Boat test for the 2003 Meridian 459 with boat pictures, boat specifications, and boat test results. Includes pricing, videos, engine test reviews, and ratings for the 2003 Meridian 459.

"Hey Bill," a guy asked recently, "what makes a test boat good?" The question seemed to have philosophical significance, at least at first, so I waded right in. What the heck?

Aesthetics got dispensed with immediately—beauty's the purview of beholders, not boat testers. Then I tried the wise, Socratic-type approach, a serious challenge for me, due to a lifelong propensity to blather on endlessly if given half a chance. Finally, though, I struck upon the perfect answer. I trotted out an example—a boat I tested some weeks ago in the Pacific Northwest, Meridian Yachts' 459 Cockpit Motoryacht.

The 459's a good boat for one, simple reason: She's flat-out easy to use. Whether I was squeezing her big, beamy bulk out of the little boathouse she occupied on Swinomish Channel in LaConner, Washington, or guiding her ruggedly reinforced bow across deadhead-strewn Skagit Bay at full speed, the 459 responded precisely and immediately to the faintest pressure on her hydraulically actuated wheel or the subtlest adjustment to her Teleflex mechanical throttles. Moreover, never once did I have to hunt for a gauge, switch, or knob while sitting at the helm on the flying bridge. Trim tab rockers. Tachs. Compass. Chartplotter. You name it. Everything was easy to spot and readily at hand.

Let me illustrate further. Not far from LaConner, at least as the crow flies, there's a wild and woolly, cliff-sided stretch of dark tidal water that separates Whidbey and Fidalgo islands. Called Deception Pass, it's famous for whirlpools, standing waves, rips of incredible power, and roaring currents that routinely achieve speeds of 10 knots. Multiply the average flow of Washington state's mighty Columbia River by a factor of eight and send it barreling through a notch that's barely 500 feet wide, and you get a glimmer of the spectacular chaos that enlivens this place on a twice-daily basis.

Nothin' wrong with a little adventure, I always say. So with the blessing of Meridian's rep Bill Filip, who was sitting in the copilot's seat, I decided to run Deception Pass in the 459. A flood tide was extant at the time, and as Filip and I approached from well out on Skagit Bay, I could see a couple of whirlpools, one about two feet deep at its yellowish center and perhaps 20 feet across. At the shadowy entrance to the pass, I dodged a bobbling tree trunk about the size of a Volkswagen Jetta and started through at half-throttle, aiming the 459's bow straight for ol' yeller.

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