Pardo Endurance 72 review: A £5M Masterpiece

The new Pardo Endurance 72 is a beautiful boat with flexible arrangements available for entertaining guests. Is it the most complete cruiser Pardo has ever built?

Pardo is one of those brands that seems to specialise in the creation of ‘wow moments’. Take the trademark Italian styling, which marries long, swept sheerlines with angular hull windows, reverse bows and inverted screens.

Take the magnificent kitchen island galley that dominates the lower deck on the two-cabin variant of its flagship Pardo GT75. Or take the way it can make something as practical and workmanlike as a helm station feel like an art installation.

Of course, for those who enjoy long-distance boating in northern Europe, Pardo’s naked Med-style extravagance does run the risk of making the brand feel like it flexes more toward the exotic and image-driven than to the practical everyday demands of the committed cruiser.

But if you want a boat that takes all of Pardo’s A-list loveliness and combines it with serious credibility as a purpose-built cruising machine, the arrival of the new Pardo Endurance 72 at the top end of the Endurance line could be a very exciting development.

An enlarged saloon

First introduced as a concept in the summer of 2024, this new 72-footer certainly shares plenty of stylistic design cues with what’s gone before but the way the decks are arranged is critically different. For a start, as a cruise-focussed platform, the sheltered internal saloon encompasses a far greater proportion of the main deck than it does on the GT75, providing much more in the way of sheltered day space when the weather turns or when you’re settling in for a long passage.

While that inevitably limits the outdoor space available at the bow and the stern, the designers have beautifully mitigated that element of compromise by factoring in not just a proper flybridge but also some of the largest drop-down bulwarks you will ever see on a boat of this length.

They must encompass more than 40% of the length and because the bulwarks are significantly raised to help add security to those walkaround decks, the width of the terraces when deployed is also very striking. In fact, according to Pardo, it expands the usable party space to a remarkable 430ft2.

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Better still, the galley and dining zone at the aft end of the internal saloon open up by means of sliding doors, both at the aft end and at the starboard side. That creates a degree of connection with the elements (and with the starboard terrace) that entirely eradicates any sense of inadequacy in terms of external space. But it would be good to see a dedicated bar at the galley’s big drop-down window to make better use of the expandable
deck on the port side of the boat too.

Back in the aft cockpit, there’s good space for freestanding furniture ahead of the aft bench and table, as well as for a raised sunbed that projects out over the swim platform, concealing a stern garage big enough for a 4m tender.

Further forward, the three-part foredeck lounge adds plenty more outdoor lounging space, thanks to a large central sunbed with portable weighted backrests and a stupendous amount of internal storage. This unit divides the big forward-facing settee from the smaller aft-facing bow seat, creating useful flexibility. And up top, the full-size flybridge delivers another 300ft2 of day space, including a port helm with starboard companion seating, a freestanding dining zone with optional wet bar in the centre and some freestanding loungers on the open aft deck.

On the test boat, this space is usefully shielded from the worst of the sun by some overhead canvases but if you want something more sophisticated and versatile, you can also opt for a louvred T-top with electrically retractable biminis.

Back down on the main deck, ahead of that dramatic aft dining arrangement, the saloon’s forward section provides another seating area to starboard, opposite a port helm with a beautiful steering position and a very handy skipper’s side door.

Those starboard companion seats are quite low slung though, which means that, as a six-footer, you can’t quite see the horizon when you sit down, either ahead or on the beam. That’s less than ideal on a boat engineered for long passages but it doesn’t take long to work out that the lower deck is very keenly aligned with the needs of the cruiser.

Cruising accommodation

While the GT75 uses just the one staircase, the Pardo Endurance 72 has a couple. A central set of steps on the port side leads down to the full-beam owner’s cabin, the port VIP and an independent, standalone day heads. Further forward, to starboard of the redesigned helm, another stairwell takes you down to a pair of ensuite twin cabins at the bow. These are entirely symmetrical, with excellent headroom, big windows, good hanging storage and bathrooms at the aft end with separate showers.

Aside from the muddy flesh-tone finish of the sinks, the fit-out is very attractive too and the use of wide high-level AC vents means relatively little noise and more controllable ambient temperatures without isolated hot and cold spots. In fact, our only issue in here consists of the baffling way Pardo has obscured the forward ends of the windows with fixed side panels at the head end of the bed.

When you prop yourself up against your pillows, it limits your light and blocks your eyeline, restricting your view of the water – and they appear to serve no practical purpose aside (at a stretch) from limiting light ingress in the morning, so we would certainly waste no time in removing these.

