Sunseeker Manhattan 55

The Manhattan 55 is Sunseeker's smallest flybridge motoryacht and it is built for owner operation. Length overall is 56' 6" on a 16' 0" beam, drawing 4' 6" at full load, with a half-load displacement of 59,524 lbs. Three cabins, two heads. Fuel is 580 US gallons and fresh water 158 US gallons, with a 39 US gallon black water tank. Those are the numbers to plan a berth and a weekend around.

Sunseeker's positioning for it is that it carries social spaces you would normally find on a much larger yacht, and the layout follows through on that. The galley sits on the main deck and connects into the cockpit, with optional bar stools at the counter, so the cook is not shut away from the party. Outside, the exterior profile leans on sweeping curves of glass and stainless steel accents, and the aft end runs down through a bathing platform into what Sunseeker calls a Beach Club.

Two things distinguish it inside the Sunseeker range. Sunseeker quotes it at a 25-knot cruise as well as a 32-knot maximum, so you can plan a day around the speed you will actually hold. And it is offered with either shaft drive or pod drive against the same hull, which is a genuine fork in the road for a buyer rather than a trim level.

It also shares its platform exactly with the Manhattan 56. Every published figure on the two boats is identical to the digit: same 56' 6", same 16' 0" beam, same 4' 6" draft, same 59,524 lbs, same tankage, same three cabins and two heads, same 32-knot maximum and same 25-knot cruise. What differs is the generation of the deck, the cockpit and the interior programme.

Sunseeker quotes two speed figures for the Manhattan 55 and both matter. Maximum is up to 32 knots. Cruise is 25 knots. That second number is the one to plan a day around, because it is the speed you will actually hold with the family aboard rather than a best-case run on a flat day.

Power is a choice of twin MAN i6-800s, listed by Sunseeker at 800 PS each, or Volvo Penta IPS-950s. Propulsion is quoted as shafts or pods depending on which package you take. The engine names carry the PS figure inside them, so the output reads 2 x 800 either way you write it. Generator capacity is quoted at 11 kW at 50 Hz or 13.5 kW at 60 Hz, so a US boat gets the larger set.

Draft is 4' 6", quoted as maximum at full load, which is shallow for a 56-footer and useful on the Bahamas bank and in the shallower ICW cuts. Displacement is 59,524 lbs at half load, so that figure already carries a working amount of fuel, water and gear. Set it against a builder who quotes light craft condition and the Sunseeker will look heavier than it is.

On sea trial, run the boat at your intended cruise, hold it there, and have the observed burn and the sea state recorded in writing. That is the number that tells you what 580 gallons is worth to you.

Three cabins and two heads is the whole accommodation story, and on 56' 6" that is an honest count rather than a stretched one. Sunseeker lists cabins as three and en-suites/day head as two, so plan on the master and one guest cabin sharing the two facilities in the usual way for the size and confirm the exact split on the hull you are looking at.

The defining choice is the main-deck galley. Putting the cooking on the main deck and connecting it into the cockpit gives you a boat where whoever is making lunch is still part of the day. Sunseeker offers bar stools at the galley counter as an option, which turns the counter into a genuine seating position rather than just a work surface. The trade-off is the same one every builder makes at this length: main-deck galley volume comes out of somewhere, and here it buys the accommodation below rather than a larger saloon.

The open-plan layout runs through the saloon with the sweeping glass on the profile doing the work of making a 16-foot beam feel wider than it is. Sunseeker's own description leans on the fluid transition between indoor and outdoor living, and on this boat that is a fair description rather than a slogan.

Aft is the part buyers actually come for. The bathing platform runs into the Beach Club, and Sunseeker lists a built-in barbecue, an overhead shower and fold-down transom seating as options on that space. Read that list again. Those are options. A used boat may have all three, one, or none of them, and there is no way to tell from a photograph. Fresh water is 158 US gallons, which is the tank that will constrain a long weekend with a working transom shower more than the fuel will.

The Manhattan 55 sits at the entry point of Sunseeker's flybridge line and it competes with the obvious British and Italian names at the length. The Princess F55 at 57' 9" is the closest cross-shop on paper, with the same three cabins and two heads. The Galeon 520 FLY at 56' 5" comes at it from the volume-and-features direction. Both are worth seeing on the same day.

The comparison that matters most, though, is inside Sunseeker's own range. The Manhattan 56 shares this hull platform exactly. Not approximately, exactly: identical length overall, beam, draft, half-load displacement, fuel, water, cabin and head count, maximum speed and cruise speed. Sunseeker's own copy for the 56 describes it as running on a proven hull platform, which is the yard telling you the same thing.

The difference between them is generational rather than dimensional. The 56 is the 2026 presentation of this platform: a new exterior profile with expanded main-deck glazing, the first showing of Sunseeker's new exterior upholstery collection, a completely reworked modular aft cockpit that converts between dining, lounging and a full-beam sunpad, and the latest Sunseeker Interiors Collection below. The 55 is the earlier presentation. Sunseeker also brought the 56, not the 55, to its Cannes Yachting Festival stand for 8 to 13 September 2026.

For a buyer that produces a clean decision. If you want the current deck and interior programme, you want the 56. If you want this platform and would rather spend the difference on specification or on a boat that already exists, the 55 is the same naval package underneath. What you should not do is let anyone tell you one of them is a faster or larger boat than the other. Every published number says they are not.

This is a boat for an owner who runs it himself, with a family of four to six aboard and a habit of going out for two or three nights rather than two or three weeks. Three cabins, two heads, 580 gallons of fuel and 158 gallons of water is a long-weekend package, and it is sized honestly for that.

Take it seriously if you want a flybridge at a length that still fits an ordinary marina slip and a 4' 6" draft that opens up the thinner water. Take it seriously if 25 knots is the speed you want to plan a day around. And take it seriously if you have a view on shafts versus pods, because this is one of the few boats where you get to act on that view without changing builders.

Look elsewhere if you need four cabins or dedicated crew accommodation. Sunseeker does not offer either on this platform, and the next step up in the family, the Manhattan 68 at 69' 7", is where four cabins and crew quarters arrive. Look elsewhere too if you want the whole aft deck package as standard equipment, because on this boat the barbecue, the shower and the fold-down transom seating are all optional.

Two things to settle before you commit. First, which drivetrain the specific hull has, because shafts and pods handle differently at the dock and are serviced differently for the life of the boat. Second, observed fuel consumption at your intended cruise speed, recorded in writing at sea trial.