Henriques 42 Express Hardtop, the Jersey Canyon Boat Explained

Henriques and the 42 that anchors the range

Say "Henriques" on a New Jersey dock and people picture a heavy, dry, no-nonsense fish boat with an enormous cockpit. Henriques Yachts was founded in Bayville in 1977 by Joaquim "Jack" Henriques, a boatbuilder from Murtosa, Portugal, who learned his trade beside his father building the traditional moliceiro. His daughters Maria and Natalia and son-in-law Manuel Costa joined him, and the family still runs the business today, alongside Lanoka Harbor Marina where many boats are launched. Jack died in January 2019 at 85.

The 42 is the center of the current lineup. Henriques builds it as an open express with canvas, as the Express Hardtop covered here, as an Express Hardtop with a bridge on top, as a flybridge Sportfisherman, a Maine coaster style Charter and a Cruiser. If you are looking for a 42 Henriques for sale, know which of those you are viewing, because the hull is shared but the boats live very differently.

Born from the 38, with more beam carried aft

Power and Motoryacht tested the first 42, a flybridge Sportfisherman, in 2005. Plant manager Manny Costa explained that it was based on the popular Henriques 38 but carried about a foot more beam amidships and two feet more aft, extended farther back to compensate for moving weight aft and opening up the interior. The cockpit length stayed the same as the 38's, so all that beam went into width, producing a 155 sq ft cockpit.

The 42 Express followed in 2006. Sport Fishing magazine noted that its updated lines had more Carolina styling than you would expect from tradition-minded New Jersey, with a fine entry, large rudders offset outboard of the shafts for responsive handling, and a well-planned engine room reached through a day hatch in the bridge deck or by lifting the deck on rams. The Express Hardtop adds the enclosed helm the builder now recommends for Northeast canyon fishing.

Solid glass below the waterline

Henriques' reputation is construction. The bottom is hand-laid solid fiberglass, the hull sides are Divinycell-cored to keep weight sensible, the deck is a single molding and the fuel tanks are built in-house in fiberglass and glassed to the hull so they become part of the structure. Thru-hulls and seacocks are bronze, and the bilges are Awlgripped. Henriques also makes its own hardtops, bow rails and most towers.

Engines sit on beefy, capped fiberglass beds. In the 2005 boat, Power and Motoryacht found a 26.5 inch catwalk between the Cats, 4 ft 4 in of headroom and 21.5 inches between the engines and the outboard water tanks, so every service point could be reached. The builder describes the hull today as built like an armor shield, and owners who run the canyons in fall weather tend to agree.

The enclosed hardtop helm and the dance-floor cockpit

The Express Hardtop puts the captain at a centerline command helm under a hard enclosure with front glass, protected from spray and cold. Sport Fishing described the bridge deck of the Express with a helm seat flanked by companion seats. Many owners specify climate control, which turns a 3 a.m. canyon departure into a civilized event.

Aft, the cockpit is the reason most people buy a Henriques. The 42 Express has two fish boxes in the sole, both with macerators, a transom livewell that doubles as another fish box, a tuna door, coaming pads, a tackle center, fresh and saltwater washdowns, a bait-prep station with sink and a plate glassed in under the deck for a fighting chair. On the flybridge version Power and Motoryacht counted 29 rod stowage places, and the fish boxes measured 54 by 19.5 by 23 inches.

• Cockpit about 155 sq ft on the 42 hull
• Two in-sole fish boxes with macerators plus transom livewell
• Fighting chair backing plate glassed in as standard
• Tuna door, tackle center and bait station

A simple express cabin for five

Below, the 42 Express follows the classic express formula. A V-berth stateroom forward has a queen island berth with storage beneath. The salon has a U-shaped settee whose hinged back swings up and straps to the overhead as a pipe berth, and the table drops to make a double, giving five bunks in all. A compact galley and a head with shower complete it.

Interiors are semi-custom. Henriques historically used washed ash to make the space feel larger, with any wood an owner wanted as an upgrade, and the yard will move almost anything: one 42 owner swapped a dinette for more tackle drawers. If you want a second stateroom or a bigger salon, look at the 42 Sportfisherman or 42 Cruiser instead.

Power options and what the 42 hull delivers

At launch, standard power for the 42 Express was twin 700 hp Caterpillar C12 diesels, with Cummins QSM11s at 660 hp as a slightly cheaper option and twin 800 hp MANs at the top. Sport Fishing reported that with maximum power the Express tops 35 mph. Newer boats are powered to the owner's choice, so check the engine package carefully on any listing.

The most detailed numbers come from Power and Motoryacht's 2005 test of the 42 Sportfisherman, the same hull with a flybridge, on twin C12s: 29.6 knots (34 mph) at 2,000 rpm burning 48 gph, and 39 mph wide open at 2,300 rpm on 75 gph, with about six degrees of trim and clean sightlines. Off Margate in a leftover two to four foot swell, the fine entry handled the conditions easily. An Express Hardtop of similar weight on similar power should perform in the same territory, but we have not seen a published test of the hardtop model itself.

What a 42 Henriques for sale costs, and what it costs to keep

In 2006 the 42 Express listed at $621,000. Henriques no longer publishes prices and every boat is built to order, so we estimate a new 42 Express Hardtop at roughly $1.1 million to $1.5 million in 2026, depending on engines, electronics, enclosure and tower. Used boats from 2006 onward range from about $280,000 for early, high-hour examples to around $1 million for nearly new boats.

Annual running costs, excluding depreciation, typically run $45,000 to $90,000 for a slip in the Northeast, insurance, winter storage, diesel and generator service, bottom work and fuel. Henriques boats are known for holding value well in their home waters because owners tend to keep them a long time and buyers seek them out.