antares if:

  • You cruise mainly in summer, mostly in settled weather.
  • Swimming, sunbathing and cockpit dining are central to how you use the boat.
  • You are based in the Med, the southern Atlantic coast, or somewhere with a long warm season.
  • You want maximum boat for the money in terms of visible space and social layout.

Choose the Merry Fisher if:

  • You cruise year-round, or at least well into the shoulder seasons.
  • You are based in the Channel, Brittany, the North Sea or the Irish Sea.
  • You cruise as a couple or short-handed, and value the side door at the helm.
  • You fish, or you want a genuine coastal passage-maker that can handle a bad forecast without ruining the day.

Neither answer is wrong. Both boats will hold their value reasonably well if you buy carefully and service them properly. If you are still torn between an open, sociable layout and a proper enclosed helm, our broader piece on cabin boats vs open deck is worth a read before you commit to a viewing.

What changes once you own one

Whichever you pick, the ownership experience quickly becomes about the boring stuff: hours since last service, battery state of charge on Monday morning, whether the fenders are still on board, whether someone moved the boat while you were at work. On both the Antares and the Merry Fisher, the NMEA 2000 network is already there. Reading it properly is where the Oria Box earns its place, turning engine data, GPS position and alarm states into a maintenance schedule you actually follow and a geofence that tells you if the boat moves. Whichever hull you end up choosing, the question of how you monitor it once it is on the pontoon is the same. What does your current setup actually tell you when you are not on board?