Bustling with ferries and tugboats, New York Harbor isn't usually where you'd expect to find a flotilla of motoryachts. But there they are, four new Meridians heading from the Hudson River into Manhattan's Chelsea Piers. Seeing these gleaming motoryachts lined up at the dock is a nautical fashion show. They range in size from 34 to 58 feet and represent the first new full line of U.S.-built motoryachts launched in decades.

The 341 Sedan is in synch with the rest of its siblings, with its overhanging command bridge, swept-back radar arch and broad cockpit. It's a lot of yacht packed into a 34-foot hull. As Boating World discovers during a half-day test, the designers did a darned good job of integrating quality and functionality into this motoryacht, without losing its upscale character.

If you go looking for this Meridian, rival dealers may tell you it's just a Bayliner with a new name. They're right and they're wrong ' but mostly wrong. Right, because the hull is built from the same tooling as the now-extinct 34-foot Bayliner motoryacht. It's a solid, proven hull that's designed for coastal water. But beneath the waterline is where similarities between Bayliner and Meridian end, because the topside of the 341 ' the part that really matters to weekend cruisers ' is brand new from the hull up.

About a year ago, US Marine (Bayliner's parent company) decided the motoryacht series didn't really fit into the Bayliner brand, so it created the new Meridian division. But US Marine had a mandate: Build a competitively priced motoryacht using a fresh approach. It had to have quality features and a low price to compete with motoryachts from competitors such as Carver.

The quality's there and so are the innovations. You can see it up top in the name brands on the command bridge: Raymarine electronics, Clarion stereo, Bennett trim tabs, Lewmar anchor windlass. Meridian even has a nifty (but, alas, optional) steering system called D.O.C. (Docking On Command) that lets you steer the boat intuitively, using a boat-shaped handle. Located beside the steering wheel, it's connected to forward and rear thrusters.

BW experiments during docking maneuvers, and it reacts as advertised ' even coming in sideways at the dock. On a high-profile design like this, susceptible to heavy winds, this docking system is ideal, even for salty skippers.

The Hudson's running a one-foot-high chop, with an outflowing current, good conditions for a test. The 341 and its 17,000-pound hull plow through the slop with no hesitation. There's a little excessive roll in beam seas ' to be expected on a high-profile boat. But, overall, it's a good, solid ride down to the Statue of Liberty and back.

Standard power on the 341 is twin 260-hp, 5.7L MerCruiser gas inboards, giving it a base price of $184,295. The test boat is equipped with twin 320-hp, 6.2L MerCruisers, a $9,200 upgrade. (Twin 250-hp Cummins diesels are also available, bringing the price to $213,295.)

With the test engines, the boat runs at a cruising speed of 25.8 mph at 3800 rpm. At 4000 rpm, speed increases to 27 mph. And at wide-open throttle, the 341 hits 34.2 mph ' light speed for a motoryacht.

Visibility from the bridge is excellent. Seating is also good. There's a helm seat, lounge to port and an optional door that closes down over the stairs to the cockpit for safety. The area behind the lounge is kind of an Achilles heel up top. It's designed to be an overhang to protect the cockpit, and the larger Meridians have davits up there so tenders can be carried, but the 341's too small for davits, so the space seems wasted.

Instead, the company says the space should be used for stowing bikes or an inflatable. The 23-inch high wire (like the safety wires on a sailboat) looks OK, but it's too low and flimsy to keep items on board if the boat hits really nasty water. And it doesn't look safe if a child somehow wanders behind the seats. Meridian would do well to use the sturdy stainless-steel rails it has on the other side of the bridge.

Though many owners have big intentions of long-distance cruising, most weekend motoryachts tend to be used as floating condos, spending most of their time at the dock, so the interiors are just as vital as the bridge and cockpit.

You can see that in the salon, the 341's trophy room. It's finished in solid cherry, with beige carpet and tasteful blue/gold diamond-patterned curtains that give it an upscale-but-unpretentious look. Almost 360 degrees of light from the tinted, wraparound windows and 6 feet 5 inches of headroom add to the airy, waterfront view. The urethane-bonded windows use a Meridian-designed frame that doesn't require fasteners, so there's no corrosion around the edges later on.

The furniture is covered with Mirage leather, and the galley countertops are made of Karadon, a high-end finish that's highly durable. A 20-inch Sony flat-screen TV is part of the entertainment center (along with the radio/CD player and VCR) in a cabinet beside the stove. If you really want to watch it in couch-potato comfort, sit in the dual lounge and pull the cord: The lounge turns into a recliner.

Space around the galley, like the rest of the salon, is wide open. It has all the features of home, including an AC/DC Norcold fridge/freezer, two-burner electric cooktop, microwave, and two lazy Susan cabinets. There's also a stainless-steel sink. The 11-gallon water heater seems a little small on a boat this size ' especially since it has a separate stall for the shower ' so Meridian should consider an upgrade.

Meridian designed air-conditioning ducts into the fiberglass mold of the salon's ceiling, and placed the air conditioning units up in the brow. Most boatbuilders leave this area ' just underneath the command bridge's helm ' empty, and swallow up storage space by putting the air-conditioning units in the salon floor. As a result, the headliner on the 341 looks sleeker, and there's more storage space.

What's most interesting about the salon is what you don't see. Meridian developed a 'modular' approach to building the 341, because it would save labor time without losing quality. Typically, most boatbuilders pop the hull from the mold, join the deck, and then build the interior to fit.

Think of the modular approach as a jigsaw puzzle, where each section of the boat is finished before it comes together. The galley cabinets and appliances, for instance, are built onto the salon deck, and then the whole section is lifted by crane to be bonded with the hull ' instead of the other way around. The result is a clean fit and finish, with few pieces that need to be modified once the pieces are joined.

The cherry wood finish continues below, where a master stateroom has a double berth, two cedar-lined hanging lockers, and storage space in three drawers. It's connected to the head, which has an electric flush toilet (Vacuflush is an option), and separate stall shower. The second stateroom is less spacious but has a double berth and hanging locker. The 341 will sleep four ' two couples ' comfortably, six if you want to sleep a couple of kids on the incliners in the salon.

The engine room is accessed through a hatch in the salon. Working space around the engines is good, and there's lighting overhead as well as diamond-plate floors. Five- and 10-kW Kohler gas generators are options (Onan diesel generators for the Cummins power package). The test boat has a 5-kW Kohler generator ($9,590 extra).

Once Meridian gets past all the talk about rehashed Bayliners, it should do well with the new line.