What it’s really like to buy and run a superyacht

Ever wondered what it’s really like to buy, spec and run a brand new custom-built 96-foot yacht? John Wolf guides us though the process

Back in the June 2023 issue of MBY I wrote about my project to build a new semi-custom motor yacht at the largest size possible under the 24m Load Line Length rule, allowing me to be an owner driver rather than employing a captain.

This means an LOA of about 96ft/29 metres. By then I had signed a contract with Sanlorenzo to build the 20th or so hull in their SL96A series, and the hull was in the process of being moulded. Now, a little over a year later at the time of writing, the boat has been delivered and I have had a couple of weeks cruising on her. Sanlorenzo Italy and Sanlorenzo UK (its UK dealer) have absolutely delivered what I hoped for and together with friends and family I am loving the boat.

In writing this article all I can think of is a stream of superlatives but I’ll try to analyse it in some detail.

The countdown to handover of the boat began with a special launch ceremony organised by Sanlorenzo at its yard in Ameglia, Italy in January 2024, a few months before the final handover date. The sun shone and the whole build team, including many of the specialist subcontractors who had undertaken bespoke work such as custom furniture construction, gathered together wearing Sanlorenzo branded overalls.

The boat is now working her way up the east coast of Sardinia, then on to Corsica. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

They graciously thanked me over a buffet lunch for the challenge that my very detailed specification and many drawings had given them, though in truth they might have been quite relieved that the project was completed!

At the crucial moment, diamond-encrusted scissors were proffered, the ribbon was cut and a bottle smashed on the starboard anchor – Franciacorta rather than Champagne – for this was Italy. Andrea Bocelli sang Time to Say Goodbye from the PA speakers and the boat was lowered into the sea for the first time.

Upon boarding her in the water that day, first impressions included delight at how the custom interior had turned out.

The boat has plenty of dark wood surfaces, some textured, offset by light reflective ceilings and marbles and light fabrics. The saloon windows, pretty much floor to ceiling, were breathtaking at first sight and the complex lighting scheme with touchscreen controls was even simpler to use than I had hoped.

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The five guest cabins seemed bigger and better than expected. The ‘classic contemporary’ style with surfaces covered in slatted veneer, paint and leather, looked great. The bathrooms were also a delight.

I had gone to a lot of trouble selecting the marbles, including driving around trade suppliers in the Massa area in Tuscany where marble blocks from the Carrara mountains are processed into beautiful slabs but the launch day was the first opportunity to see the end result. The slabs I had chosen had been carefully cut and installed, book-matched, into five bathrooms, finished off with bronze taps and towel rails.

Lots of detailed finishing works, survey inspections and sea trials in the beautiful waters around La Spezia in Italy then took place, after which the boat was officially handed over to me in May 2024.

The sunbeds above the owner’s cabin are the perfect spot for a sundowner. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

That left about six weeks to get the boat ready for 2024’s summer holidays, and while some of that time involved straightforward loading on board of owner-supplied items like tableware, kitchen equipment, tools and other cruising gear, there was also the inevitable snagging process, which shouldn’t really exist but somehow always does.

It seems the first owner of a new-build boat like this just has to endure it. There is so much still to do that it feels like it might well take the rest of this year.

Fuel for thought

At the time of writing, the boat has hosted guests on several weekends and undertaken a 300nm delivery trip to San Pietro Island at the south-west tip of Sardinia and is now working her way up the east coast of Sardinia, then on to Corsica. I have been on board for about four weeks in total and while that isn’t long, it does allow me to review the basic design and layout of the boat and the customisation choices.

Adjustable Besenzoni chairs at the upper helm have proved invaluable. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

On the fundamentals, the boat is outstanding. The larger 2,400hp MTU engines that were fitted as a special order make her a serious mile-cruncher and at a fast cruise speed of 23-24 knots she is astonishingly quiet and comfortable, with the incredibly smooth V16 engines doing only about 2,000rpm. She will hit a top speed of 30 knots but of course that makes no sense as a continuous speed; for delivery trips and slow cruising, she sits very happily at 11-12 knots, in almost total silence, and offering good fuel economy of around 10 litres/nm.

The interior has delighted us and our guests every day we have been on board. The spaces seem to be laid out perfectly, with the asymmetric design providing enough extra floor space to allow an impressively big saloon and a very generous galley.

Although it is a personal thing, we love the dark Alpi sustainable veneer, the bronze finishings, the custom-designed furniture pieces, the slatted panelling and the total absence of those clicky door knobs used on most boats (in fact this boat has no cupboard door knobs anywhere).

The interior has delighted us and our guests every day we have been on board. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

There are many similarities between the interior furniture design and construction of the mainstream brands such as Sunseeker, Princess, Ferretti et al but Sanlorenzo interiors stand apart – they are designed and made differently and you can feel that very tangibly when on board. I have also been very pleased with the five-cabin layout option, instead of the standard four-cabin configuration.

About half the SL96A’s have the five-cabin layout, which allows for a guest party of ten and also avoids the awkwardness of having to rank your friends and decide which of them gets the huge VIP suite in the four-cabin layout.

