Can anyone speak to the construction of Marquis Yachts?

I've run 1 of them that came down from Wisconsin (new boat), it appears the delivery captain may have run her a little hard in rough seas. HOWEVER, the hull flexed so much that both windows in the hull were shattered, this one was around 60-65'. Also several drawers and such were broken on the interior. I did not see any hull damage from hitting anything evident.

Another one I know of, a captain bumped a dolphin piling at less then 5 knots and it shattered a hull window on that side, the fiberglass cracked in a 3 foot area but the rubrail in front of it did not. They appear to be laid up light, from what I've seen.

I wasn't impressed at all. It looked good from a distance, but after closer inspection, it's just a carver.

I sea trialed a 65 a few years back. What stuck me most was the amount of engine room noise on the aft deck. The vents were there and it roared. Couldn't stay there underway.

Marquis Yacts...continued

I am currently looking at a 2007 Marquis 55LS. It is supposed to be rated CE so very high as far as strong sea construction....so I am finding it difficult to read all of these negative posts. Yes, they are built beside the Carvers, but for the same size boat (Carver 56 vs. Marquis 55) the Marquis weighs 10,000 lbs more...so what gives? The finish is very obviously better....and it shows.

Please let me know more as I am just days away from signing.....

Thanks

I'd take the 55 Marquis hands down over the 56 Carver (You'll also pay more). Assuming you're using it up in your area you should find it a perfectly fine boat. The biggest problem I found with that boat is that the aft deck is very noisy because of the engine room vents.

Thanks for your quick reponse. I love the starboard salon door and the forward salon height (for a big screen) on the Carver, but I do agree that the fit and finish of the Marquis blows the Carver away. As far as the noise on the aft deck, I don't plan to spend any time on the aft deck when we are running and I would expect most of us would sit at the helm. The aft deck, for me, is a place to sit and watch the sunset....with a rum & coke or two....

i do plan to run south with her for the winters as our season is very short (May 15 - October 1st) and will go to the Caribbean with her so I want a EU Class A boat for those sea tours....

i will let you know for sure. We are running a 2000 Sea Ray 380AC Aft Cabin with the extended swim platform and we love her very much...but she is now too small for us and the Marquis 55LS is priced right for us...with our trade....

I will enjoy a rum & coke and let you all know how she runs for real....

I'm looking forward to your review, as I have my eye on the 72 Flybridge. It seems to have everything I'm looking for.

I've run 2 of them and agree, they are far and away NOT a Hatteras, Lazzara, or Princess. The interior's are very nice, and the layout's are fairly nice. But I can't agree that the hulls are strong. I ran one that came down from Wisconsin and got into some rough stuff. Both in hull windows were shattered because the hull flexed so much. I know of another one that a captain bumped a dolphin piling at 4 knots and it shattered a hull window as well.

Why anyone expecting to use this vessel over a moderate/long period of time would even consider buying it after comments like Capt. J and Shazam is beyond belief!
Sooner or later you will hit bad weather and when that happens, you will wonder why you chose a boat purely on "sex appeal!" and creature comforts.
If windows crack and cabinetry breaks on a delivery cruise, what is going to happen after a few years of just easy cruising? It tells me the boats are built as fancy caravans on water, not sea going boats with well thought out accommodations.

Can anyone suggest a viable alternative to the 72 Fly? I have looked at the 82 Viking, but it didn't seem to have the amenities the Marquis has, although it was built like a tank! Any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Good time to ask that question and the right forum too.
What will be asked of you is:
Budget
Usage
Cruising grounds etc.

My favourites for comfortable, safe cruising in most conditions, as well as TRUE boat appeal, and RESALE! are:
Offshore 62, Grand Banks Aleutian 65 or 72, Fleming 65.
All these are passagemakers, however can get up and GO when you want. There is nothing like a REAL boat.
These are not gin palaces, and serious sea boats with great amenities. In fact you may find the 62 ft. Pilothouse more roomy than a 72 Carver/Marquis.
However as I am in Australia, I will leave the real expertise to people like Capt. J, K1W1 and many others on this forums. Also, any answer I give you may end up in a firestorm

Thanks for your input, and I realize I was a little obtuse in my question.
This is a corporate vessel, and the sponsors didn't panic when I requested 7 mil for the 82 Viking, so the budget (at the moment) seems to be open. My boating experience is personally limited to a 34 Sportfisher, so I'm obviously out of my element here, LOL. I don't anticipate leaving the East Coast of the US, and primary grounds will be NY, NJ, etc.
Eye candy appeal has led me to Azimut, Ferretti, etc., but reading these forums has quickly steered me away from them, because although there will be a full time crew, I insist on a reasonable amount of stability and expect the vessel to be relatively well-built.
The larger Flybridge SF's have an appeal since we will be boarding teams from smaller boats on the water, and the cockpit would be ideal for this use. In any event, I need a flybridge for on the water visibility.
Since I'm so up in the air about all this, is there such a thing as a buyer's agent (like in RE)?
Again, thanks all for your responses and PM's; keep them coming!

The 72' Hatteras MY is by far the NICEST and LARGEST of anything in the 70-80' range and a good seaboat. Hatteras hit a home run on the 72' and built a REALLY nice MY. It has side walkways, it has a hidden passage to the engine room and Captain's quarters behind the bar in the salon, it's huge for a 72', has a beautiful kitchen, a huge flybridge, full beam master with his/hers head, and very nice large staterooms. The 80' Hatteras MY is very nice also.

Sportfishes can be very nice also, Hatteras and Viking's are nice depending on what you're looking for in that size range. It's a different style of boating though, and might work out better becuase you could fish/dive with clients.....or could entire on different split up levels, cockpit, flybridge, salon......I worked on a 75' Jim Smith Sf, that was beautiful in every aspect........

Ohhhh and as for the Marquis, both of the two I ran had electrical issues. The 56' had the STBD engine harness catch fire, and I had to put it out with a fire extinguisher and shut the battery switch off, luckily I caught it in time and we hadn't left the slip yet. The 68' I ran, they unloaded from a freighter, turned on the battery switches, got the generator running, started the port engine, stbd wouldn't turn over from the fb key switch, went into the engine room.....all of a sudden it cranks and starts all on it's own, and starter stays running with smoke coming out, hit the emergency shutdown on the engine and turned the battery switch off on that one too.....someone the starter solenoid was bad or something........weird that it's both starboard engines.......however if I didn't catch that one right away the starter probably would have caught fire or has an electrical meltdown.I just find it odd of the 2 Marquis I ran, that both had major electrical issues on the starboard engine, that would've burned the boat down had I not caught it in time.

Find a captain from your area with a lot of experience running many different boats in the size/type you're considering. (You'll probably be hiring one anyway once you have it.) Brainstorm with him; then have him look over any boats you're considering. Most important, have him along on any sea trials. While the broker is impressing you at the helm he'll be checking how everything is down below. Since he'll have no dog in the race his job will be to tell you why you should NOT buy a particular boat, and to help you get educated.

Again, thanks to all for the great input. I was advised by several to also have the "new" captain monitor the build during construction, but we're not at that point yet.
Are there any advantages to purchasing used? Possibly most bugs would have been worked out, and frankly, I could care less about picking out fabrics, decor, etc.

i sea trialled a marquis 690 about 2 years ago. it was new then.

the build quality was terrible. the boat was less than 4 months out of the yard and metal fittings had already rusted. at the helm, many of the analogue gauges had condensation on the inside making some of them unreadable.

out at sea, driving it was like handling a truck without power assistance !!!

the dealers' arrogant attitude didn't help either.

just my $0.02.