Cigarette 515 Price, Specs and What a Cigarette Boat Really Costs

How much is a Cigarette boat, and where the 515 sits

The cigarette boat price question has a simple answer and a complicated one. The simple one: a new Cigarette is a seven-figure purchase. Cigarette Racing's own price sheet lists the 41 Nighthawk center console at $1,225,000 base with quad Mercury 400R or 425 V10 outboards, and the 515, the company's flagship V-bottom sportboat, sits above that. A nearly new 2023 515 with Mercury Racing 1350s was listed at $1,650,000 including its trailer.

The complicated answer is that no two Cigarettes are alike. The company in Opa-locka, Florida, builds each boat to order, and paint, carbon finishes, cockpit layouts and engines vary from hull to hull. That is why this page focuses on one model, the 51-foot 5-inch 515, which is the purest expression of what the Cigarette name has meant since the 1970s: a long, narrow, very fast offshore V-bottom.

If you are wondering how much is a cigarette boat on the used market, the range is enormous. Classic 1980s Top Guns can be bought for the price of a family runabout, while a late-model 515 costs about what a 60-foot cruising yacht does.

Born as a Mercedes-AMG Project ONE tribute

The 515 debuted at the Miami International Boat Show in February 2018 as the Cigarette Racing 515 Project ONE, the ninth special-edition boat from Cigarette's partnership with Mercedes-AMG. Its matte black and silver paint and badging were inspired by the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE hypercar, and Cigarette's team worked with Daimler's chief design officer Gorden Wagener on its hallmark details. Then owner and CEO Skip Braver called it the company's most impressive high-performance boat to that point.

According to the launch materials, the 515 was designed from the ground up with the latest technology, has more than 30 percent more surface area than the 50 Marauder it was developed from, and still delivers similarly spirited performance thanks to a highly optimized composite structure of carbon fiber, Kevlar and E-glass. The deck is all carbon to lower the center of gravity, and carbon also forms the inner hull laminate, forward bulkheads, cabin liner, hatch, consoles and storage lids. The 7-foot air intakes weigh 4.4 pounds each.

Cigarette changed hands in late May 2021, when Braver sold the company to Miami entrepreneur John Ruiz and Lionheart Capital. The 515 remained the flagship V-bottom, and the current website still calls it the most advanced performance powerboat Cigarette has ever built.

A 9-foot 6-inch beam and a 24-degree stepped bottom

The 515 is 51 feet 5 inches long and 9 feet 6 inches wide, with a 24-degree deadrise stepped hull. That length-to-beam ratio is classic offshore thinking: a long, slender, deep-V bottom that keeps its speed in rough water. Former offshore racer Matt Soper, who won world titles in a 1988 Cigarette 38 Top Gun, drove a 515 out of Miami in 2023 and described it as being as agile as his 38 but far more forgiving in rough water thanks to its mass, handling on rails through race-style turns.

Weight matters as much as shape. Cigarette says its carbon fiber vacuum-bagged sandwich deck offers more than 1.7 times the flexural rigidity of traditional construction. The Project ONE release claimed the 515 weighed more than 5,000 pounds less than the 41-foot SD GT3 center console despite being over 10 feet longer, though Cigarette has not published a dry weight on its current spec page.

Mercury Racing 1350 or 1550, and the speeds they deliver

Cigarette offers two engine packages, both twin Mercury Racing quad-cam, four-valve turbocharged V8s with dual calibration: the 1100/1350 and the 1350/1550, which a switch at the helm lets the driver select. The builder lists maximum horsepower at 3,100 and fuel capacity at 278 gallons. The Project ONE launch boat used staggered 1550/1350 engines.

The launch release claimed a 140-mph top speed. Speed on the Water, reporting on a 515 with twin 1550s, says it reportedly tops 125 mph, and Soper saw 105 mph on the run back to Biscayne Bay before throttling back. No independent instrumented test with fuel data has been published, so treat all top speeds as builder or owner claims that depend on load, props and conditions.

Fuel burn at these speeds is extreme. Twin 1,350 to 1,550 hp engines at wide-open throttle consume fuel by the hundreds of gallons per hour, which is why the 278-gallon tank is sized for poker runs and fast coastal hops, not long passages.

• Engines: twin Mercury Racing 1100/1350 or 1350/1550 dual-calibration
• Maximum horsepower 3,100, fuel 278 gallons, deadrise 24 degrees
• Claimed top speed 140 mph at launch; about 125 mph reported with 1550s

Cockpit for six and a cabin with real headroom

The cockpit seats up to six in bolsters, with ergonomics developed with input from offshore racers and full-scale prototyping. The glass helm uses 22-inch Garmin touchscreen displays with GPS and Mercury engine data, IP67-rated illuminated push-button switches, CNC-machined triple-anodized aluminum hardware and pre-preg carbon seat backs. Cigarette's aggressive rear shoulders allow a large sun cushion on the flat carbon engine hatch even with tall engines below.

Below, the generous beam and deep hull give the 515 more cabin headroom than most sportboats, with a large cabin door and easy steps. Storage boxes along both sides double as coolers. The listed 2023 boat added a power-actuated cabin door, a bow thruster, shore power, a JL Audio system and suspension bolsters, which shows how far owners customize these boats.

Customization goes much further on some hulls. In 2020 Cigarette built a 515 for a Midwest client with special tooling for a six-bolster cockpit, steps through the dash to the foredeck and a carbon-fiber paint job. Speed on the Water reported that one earlier 515 went to the King of Malaysia.

What it takes to own and run a 515

A 515 is not a casual boat. Mercury Racing turbo engines need specialist service on strict intervals, drives and props take a beating at triple-digit speeds, and the boat lives on a heavy custom trailer or in a lift. Most owners use them for poker runs, events like the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and fast runs to the Bahamas or around the Great Lakes.

Excluding depreciation, plan on about $60,000 to $150,000 a year for insurance on a high-performance boat (which requires an experienced driver and a specialist carrier), engine and drive service, storage, detailing of the custom paint, and fuel. Owners who run hard and often will be at the top of that range or beyond.

Cigarette's dealer network includes Big Thunder Marine at the Lake of the Ozarks and Top Gun Yachts in South Florida, among others, and the factory offers a certified pre-owned program.

Buying a used Cigarette 515

Supply is thin. Only a small number of 515s have been built since 2018, and each is different. The 2023 boat listed at $1,650,000 with 40 freshwater hours on Mercury Racing 1350s with M8 drives and a MYCO trailer is the best recent price marker for cigarette 515 for sale searches.

The key questions are the engine package, the hours and service history of the Mercury Racing engines and drives, and any hull or deck repairs from hard offshore use. Ask whether the boat has been surveyed by someone who knows carbon composite and stepped hulls.