Tiara 3600 Coronet

Tiara’s legacy for seaworthiness and conservative elegance continues intact with the new 3600 Coronet.

Heeding customers’ desires, Tiara made the belowdecks area ever-so-slightly smaller and the cockpit larger. It doesn’t seem like a sacrifice to me when I go below.

An island double in the bow hides behind twin bifold doors for privacy. Amidships, a twin berth under the bridge deck has a comfy vanity seat by the entrance.

The head has an electric toilet beneath a slotted teak seat in the shower stall, while a small galley with spacious refrigerator, one-burner cooktop and convection/microwave oven affords meal prep ability. Throughout the cabin you’ll find polished designer fixtures, Corian counters and two-tone teak and maple veneers. Solid teak veneers are available, and the standard flooring is solid teak.

The helm provides excellent visibility whether standing or sitting on the electrically adjustable, double-wide seat. The dash handles a pair of 12-inch displays, plus Tiara installs standard a Bluetooth system for an iPad, so you can bring your music and chart-plotting apps with you. A settee on the bridge deck boasts seatbacks on each end for lounging, and a bracket here receives a table. A cool feature stores the table on the back of the helm seat. An additional sink, wet bar and grill, plus a locker for a television, all fit into the module just aft of the helm seat.

Pull a spring-loaded pin to manually slide the sunroof. It slides easily, but reaching it might be a problem for those less than six feet tall.

Tiara installs another table, finished in durable epoxy, forward of the L-shape transom settee. In fact, all the exterior brightwork is epoxy-coated, a nice touch.

You can access the pair of 380 hp Cummins MerCruiser Diesel engines in two ways: Reach standard maintenance points via the day hatch in the bridge deck or lift the deck for more serious work. Power options include MerCruiser DTS gas engines rated at 375 hp each and those same CMDs coupled to ZF pods and joystick control (an $81,000 upgrade).

The cockpit sports quick-release freshwater and saltwater washdown fittings. Under a hinged teak armrest are the battery switches. I would like to see them either boxed in or moved. They look ugly alongside the other sleek, polished fittings. And for security, I prefer my battery switches to be hidden or locked away.

Tiara lays up the 3600 Coronet by hand, using solid glass below the waterline and end-grain balsa coring above the waterline. However, the deck and other parts, like hatches, are resin-infused and gloss-finished on both sides. It’s all then coated with Imron paint for durability and beauty.

Start the engines. Notice how quiet this boat idles, thanks to underwater exhaust. I pushed the levers and the 3600 Coronet planed in five seconds, exhibiting hardly any bow rise. It reacts quickly to wheel turns. It exhibits no measurable difference in rate of turn with engines in opposite gears, with or without rudder input. The only change I would request is power-assist steering since I felt the hydraulic steering was a tad underpowered.

In a beam sea, the Tiara 3600 Coronet exhibits gentle transitions (the change of roll direction) and a relatively short roll moment (the arc scribed from extreme port to extreme starboard roll).

I found the optimum cruising speed somewhere between 26 and 34 mph. Performance on every point of the two- to four-foot easterly seas was flawless. Running down-sea it neither swerved nor lagged. The 3600 Coronet ran into those head seas at 32 mph comfortably. Coming back into the docks in Fort Pierce, Florida, I also discovered what a benefit the tunnels offer when negotiating shallow water. The 3600 Coronet provides inch-by-inch controllability in close quarters. Those insecure with their boating skills can order a bow thruster ($7,680).

Tiara says the 36 Coronet targets the Chris-Craft Corsair 36. The fact that they both start with the letter C seems to me the closest comparison point. The Corsair is an open boat that sleeps four, but not in the same comfort as the Tiara’s. With similar diesels (the Chris-Craft offers Volvo D6s rated at 350 hp), the Corsair 36 tops out at 43.3 mph and gets 1.3 mpg. A comparably equipped Corsair with electronics lists for $522,459. With my height at 6 feet 4 inches, the Chris-Craft’s maximum 6-foot-2-inch headroom would be a deal breaker for me.

Comparable model: Chris-Craft Corsair 36

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