2024 Axopar 45 Sun Top launches at Sanctuary Cove

Axopar’s Australian distributor, eyachts, used last week’s 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show to launch the box-fresh Axopar 45 on the Australian market for the first time. 

For some Australian buyers, it’s been a long wait since they first saw the 45 teased as a 46-foot concept boat that was leaked onto the internet in 2017 – eyachts started taking deposits for the new model three and a half years ago. One owner who first saw a design for the 45 in 2017 has even held off on buying a boat to fill the void, preferring instead to wait for the new one to arrive.

The Axopar 37 has been the brand’s most successful model to date, easily becoming the best-selling 37-footer worldwide, at its peak heading out the factory door at the rate of about 10 a week.

It was so successful that production fell well short of demand, sparking the rise of a number of copycat long, low and angular narrow-beam boats to fill the void on the market.

So far, all the buyers lining up for the new 45 – bar the one who preferred to wait – are existing 37 owners. 

The boat on show at Sanctuary Cove is actually the second one in Australia as one has already been delivered to Sydney.

Eyachts managing director Peter Hrones, who has jumped onboard and benchmarked the 45 against the 37, said many of the Axopar 37 owners loved how the boat drives and the 45 would feel just the same.

“They [Axopar 37 owners] love the way the boat drives and what impressed us the most … is the actual handling of the boat and the way it drives is still fun,” Hrones said. “Power boats as they get bigger get heavier and maybe a little bit boring, (but) this boat drives much the same as the 37.”

The 45 is a clever boat with some smart thinking. One feature is a pair of canvas-faced, zip-up storage pockets in the Sun Top’s hardtop roof. Open them up and stuff in a wet towel, and when you drive the boat it allows the wet stuff inside to air and dry. There are no speakers visible, either, as they’re all out of sight, hidden behind the trim. The aft coamings drop down to provide seats that hang out over the water.

On testing, Hrones said he saw a top speed of around 46 knots, similar to the Axopar 37. At a cruising speed of 28 knots, the three-outboard-engined Axopar 45 was using around 130 litres an hour – not much more than the twin-engined 37. Bump the cruise speed to 35 knots, and fuel use only went up by around 10.0 litres an hour.

Being a triple-engined boat – the Axopar 45 Sun Top at the show was wearing three 300hp 4.6-litre Mercury V8 Verado outboard engines – Hrones predicts many owners will be going for a joystick control that helps with bumping the long, narrow boat in and out of marinas – the beam is only 4.1 metres for its 14.0-metre length – that will also shave a couple of knots off the top speed.

The larger waterline also makes the Axopar a coastal cruiser, with the 1200-litre fuel capacity likely to provide around 300 nautical miles of range.

Most Australian buyers have bucked the European trend of ordering the Axopar 46 with an aft cabin, instead dedicating the space as a storage area. Most, too, won’t come in the Sanctuary Cove layout, with 14 of the first 20 orders preferring the Cross Cabin version featuring a fully enclosed pilothouse better suited to a wider range of weather. 

A Cross Cabin, one of the first two Axopar 45s to arrive in Australia with the enclosed wheelhouse, is slated to go on show at August’s 2024 Sydney International Boat Show.

The price? For what you’re seeing here, you’re looking at $1.3 million-plus, which Hrones says is good value for what you get. The Axopar 45 Cross Cabin version will cost a little more, from around $1.45 million to $1.55 million, with most owners opting for banks of lithium-ion batteries and air-conditioning systems that add significantly to the bottom line.

But back to the second-hand Axopar 37s. Typically, about 10 to 15 percent of any model of boat will be available on the used market at any time. For the Axopar 37, with about 100 boats now in customers’ hands here, only a few have come up for sale and have quickly been snapped up by an eager market.

Depreciation? For the 37 it’s coming in at around 2.0 percent a year compared with around 10 percent for the rest of the industry, Hrones says, so owners are almost getting their money back come time to sell.

So the good news is, if you’ve been waiting for a good used Axopar 37 to come on the market, your time is about to come. The bad news is, you’re unlikely to get a bargain.