Sanlorenzo SL90A

The SL90A is the boat that makes the asymmetric argument without needing to make the argument. By the time Sanlorenzo drew this one, the concept had already been proven on the SL86A below it and the SL96A above it, and the yard was no longer defending the idea — it was just building with it. Sanlorenzo's own line for the model is mastering the experience of asymmetry, elevating space and light into an unprecedented experience of freedom. Grand words, but the mechanism underneath them is plain enough: conceal the circulation down one side and the width you would have spent on a walkway comes back as room you actually use.

Here is the detail I would put in front of anyone shopping this range, because it is the most useful thing on the spec sheet. The SL90A runs twin MAN 12Vs at 2,000 horsepower a side for a published 29 knots — the same engine package and the same published top speed as the SL86A, on a hull three feet four inches longer. You are not buying pace when you step up. You are buying volume, and you should price the decision that way. The fuel is 9,000 litres, the boat carries eight guests and three crew, and it measures 90 feet 7 inches, not 90 feet.

Now the part that matters more than any of it. Sanlorenzo publishes no cruise speed, no draft, no displacement and no range for this model, or for anything else in its fleet. Figures for all four circulate freely and some of them are probably close to right, but none of them came from the yard and none of them came from us. If a draft decides whether you can get into the anchorages you have in mind, make it a written condition of the build specification. If range decides your itinerary, take observed consumption from a sea trial at the speed you intend to hold, divide 9,000 litres by it, keep a serious reserve, and you will have a number you can defend to your insurer. That is a better answer than any figure you will find on a listing site.

— Tony Smith, Founder, Minted Yachts