Sunseeker builds two performance boats at 56 feet and they are one inch apart in length. Same 16' 2" beam. Same twin Volvo Penta IPS 950 at 2 x 725 HP. Same 476 gallons of fuel, same 114 of fresh water, same two heads.
The Superhawk 55 is the light one: 57,500 lbs at half load, up to 38 knots, two cabins and no third-cabin option at any specification.
The Predator 55 is this one: 63,273 lbs at half load, up to 36 knots, and a list of things the Superhawk does not have. This article is about that list, because it is what you are actually buying.
The main deck is the whole argument
The Predator 55's main deck is single level. A generous saloon runs into an L-shaped galley, and the galley's side units connect with the linear cockpit wet bar - so with the patio door opened to port, the inside and the outside stop being two places. Sight lines run uninterrupted through expansive glazing. Twin bolstered seats sit at the helm station.
Above it is the feature people remember. A retractable glass and carbon fibre sunroof, electrically operated, glides aft at the touch of a button from the helm console and opens the saloon to the sky. It sits under a sweeping double-curved single-piece windshield, which is why the forward superstructure reads as one surface rather than a windscreen with a roof behind it.
Whether that matters to you is not a specification question. Stand under it open and closed on the same afternoon and you will know.
Three boats, one hull, chosen once
Below deck, the standard arrangement is two cabins, a lower saloon to starboard, and a storage or optional utility room.
The first variation moves the galley down. The main-deck galley is replaced by a sofa and a rise-and-fall television, and the lower galley takes over the space the lower saloon and storage room occupied. You end up with a pure saloon up top.
The second variation turns that same lower space into a twin cabin with its own en-suite. Cabins go from two to three, and the boat sleeps six guests. Heads stay at two throughout.
Three genuinely different boats out of one hull, and you pick at order - none of this is a later refit. If you have any suspicion you will need six berths inside five years, that decision is worth more thought than the hull colour.
The owner's cabin is full beam in every version. Full-height wardrobe to starboard on entry, extensive en-suite to port, the double centrally with sofa seating, sideboard and a second wardrobe outboard, vanity unit and television centred. The forward cabin has its own en-suite and real storage. Sunseeker raised headroom in both and says it did so with longer trips in mind.
The stern, which is better than it needs to be
The aft cockpit seating repositions to meet fixed seating and a table amidships, with room for six under an electrical sun canopy. The sunpad over the tender garage carries adjustable headrest bolsters.
What is worth noticing is the detailing at the transom: angular aft fairleads integrated into the hull rather than bolted on, scalloped stainless steel engine vents standing vertically outboard, low-level LED deck lighting, and a fixed signature transom traverse that connects port to starboard even when the bathing platform is down. That last one is a small thing that people who actually swim off the back will appreciate.
What the weight trades away
63,273 lbs at half load against the Superhawk's 57,500 is a difference of 5,773 lbs, on identical engines.
The published maximums are 36 knots and 38.
That is the trade, stated plainly, and it is not going to be argued away by anybody at a boat show. A main-deck galley, a retractable roof and its structure, a full-beam owner's cabin and the option of a third cabin below are what the pounds went into, and they are all things you can see.
The other consequence is draft: 4' 10" at full load against 4' 8". Two inches. It will matter to a handful of buyers in a handful of places and to nobody else.
Two things to settle before you sign
The first is your own cruise number. At sea trial, run the boat at the rpm you actually intend to sit at and ask for observed burn at that rpm in writing. Then work your range against the 476 gallons under the floor. Fifteen minutes, and you plan the season off a measured figure instead of an estimate.
The second is identification. Several of the large aggregator sites still list the previous-generation Predator 55 - a 59' 1" boat with a 46-knot maximum - as though it were what is being built today. It is a different boat. Today's is 56' 3" and up to 36 knots, so check the length and the maximum on any listing before you take the rest of its numbers seriously.
Where else to look
At this length the boats you will genuinely drive on the same weekend are the Princess V55 at 58' 5", which is the other British answer and the one most buyers cross-shop, and the Azimut Seadeck 6 at 56' 7", which arrives at the same length from a different engineering direction entirely.
But the comparison that will decide this purchase is still in-house. Go and stand on a Predator 55 and a Superhawk 55 in the same week. Count the people who are normally aboard. If it is four and you want speed, the lighter boat is the honest answer. If it is six, or if you want the cook in the party and the roof open above the table, this is the one, and two knots is a fair trade for it.