Straight Shafts is the shaft-drive option in your set at the Ferretti platform. The shaft versus IPS decision is one you should have a considered view on for anything in this class. 2021 Ferretti 500, twin Cummins QSB 6.7s at 550 hp per side, 425 hours, three-cabin layout. Shaft drives on a boat this size are the traditionalist's pick, simpler maintenance ceiling, longer service intervals on the drive train itself. IPS gives you the joystick, tighter maneuvering, and better fuel numbers. Both work for the Bahamas run. That's the type of platform-decision context we should be building early so the eventual buy is not the first time you have thought about it, because reversing this choice after the fact costs real money.
Cruise 26 knots and top 32, 14.17 foot beam, 4 foot draft, 357 gallons of fuel. Three cabins and two heads. The Ferretti 500 platform carries the Italian design signature and the boat is captain-maintained with a recent full service. Hydraulic swim platform geometry handles the jet-ski loading story cleanly.
Asking $925,000, no reduction yet, roughly three weeks on market. Cross-comp inside your set is Avanti (2022 Ferretti 500 IPS at $949,000, 235 hours, reduced from $1,130,000). The trade is $24,000 in Straight Shafts' favor plus the shaft-drive configuration, against one newer model year on Avanti, 190 fewer hours, and the much louder reduction history to work with. Avanti's seller has moved 16 percent already; Straight Shafts' seller has not moved at all. If the shaft-drive spec matters to you, this is the boat. If it does not, the Avanti reduction history is doing more work for the offer structure.
