Sargo 45 sea trial review: At sea on the biggest and best Sargo ever

Alex Smith joins the Sarin family for a sea trial of Sargo’s biggest ever pilothouse cruiser, the Sargo 45…

When the new Sargo 45 was launched at the 2023 Düsseldorf Boat Show, it wasn’t some glossy impersonal PR exercise. Thomas Sarin, son of Edy, who founded the company more than 50 years ago, was right there, walking visitors through the boat – and he and the rest of the Sarin family remained on hand for the duration of the show.

That’s a very enjoyable part of the way Sargo operates and in this case, it was also useful from a practical point of view because there are details on this new flagship model that you might not immediately notice; modestly pleasing details that improve the ownership experience without making a song and dance about it.

For instance, if you step on board at the bow, as many Nordic owners will, you get the standard step-through forepeak with offset anchor and raised guardrails. But you also get a neat little five-man lounge, with a removable table that stows away in a dedicated bracket beneath exactly the section of deck where it’s required.

Jump on board through the starboard side gate instead and in addition to single-level side decks that are among the deepest and widest in their class, there’s a pair of wide-diameter fuel caps, intelligently arranged in the same place so you don’t have to drape pipes across the boat.

There’s also a generous skipper’s side door, directly opposite the side gate, with immediate access to the joystick for single-handed helming. That user-driven design is equally pronounced at the aft end.

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Back here, you’ll find a big locker for roving fenders beneath the swim platform and ahead of that, tucked behind the hinged backrest for the aft bench, there’s an additional slot for the rest of your boat’s fenders.

There’s plenty of room in the cockpit for freestanding furniture, which can be neatly stowed in a locker built into the aft end of the pilothouse. The master switches are also positioned back here in the ideal position– and the fact that the engine bay hinges from the port side means you get easy access to the starboard gate for tools, parts and fluids.

If this unglamorous practicality is actually very satisfying, the Sargo 45 is also notable for its ability to sidestep one of the endemic weaknesses of offshore pilothouse boats.

While most boats of this kind struggle to provide much in the way of outdoor entertainment, the Sargo does a decent job here too, supplementing its forward five-man dining station with cockpit dining for eight.

There’s no flybridge variant yet because Sargo needs to recoup some of its development costs by selling a few of the standard 45s. But once that hits the market, the 45’s outdoor credentials will look as strong as any in this sector.

Read Alex’s full review of the Sargo 45 in the November 2023 issue of MBY, which is out now.

Sargo 45 specifications

LOA: 47ft 11in (14.60m)
Beam: 14ft 0in (4.25m)
Draft: 3ft 11in (1.20m)
Displacement (dry): 12,000kg
Fuel capacity: Up to 2,000L
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D6 440 sterndrives or IPS650s
Test engines: Twin 480hp IPS 650 diesel
Top speed on test: 35.7 knots
Fuel consumption: 88lph @ 20 knots / 35lph @ 9.9 knots
Cruising range: 291nm @ 20 knots / 453nm @ 9.9 knots
Noise: 66.4 d(B)A @ 20 knots
RCD category: B for 16 people
Starting price: €993,326 (inc. VAT)
Price as tested: €1,226,621 (inc. VAT)