On board the Sunseeker 100 Yacht

And for the main course, the yacht has a rather revolutionary design that connects the top deck to a private al fresco owner’s area at the tip of the bow. It’s a topside arrangement that demands prospective buyers in this class give the 100 Yacht a thorough glance. As Sunseeker CEO Andrea Frabetti puts it, “The owner [a previous Sunseeker owner] had 20, 25 people here for a party. This is what people want – they want space.”

All of this required deft engineering and smart design, particularly when it came to the vessel’s profile. Put succinctly, this is quite a bit of boat for a vessel that falls below 79ft at the load line. To package it in a way that was acceptably sleek is an impressive feat.

“It’s important to us that a Sunseeker look like a Sunseeker,” says Ewen Foster, the builder’s chief technology officer. “Our mantra is to build the best technical boat that is also beautiful. We have a lot of longtime employees, but we also have a lot of new guys coming in, particularly from the car industry, and we may need to teach them some things about boats – where the anchors go, and how to make a boat safe – but we certainly don’t need to teach them what looks good.”

“The crew [of hull No 1] discovered the sweet spot on this boat to be 17 knots,” Frabetti says. Fuel economy is more important than ever. “The market has changed, and the culture has improved,” he adds. Chinery echoes this sentiment: “Nobody goes anywhere on a boat full out. The entire industry has gone slower. A popular cruising speed for boats this size right now is 14 knots, and that’s because of noise and vibration reduction and overall comfort – not necessarily economy.”

To that end, Sunseeker has stuffed this model with sound-deadening materials such as foam and high-density cork in the walls and ceilings, particularly near the engine room. That engine room has typical European dimensions – tight but workable. It has a few more steps than I’d like to be negotiating, but otherwise there is little to henpeck, particularly when it comes to important things like access to major points of service.

The yacht also comes with Sunseeker’s ingenious X-TEND system at her transom. (Sunseeker first applied this design on its 88 Yacht and 90 Ocean models.) That feature, which won Innovation of the Year at the 2022 BOAT International Design & Innovation Awards, is a clever way to multiply the enjoyment of that popular space on board, closest to the water. The system allows the transom door to reveal an extra seat/ sunlounger large enough for two adults, or to fold out like a clamshell to reach storage space for water toys or even a Williams Sportjet 460 behind it and, finally, to rise to meet the aft deck, extending that convivial space with substantial extra seating.

Moving inside, the yacht’s salon mirrors the flybridge when it comes to spaciousness, owing in large part to the asymmetric side deck scheme. It benefits from soleto-ceiling windows and an attractive open plan design. Dressing the interior was the responsibility of Design Unlimited, a studio that is about 40 miles from Sunseeker’s headquarters.

“Our first priority with the salon was to make it open and versatile,” Mark Tucker, founder of Design Unlimited, says. “There are no steps or intrusions or bulkheads, thanks to very smart structural people, so we had a lot of room to play.”

The freestanding furniture on the boat displayed in Cannes was all done custom by Design Unlimited, but the firm also works with well-known brands such as Minotti, Poltrona Frau, B&B Italia and others to fit a client’s tastes exactly

Another notable feature is the 100’s fully walled-in galley. A massive refrigerator and freezer unit with satisfyingly chunky stainless-steel latches greets me as I step inside the room. There are also a full eight Miele burners, and ample counter space in an engineered stone that was inspired by residential design. Cooking for a crowd aboard this Sunseeker should be a pleasant experience, and that was the point.

“We wanted something that would be much more generous than what the competition is offering – somewhere you can really cook,” Tucker says. “That’s why the ergonomics of the space and the equipment got so much attention.”

The crew accommodations for five, which include a small mess area, is well done. “We believe that a happy crew makes a happy boat,” Tucker says.

The Sunseeker 100 has a standard four-cabin layout available on the lower level. The staircase, however, is a bit more of a feature by design. “The (staircases) are directly above each other and act in unison to create a light airy feeling, with loads of natural light,” Tucker says. “The stairwell can be quite dark, so we made floating steps that let light come through from both port and starboard and flood into the stairwell below.”

As for the owner’s cabin, it’s on the main deck and this is where it gets most interesting. The headroom is six feet, eight inches in the stateroom, which comes with an en suite with a double vanity and a rain shower. Windows on the sides hardly get the notice they deserve with the tempting space outside the forward sliding glass doors. That’s a private owner’s terrace populated with director’s chairs and a teak table; it’s an exceptional place to enjoy a morning cappuccino or evening Aperol spritz. But more importantly, the lounge provides access to the entire rest of the flying bridge via a few steps – no need to walk back through the main deck. This foredeck lounge is effectively part of the flybridge design.

It’s hard to stress just how distinctive a 30-metre yacht with a walkaround flybridge is. I can’t recall having seen anything quite like it in 14 years of yacht hopping. “A walkaround flybridge deck from bow to flybridge, it’s pretty singular,” Bryan Jones, Sunseeker’s marketing manager says. “This yacht is level from the foredeck to the flybridge save for one small step, and I am hard pressed to think of any direct competitors [doing that].”

It’s divided into several self-contained areas. A massive recreation area with sunpads is forward. It includes a U-shaped lunch spot with a teak table and multiple refrigeration units underneath. A sunshade propped up by stowable carbon-fiber poles provides soothing relief from the tropical climes this yacht will no doubt patrol.

Wide side decks on both sides slope gently up to the largest portion of the flybridge deck. An optional Jacuzzi feels indispensable here, and as Foster points out, is one of many options available to personalize the deck.

“You can have molded or freestanding furniture, and all of it, of course, with an open feel,” he says. “You can put a tender up there too, but we don’t see many of those anymore – they mostly go in the garage.” Regardless of the layout, the carbon fiber (without its telltale cross pattern, which Foster deems a bit overdone) and fiberglass hardtop shades a good portion of the deck.

Notably, there was no helm up there on the boat presented in Cannes (though a second helm is an option that Sunseeker says a much smaller percentage of these boats will have). The absence of a console up here is a privacy-driven idea that comes from Sunseeker’s larger models. “We don’t have a flybridge helm on the 131 or the 42-metre concept,” Foster says. “This is a big boat with a sizable crew and there’s a good argument to be made for having them in their own space.”

That space, a raised pilothouse, is all business at the helm, where a lone Besenzoni captain’s chair enjoys usable lines of sight – if not sweeping vistas – through that sharply raked windshield. An L-shaped lounge houses curious guests. Fit and finish, manifested in the neatly spaced stitching on all the upholstery, is top notch, and a testament to Sunseeker’s level of quality, as even the crew spaces received expert attention to detail.

Thus far, the extra attention has paid off, as the yacht has sold well in America, Europe and Mexico – with one hull even going to South Korea. As of this writing, 16 had been sold worldwide. Foster believes the appeal lies in the confluence of style and practicality.

“We like to think of this boat as aggressively elegant,” he says. We put a lot of thought into the flow between socializing spaces – on the flybridge, for example – and we think that type of design fits well with modern boating and the modern Sunseeker client. And I think we did all of that without losing our Sunseeker DNA, and I’m proud of that.”

First published in the July 2023 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.