Clever layout

The deck layout for the posher cabins further aft is more complex. The port steps take you down around a 180-degree turn to face to starboard. Ahead of you are two doors – one to the full-beam owner’s cabin on your right and another to the VIP guest cabin on your left. Behind you, nestling to port and extending beneath the stairs you’ve just used, is the day heads.

In principle, sticking the day heads next to the owner’s cabin doesn’t sound like a great idea but it really does work. It shares no bulkheads with the owner’s cabin and it puts it within easiest possible reach of the people at the bow, the saloon, the aft cockpit and the flybridge.

As for the cabins themselves, the VIP sees the bed positioned beneath the starboard hull window, looking inboard toward an inset TV on the bathroom bulkhead and a cupboard-lined corridor that takes you across to the port heads and shower. If it comes across as pleasant rather than memorable, the larger, more indulgent owner’s cabin certainly helps up the ante.

You access it by means of a small (and very worthwhile) detour, past some cupboards and around the dressing table, before the room opens up with a starboard settee, a central bed against the aft bulkhead and a port bathroom with his and hers sinks, a split loo and shower and a sliding glass door to keep the light flowing from one side to the other.

As in the rest of the cabins, ambient low-level deck lights add some restrained playfulness, and headroom is also excellent. But what’s particularly useful for cruisers, of course, is the relative privacy of the twin staircases, the handy location of the day heads and the fact that, should you want crew or a fifth overspill cabin, again, you’re pretty well catered for.

Accessed by means of a deck hatch toward the forepeak, the crew cabin comes with a pair of bunks, decent storage, a set of laundry facilities and an ensuite bathroom. While the steep ladder could do with an additional grabrail to make access a bit easier, there’s a fair bit of natural light, thanks to a pair of high-level windows in the island sunbed and there’s decent space too, particularly given the extravagance of the bow taper.

At the boutique helm

The Pardo Endurance 72’s ‘warped hull’ design has been engineered specifically for IPS drives, so the engine choice is of course quite limited. It comes with a pair of 800hp D13 IPS-1050s as standard but most people will choose to upgrade those to the test boat’s twin 1,000hp IPS-1350s. On paper at least, that promises speeds in the region of 27 knots but on our test day, with ten people on board and a slightly bearded hull, we stop a little way short of that at 25.7 knots. Even then though, as a boat designed for comfy long-distance cruising, the range here looks very strong.

With 6,000 litres of fuel to play with (and a generous 1,200 litres of water), six knots will return a range in excess of 2,000 nautical miles and 9 knots in excess of 1,000nm. Up the pace to 12 knots and a fuel flow of 100 litres per hour is 20 more than the quoted figures but that still delivers a range approaching 600nm. And even at the very top end, with nearly 26 knots on the clock and 20% fuel in reserve, we’re still seeing a range approaching 350nm. It is then a very long-legged boat and it’s a flat one too.

Even without using the tabs, we see a very comfy angle of attack that allows you to cruise with as much comfort at 8 knots as 20. That also keeps visibility wide open, aft as well as forward, and the Pardo is pretty quiet too, registering between 50 and 63dB(A) at sensible cruising speeds.

The helm also deserves a mention. In spite of a wide seat, the wheel sits bang in the centre, so while you might imagine it’s designed for two, it feels much more like a generous one-man position. The dash also feels distinctly luxurious, with its curved edges, its delightful boutique-style trim and a pair of 24in MFDs to help keep switchgear to a minimum. And the handling feels equally refined.

There’s no great deal of snap or agility here of course. The heel is moderate and the pick-up is decent but you don’t expect fireworks, given that the nearest equivalent from the GT line gets three engines rather than two. What it is, however, is comfortable, practical and obedient – just the thing, you might say, for long stress-free passages at sea.

Pardo Endurance 72 specifications

LOA: 72ft 2in (22.0m)
BEAM: 18ft 7in (5.66m)
DRAFT: 5ft 0in (1.52m)
DISPLACEMENT: 50,000kg (light)
FUEL CAPACITY: 6,000 litres
WATER CAPACITY: 1,200 litres
ENGINES: 2 x D13 IPS-1050s or IPS-1350s
RCD: B16

Pardo Endurance 72 costs and options

Price: €3.70M ex VAT.
Test boat includes the following options: Volvo Penta IPS-1350s, drop-down bulwarks, electric bimini, hydraulic passerelle, hydraulic hi-lo swim platform, air conditioning, gyroscopic stabiliser, electric opening galley window, natural teak decking, full appliance package

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