There is a gap in the middle of Sanlorenzo's semi-displacement line, and anyone shopping the range runs into it fast. The SD96 measures 94 feet 11 inches and carries eight guests. The next one up, the SD132, measures 133 feet 6 inches and asks for eight crew. Between those two boats sits nearly forty feet and an entirely different operation.
The SD118 lands in the middle of that gap at 117 feet 3 inches. For a lot of buyers, filling the gap is the whole reason to look at it.
Who it's for
You are planning in weeks rather than weekends. The boat needs to be somewhere for a season, with ten guests aboard for part of it and nobody aboard for the rest, and you would rather have tankage and volume than another two knots.
You are also stepping into full professional operation. Sanlorenzo lists five crew, and at 291 gross tons this is a boat run by a captain and a team, surveyed and manned accordingly. That is a different category from the 90-footer you may be coming off, and it is worth settling with yourself before the layout does the persuading.
Design and layout
Sanlorenzo's line for the model is sovereign space, embodying refined motion and exceptional living at sea. The three things the yard actually points at are concrete enough to check on a walk-through: an asymmetrical upper deck for more space and sea views, a two-level bow living area, and a transformable beach area of 19 square metres at the stern.
The upper deck is the one that changes daily life. Asymmetry up there does the same job it does on the SL range — it takes width that would have gone into a walkway and puts it into the room you are sitting in — but on a boat meant to stay put for a week at a time, the payoff is a top deck you use rather than one you visit.
The two-level bow arrangement is the second thing to walk. A bow living area is only worth having if you can reach it without crossing the guest deck, so find out how the circulation works on the layout you are actually being offered. Sanlorenzo builds semi-custom, which means the arrangement is part of the conversation rather than a fixed drawing.
Performance: what Sanlorenzo publishes
Two engine packages, and the yard publishes a maximum speed for each. Twin MAN 12V D2862 LE at 1,400 horsepower for a published 18 knots, or the same engines at 1,650 horsepower for 19. Fuel 32,000 litres — 8,454 US gallons. Fresh water 4,000 litres — 1,057 US gallons. Ten guests, five crew. Gross tonnage 291 approximately. Length overall 35.75 metres on a 7.9 metre beam, with a tender up to 5 metres.
One knot separates the two packages at the top end, and nobody buys the upgrade for that knot. You buy it for the margin below maximum — for holding a schedule when the weather has an opinion — and for the next owner, who will want it. Worth knowing that the same 1,650 horsepower MAN package appears in the SD132, sixteen feet longer, where the yard publishes 17 knots.
Sanlorenzo publishes no cruise speed, no range, no draft and no displacement, for the SD118 or for anything else it builds. On a boat bought for long passages that absence matters more than it would elsewhere, and it is better said plainly than filled in with an estimate. Every range figure quoted for this boat was calculated by somebody who was not the builder.
Do the arithmetic yourself and it becomes worth something. Observed fuel burn from a sea trial at the speed you intend to hold, divided into 32,000 litres, with a reserve you would be comfortable explaining to an underwriter.
Ownership: the questions worth asking
Ask for the sea trial report, with fuel burn at each rpm step, on the engine package the hull actually carries. On a semi-displacement boat this is the document you buy on.
Ask for the as-built tonnage certificate. Sanlorenzo publishes 291 GT approximately, and "approximately" is doing real work that close to the 300 GT line — where a hull lands relative to it shapes survey, certification and manning for the rest of its life. Confirm the figure for your boat rather than the brochure's.
Ask for the build specification for draft, weights and tank arrangement. None of it is published, and all of it decides where you can go and what the boat costs to keep.
Then ask the semi-custom question. Sanlorenzo works with the owner on layout, materials and systems, which is the reason to buy one and also the reason an oddly specified one sits when it comes back to market. Look at the arrangement through the eyes of the next owner as well as your own.
Where to start
The SD118 makes sense if you want SD132 habits without SD132 operation. Decide the engine package first — it is the one choice that shapes the boat's character, its consumption and its resale audience — and make the sea trial sheet the document you buy on.
Talk it through with Tony Smith — TS@MintedYachts.com or +1 (404) 805-9819 — or send the form on this page and we will come back with the yard's own documents.
Explore full specifications at YachtSpecsDirect.com
Browse available Sanlorenzo inventory at mintedyachts.com/sanlorenzo