Every 120-footer you have walked aboard has two side decks. They are how you get forward, how the crew handles lines, and they are also where a good deal of your beam went before you ever stepped inside.
The Sanlorenzo SL120A keeps one of them. The width that would have been the second walkway sits inside the boat instead — which is why the owner's suite is full-beam and on the main deck, and why the glazing on that flank runs down toward the water rather than stopping at a bulwark.
Who it's for
You have already owned the symmetric version of this boat, and the thing you remember about it is where the volume went. A full-beam owner's suite with sea views from the bed is worth more to you than a second way to walk around the outside of your own yacht.
You are also running this professionally. Sanlorenzo lists ten guests and six crew for the SL120A — the largest complement in the SL Asymmetric line, and a captain-and-team operation rather than anything you handle yourself for a weekend. Settle that before the layout does the persuading.
Design and layout: one side deck, and where the width goes
Sanlorenzo's own line for the model is taking asymmetry to new heights, blending innovative outdoor spaces with luxurious interiors. The yard is more concrete about the exterior: the SL120A elevates asymmetry to its fullest expression, dissolving boundaries between inside and out, with sliding glass, lowered bulwarks and sculpted volumes creating fluid circulation and panoramic sea views.
Strip the language and the mechanism is simple. A symmetric 37-metre spends its beam on two walkways. The SL120A spends it once, and the width it saves goes into the main deck on the raised side. That is the whole idea, and at this length it is worth more than it is on the SL86A where the concept started, because a bigger boat has more of it to redistribute.
What you get inside is what the yard calls calm elegance — a full-beam owner's suite, flexible living spaces, neutral tones and walnut finishes. What you get through the glass is the part that does not photograph well and matters most: on the raised flank there is no side deck between you and the water, so the sightline from the saloon ends at the sea rather than at a stanchion.
What you give up is a side deck. That is real. Line handling, fender work and crew movement all happen on one flank, and the boat is 121 feet long. Walk it at a berth on a windy afternoon rather than at a boat show.
Performance: what Sanlorenzo publishes
Twin MTU 16V2000 M96L, 2,637 horsepower a side, for a published maximum of 27 knots. Length overall 36.9 metres — 121 feet 1 inch — on a 7.6 metre beam, which is 24 feet 11 inches. Fuel 19,900 litres, or 5,257 US gallons. Fresh water 4,200 litres, 1,110 US gallons. Ten guests, six crew.
Hold the engine figure against the SL110A, because that comparison is the useful one. The SL110A is offered with this exact M96L package and Sanlorenzo publishes the same 27 knots for it, on a hull eleven feet two inches shorter carrying 12,100 litres. Stepping up to the SL120A does not buy you speed. It buys volume, a sixth crew berth, and 7,800 more litres of fuel. Price the decision that way and it makes sense; price it as a performance upgrade and it does not.
One oddity worth naming. Sanlorenzo heads the SL120A engine block “Hybrid Engines” and then lists two MTU diesels underneath it and nothing else. No electric drive, no battery capacity, no hybrid mode, no figures of any kind. Whatever sits behind that heading, the yard does not publish it, and neither will we.
Sanlorenzo publishes no cruise speed, no range, no draft and no displacement for the SL120A, or for anything else it builds. It does not publish a gross tonnage for this model either, though it does for parts of the fleet. Figures for all of them circulate freely and some are probably close to right, but none of them came from the yard.
The arithmetic is available to you. Take observed fuel burn from a sea trial at the speed you actually intend to hold, divide 19,900 litres by it, keep a reserve you would be comfortable explaining to an underwriter, and you have a range figure you can defend. That is better than anything on a listing site.
Ownership: the questions worth asking
Ask for the sea trial report — observed speed and observed fuel burn at each rpm step, on the hull in front of you. It replaces every range and consumption figure written about this boat anywhere else.
Ask for the build specification for draft and as-built weight. Neither is published, and draft decides which anchorages you can use. If it governs your itinerary, make it a written condition rather than a hope.
Ask for the tonnage certificate. Gross tonnage measures enclosed volume, not weight, and it is what drives survey, certification and manning thresholds. On a 121-footer with six crew, where that number lands matters for the life of the boat.
Ask what the “Hybrid Engines” heading actually refers to on the specification you are being offered, and get the answer in writing.
And ask about the glazing and the single side deck together. The full-height panels are why the layout exists — find out what one costs and how long one takes to arrive. Then watch a line get handled from the flank that is no longer there.
Where to start
The SL120A earns your time if a full-beam main-deck owner's suite is the thing you have not been able to find at this length, and if you have the crew to run it.
Walk an SL110A first if you can. Same engine package available, same published 27 knots, eleven feet shorter — that comparison tells you quickly whether you are buying the volume or just the idea.
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