Beneteau Antares 12 Review: Fly and Coupe, Numbers and Pricing

The Antares 12 as Beneteau's outboard flagship

The Antares 12 that buyers search for today is the outboard flybridge cruiser Beneteau showed at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2023 and took to the Southampton Boat Show the same month. It stretches the Antares formula to 42 ft 7 in: pilothouse saloon, walkaround decks, a fold-down side terrace and outboards on the transom, now with three cabins and two heads below. In 2025 Beneteau added the Antares 12 Coupe, which made its world debut at Cannes and its North American premiere at the 2026 Miami show.

The awards suggest the formula landed. YachtBuyer records a 2024 Yacht Style Award for motor yachts under 13 m, a European Powerboat of the Year nomination and a place among the Motor Boat Awards 2025 finalists. Motor Boat and Yachting called it a boat you need to see if you want volume and dayboating flexibility at a price that undercuts most of the competition.

Not to be confused with the 2004 to 2009 Antares 12

Beneteau used the Antares 12 name once before. The inboard Antares 12 of the fourth Antares generation, which YachtBuyer dates to 2004 to 2009, was a Sarrazin-styled flybridge cruiser also marketed as the Antares 12 Fly Cruising. Beneteau's 2008 specification lists it at 12.62 m including the platform, 11.96 m hull length, 3.99 m beam, two 600 liter fuel tanks and a 320 liter water tank, with twin Volvo diesels of 300 or 370 hp on shafts or Volvo IPS 500 pods.

That boat had just two cabins, each with its own washroom, and an all-round view from a wheelhouse whose windows ran very low. It is a completely different hull from the outboard boat. On the used market it sells for a fraction of the price, so check the year, the engines and the transom before trusting any Antares 12 for sale listing.

Three cabins, two heads and a modular third berth

Three genuine cabins on an outboard boat of this length are rare, and Boating said it puts the Antares 12 in a class by itself. The owner's cabin in the bow has an island berth, windows in the hull and foredeck moldings and an en suite head with a shower large enough for two, according to MBY. To port, the VIP cabin has twin berths that convert to a queen-size double, generous headroom and its own door into the second head, which also serves as the day head.

The starboard cabin is the compromise. It sits under the galley storage with a lower deckhead, and its single berth folds out into a small double using the backrest as an infill. Beneteau calls it modular, and many owners will use it for children, guests in a pinch or as a storage room for toys and provisions. Boating measured at least 6 ft 3 in of headroom in the cabins and heads.

Antares 12 Fly or Antares 12 Coupe

The Fly has a long hard top over the cockpit that supports the flybridge, which runs nearly to the transom and carries a U-shaped dinette, a convertible forward sun lounger, pilot and co-pilot seats and a summer kitchen with grill and refrigerator. It is the better boat for warm-climate dayboating and for keeping an eye on the water from up high.

The Coupe drops the flybridge for a streamlined aft roof, a large electric glass sunroof over the saloon, roof racks for paddleboards and an electrically operated starboard platform. It is lighter, at 19,900 lb against 20,081 lb for the Fly, and lower, at 14 ft 5 in bridge clearance against 16 ft 1 in. Beneteau pitches it as an all-season cruiser, and Boating found the saloon library-quiet with the aft door closed.

• Fly: flybridge with summer kitchen, 16 ft 1 in bridge clearance, from $758,300 hull only
• Coupe: electric sunroof and side platform, 14 ft 5 in bridge clearance, from $708,500 hull only
• Both: 310 gallons of fuel, 106 gallons of water, three cabins and two heads

Triple 300s or twin V10s: what the tests show

MBY's test boat ran three Mercury Verado 300 V8s. In four-foot swells off Barcelona it cruised comfortably at 22 to 24 knots, sound levels hovered around 71 dB in the low 20s, and fuel flow sat between 7.0 and 7.5 liters per nautical mile anywhere from 17 to 33 knots. That works out to about 45 gallons an hour at 24 knots and a range of roughly 120 to 135 nautical miles. MBY's own news story quoted Beneteau's figures of 36.8 knots top speed and 127 nautical miles at 20.5 knots with the twin V10s and a 10 percent reserve.

Beneteau told MBY that the twin 400 hp V10 package delays planing by about four seconds, takes about four knots off the top end and increases cruising fuel flow by 5 to 10 percent, so it does not recommend the trade. Boating's 2026 Coupe test with triple 300s recorded 4.9 seconds to plane, 30 mph in 12.7 seconds and a top speed of 43.2 mph (about 37.5 knots), with a happy cruise of 35.5 mph at only 73 dB. Either way, the limiting factor is the 310 gallon tank: plan on refueling every 120 nautical miles or so.

Saloon, galley and three outdoor zones

The wheelhouse is one level from transom to helm. A three-leaf cockpit door opens the saloon to the L-shaped aft bench, the dinette to port has a reversible backrest so guests can face the cockpit, and the forward seat converts to a forward-facing co-pilot bench, giving seating for eight. The starboard galley runs from the aft doors to the helm with an oven, induction or electric hob, big refrigeration and a pop-up TV, while crockery stows under the co-pilot dash.

Outside there are three distinct lounging zones: the cockpit under the hard top, a foredeck sunbed with a forward-facing couch for up to five, and the flybridge on the Fly. A hinged walkway across the transom ahead of the outboards links the swim platforms, and a hatch in the cockpit sole opens to a compartment big enough for a Seakeeper, generator and life raft. MBY's quibbles were a narrow dinette berth of about 4 ft and a hatch partly blocked by the flybridge ladder, which can be unbolted and moved.

Antares 12 for sale: pricing against the rivals

In Europe MBY quoted a starting price of 415,000 euros excluding VAT, with options on its test boat including a Seakeeper SK3 at 57,600 euros and an 8 kW generator at 23,920 euros. In the US, a realistically equipped Fly or Coupe lands between about $750,000 and $1 million. Boating noted that Tiara's 43 LE and Jeanneau's DB/43 cost substantially more and offer only two standard cabins.

The toughest competition comes from inside the Beneteau Group. MBY preferred the Jeanneau Merry Fisher 1295 for its larger saloon, better galley and lighter weight, which it said made it about five knots faster and two liters per mile more efficient. The Antares 12 answers with a sleeker profile, the three-cabin layout and the fixed aft bench with linked swim platforms. Used Antares 12 boats are still scarce and typically ask $600,000 to $860,000.