Similarly, the three crew-cabin layout has proved to be a good choice and my excellent crew love their part of the boat. If there are ten people in the owner/guest party, this boat needs five crew in my opinion (captain, first mate, two stewardesses and a chef). The standard layout has only four crew beds in two ensuite cabins but I deleted the crew mess and replaced it with a third ensuite crew cabin.

That allows any future owner to have five crew but given that this is an owner driver boat with no employed captain, I have four crew in three cabins so two of them have a cabin and bathroom to themselves. That is unusual on board any yacht this size and they love it. The crew cabins all have portholes, local Bluetooth music, wi-fi and the same fittings, bed linens and towels as the guest cabins.

Dinettes at the bow and stern give guests a choice of sun or shade. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

Happy crew, happy boat

Many other custom features have worked out well too: the extra foredeck capstans have made Med mooring a cinch, while the two Besenzoni helm chairs on the flybridge have been fantastic, especially because they rise electrically to improve the view.

The extensive Garmin navigation system (easily the biggest installed in an SL96A) has been a lot of fun – it is much more than anyone really needs but it is still nice to have if – like me – you like to see lots of data. Since the original specification for the boat was agreed back in 2022, Garmin brought out its 9000-series screens and kindly allocated me part of the first European shipment, so I got five 22-inch 9000-series screens in the wheelhouse, which look amazing not just because of their brightness and high resolution but because of their sheer size.

Bow dinette. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

Also, the FLIR camera has been a gamechanger for me on night passages – I have the M364 model with gyro stabilisation, overlaid thermal and visible spectrum images, target recognition and gesture control via the Garmin screens. It is worth every penny of its rather hefty price tag to any owner or captain who does a lot of night work.

The extra effort in modifying the galley has also worked out well – at least the chef tells me she loves it. The design includes two ovens, two dishwashers, Dekton countertops, extra fridges, a short-cut serving hatch between the galley and the raised pilothouse, a local Bluetooth music system and a monitor so the chef can see the dining tables and progress of the meal.

The main deck master is one of five guest cabins. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

Any regrets?

I ordered the boat with no satellite domes because they seem pointless and look ‘legacy’ to me. Instead, the boat has Starlink Maritime plus unlimited 4 and 5G SIM cards when in port, all running through Peplink hardware. I can only report what many others have said, which is that Starlink is brilliant. It’s like the internet you have in your office, wherever you are.

Unlike the days of V-Sat where boats had multiple wi-fi SSIDs to make sure that owner/guests/crew get their ration of internet, I run the boat with a single SSID because the internet capacity is in effect unlimited. Related to all this, the heavily upgraded music system with surprisingly user-friendly uncomplicated iPad controls has also worked flawlessly (and loudly).
I also have a few minor regrets about the specification.

The most significant is that the watermaker simply isn’t big enough. With ten guests and four crew, plus the consequent increased dishwasher and laundry use, the single 280 lph machine can only just keep up and therefore I have no redundancy at all.

Three ensuite cabins keep the crew happy too. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

It’s a Spot Zero system, which uses two sequential reverse osmosis units to produce nearly pure water that makes washing down the boat a breeze, but I absolutely must fit a second watermaker in the 2024/5 winter period.

The other regret is that I agreed, under a bit of persuasion from Sanlorenzo, not to have a Glendinning unit to handle the shore power cable. They were worried that there would not be enough space in the engineroom, given everything else going on in there but the consequence is that connecting and disconnecting shore power involves carrying and coiling a cable that is simply too heavy. I’m going to work on a solution of some sort this winter.

The Ribeye chase boat (a custom-built Prime 821 with Yamaha 300hp) has been fantastic. It looks amazing, matching the colours of the Williams 435 in the Sanlorenzo’s tender garage, and performs beautifully even in choppy seas.

Another guest room. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

The hardtop has been a good choice, not just for its obvious sun protection benefits, but as a thing to hold on to when going fast. The whole boat, including the custom touch-controlled pure glass bridge dashboard (with no mechanical switches) has worked perfectly since the day it was delivered, with not a single technical problem. An outstanding performance, I think, from the delightful team at Ribeye in Dartmouth on this part of the project.

In a similar vein, I have been converted from being sceptical about jet tenders to absolutely loving them, at least the Williams 435 SportJet. This is a far cry from jet tenders I had some 15 years ago – it is built beautifully, has great deck spaces for passengers, runs really well with the Rotax engine and allows for very precise manoeuvring once you get the hang of it.

The Ribeye chase boat with Yamaha 300hp has been fantastic. Photo: John Wolf / www.theyachtphotograper.com

Keep or sell?

In my view you decide pretty early on whether a boat is one you’re going to keep or sell quickly. With my first semi-custom Squadron 78 over ten years ago, I knew soon after delivery that
I would sell it quickly because I saw early on how the design could be improved.

It was sold within a year of delivery and then I built another with all the little defects fixed and I kept that boat for ten seasons. It’s early days but I think this Sanlorenzo SL96A could be a keeper. I am incredibly pleased with it and have zero regrets about choosing this boat over the other strong contenders that were discussed in MBY June 2023. All that said, it would still be nice to build another boat but if I do, it will be another SL96A.

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Source: https://www.mby.com/uncategorized/what-its-really-like-to-buy-and-run-a-superyacht-133426