Same but different?

Monterey's 214FS and 214 FSC is the same boat with a choice of bowrider or cuddy configuration.

In a world where everything is getting smaller, it's reassuring to know that some things are getting bigger. Cars are getting smaller, phones are getting smaller, supermodels are getting smaller, share dividends are getting smaller, magazine freelance budgets are getting smaller.

And yet planes are getting bigger, TVs are getting bigger, and my waistline is getting bigger.

Boats too are getting bigger. Not so long ago, a superyacht was over 80ft and entry-level boats started at around 14-16ft. But over the last decade everybody is buying bigger.

In the cruising world it's not unusual to find people buying a 45-footer as a first boat, superyachts start at 100ft, and entry-level sportsboats are often over 20ft.

And that's a good thing. Fourteen-foot powerboats are not particularly well-adapted to waves and bouncy wet stuff, while bigger boats over 20ft offer a more comfortable all-round boating experience.

And it's no more difficult to handle, launch or trailer a 21-footer compared to a 16-footer.

So if 21ft is the new 16ft, then what we have here are two versions of Monterey's entry-level boat. Yes, they have an 18-footer and a 19-footer, but for our purposes we're looking at a cuddy version and a bow-rider version of their 21 - the 214 FSC and 214 FS respectively.

Although essentially the same boat, they are aimed at very different customers. The FS bow-rider is an out-and-out sportsboat aimed at a younger audience than the cuddy, which is aimed firmly at the young family market.

The layouts of these two boats are pretty much standard fare for this type of craft.

In a 21ft boat you don't get a huge amount of space to experiment with layouts, so almost all manufacturers go with the tried-and-tested formula: a moderately-sized cockpit with two bucket seats forward and a bench seat aft giving comfortable seating for five (or six if you've got a couple of ankle-biters on board).

Aft of the cockpit is a sunpad and a wide GRP shelf running around the transom which houses two self-draining lockers that with a bit of ice in them would make perfect coolboxes.

At the back is a wide swim platform with a fold-down boarding ladder and grab-handle on the starboard side. In most countries the swim platform is a AED 3,300 optional extra, but with Macky Marine it's standard 'Gulf Spec'.

At the bow, the FS has a standard bow-rider arrangement, with seating for three people and access through the "walk-thru windshield" between the helm seat and the navigator's seat.

On the FSC model there is a small cuddy at the bow, accessed through a sliding door and down a step. The cuddy is just about big enough for two people to overnight in, and there is a small sink and a portable toilet, but little else.

It is, however, a convenient place to hide from the weather, or stow buggies, changing bags and all the other clobber that comes with small children, or answer a call of nature.