Fantail 217

The entry point, and honest about it

At €29,500 the Fantail 217 is the cheapest way into Vision Marine's range, and the specification reflects that. It is a 6.6 m rotomoulded hull on a narrow 2.03 m beam with 0.43 m of draft, sitting in the builder's low-output "classic electric boats" line. This is a gentle, slow, sociable launch — the electric equivalent of a pottering picnic boat — and buyers should approach it as such.

Who it suits

It fits a specific and quite common brief: a private lake, a canal, a river frontage, an estate or small hire operation where the boat carries people a short distance at walking pace and returns to a mains socket. The narrow beam keeps it manageable on modest waterways and makes trailering realistic. It is emphatically not a coastal boat, and anyone expecting to plane, tow a skier or cross open water should be looking at Vision's V-series instead, at three times the money.

The gap

Battery capacity, motor output and range are not published for this model, and we will not estimate them. In a boat whose whole proposition is quiet, low-power cruising, hours-at-cruise is the single number that determines whether it works for you. Ask the dealer for pack kWh and a runtime figure at a stated speed before ordering, and confirm what charging equipment is included.