The Say 52 is a 50ft carbon fibre sportscruiser that weighs 8 tonnes, half the weight of its GRP rivals, delivering incredible speed and efficiency
Most production boat builders mould their craft out of GRP for a good reason; it’s durable, it’s versatile, it’s easy to work with and it’s relatively cheap. The only downside is that you need a lot of it. On a 20ft sportsboat that’s no big deal – the forces involved are not that high and the weight of the boat relative to the power of the engine is comparatively low.
On a 50ft sportscruiser, however, the sums look very different. To ensure that long, hollow hull has sufficient strength and torsional rigidity, you need some pretty thick GRP mouldings.
By the time you’ve added a suitably lavish interior, not to mention all the kit you expect of a modern boat, plus the engines to power it, the end result is no featherweight. A Princess V50 displaces 15.9 tonnes, a Fjord 53 XL 17.8 tonnes and a Sunseeker 55 Superhawk, 26 tonnes.
The all-new SAY 52 pictured here weighs a whisker over 8 tonnes – roughly half the weight of the first two and less than a third the weight of a Superhawk 55. That’s because it’s built by SAY Carbon Yachts, and as the name suggests, almost everything that can be made from carbon fibre is, including the hull, deck, hard top, wet bar, seats, table, locker lids, steps – the list goes on.
The result is one of the most remarkable craft we have ever tested but first let’s take a moment to talk you through the design because there is more to it than just Ozempic-levels of weight loss.
Curved steps lead up to a rather precarious bow
The underwater hull sections, for instance, were designed in conjunction with Petestep, so instead of having spray rails running in parallel along the length of the hull with one or two deep steps cutting across them to suck air in under the boat, the SAY 52 has four shallower vee-shaped steps that fan out and aft from the keel band to the chines at roughly 2m intervals.
These are profiled in such a way as to funnel spray back under the boat, generating lift and thrust to reduce drag and increase performance. Petestep hulls are also less prone to spin out than conventional steps, as the spray rails help grip the water when it leans into a turn. They even claim it improves the ride by creating a high-pressure cushion of water that reduces slamming at speed.
The long slim dinette is very well protected from sun and spray but isn’t as versatile or easy to access as some rivals’ designs
Style and substance
Rather more surprising is the fact this light and very open cruiser has a category A RCD rating for wind speeds of up to F8 and wave heights of up to 4m. I don’t think it would be a lot of fun and you’d need some good wet weather gear, but it must say something about the stability and seakeeping of the design.
Then there’s the styling to admire. Like it or loathe it, in a world of increasingly homogenised high-volume craft, the SAY 52 stands out as something unusually sharp, focussed and uncompromising without resorting to tricks or gimmicks.
The latticework of glass panels in the deck and hard top looks particularly cool, especially at night when the LED strip lighting picks out the intricacy of its framework. Some of the finishing of this first boat was a little untidy, presumably because it had been rushed to make its show debut, but this should get sorted at a later date.
Even the wet bar lid is made of carbon fibre and is uncannily light to lift.
How well it all works in practice is another matter but on the basis that you don’t buy a Ferrari for the size of its boot or ease of parking, the chances are you’re not going to buy a SAY 52 if you’re planning on living aboard with a family of six. That said, there are certain things worth bearing in mind if you’re considering it as an alternative to the more mainstream sportscruisers mentioned above…
The bathing platform is fixed rather than hydraulic and while there’s a decent-sized locker under the sunbed for covers, cushions, lines and fenders, you’ll struggle to fit anything other than a small deflated inflatable tender in there. On the plus side there is a very neat little Seabob ‘garage’ built into the platform with a drop down floor that lets you launch and recover it straight from the water.
Nor are there any beach club-style folding terraces to expand the deck area and improve the views, despite teak decking that extends up the inside of the cockpit coaming suggesting that there might be. There are, however, a pair of neat carbon fibre poles and pull-out fresh water showers hidden inside the aft bulwarks so you can erect a shade over the sunbed and rinse down after a swim.
There were two separate fridges fitted to our test boat
And that super stylish hardtop extends all the way out over the side decks, providing plenty of shade and protection for the helm and guests. The main seating/dining area looks gorgeous but feels rather restrictive for a boat of this size, not just because the table itself is a long, thin fixed design rather than a more versatile folding one (although it does convert into another day bed) but also because there’s quite a lot of shuffling involved to get in and out of the bench seats, especially if there’s more than four of you.
And while this does allow for safe and easy movement past the dinette to the side deck steps, the lack of toe and guardrails on the foredeck itself is mildly disconcerting in any kind of sea.
Access to the engines is under the floor panels of this aft locker
Accommodation
There is a good-sized wetbar immediately ahead of the table with a sink, hob and a pair of fridges. There are also two big lockers on either side of the helm with deep drawers that pop out at the touch of a button.
All of these are made of carbon fibre – beautifully glossy where it’s on show, matt and functional where it’s not. This is hugely admirable from a technical point of view but might prove tricky to keep clean and scratch-free in the long term. And although it’s obviously strong and expensive to make, in places it’s so thin and flexible that to the uninitiated it might come across as feeling rather flimsy compared to the reassuringly chunky mouldings of its rivals.
What the interior lacks in volume it certainly makes up for in style
The long pointy hull shape does have an impact on the size of the interior accommodation but what it lacks in volume, it more than makes up for in style. The combination of two big hull windows in the bow and that latticework of foredeck glazing not only makes it remarkably bright down here but also creates a wonderfully modern, architectural vibe.
On a summer’s day, with blue skies overhead and sunlight sparkling off the water below, it is a genuinely special place to be. The lack of blinds or curtains may prove problematic in the mornings and it’s all open plan, bar the heads, but given that there is only one double bed down here, privacy isn’t really an issue unless you object to day guests being able to see where you sleep.
There is just enough storage for cruising essentials and the heads is actually a very decent size with a proper separate shower compartment. The only slight quirk is that the door to the heads doubles as the door to the shower compartment so the bathroom is open to the cabin when showering. And we were slightly disappointed that the toilet itself wasn’t made of carbon fibre, however impractical and expensive it might be. So yes, there are some compromises to make but all these are soon forgotten the moment you take the helm.
Clean, modern styling is comfortable enough for two on a long weekend away
The SAY 52 is so light and efficient that it is powered by either twin 430hp Volvo Penta V8 petrols or 440hp D6 diesels on standard DuoProp sterndrives. This is unheard of for a boat of this length, partly because they wouldn’t have enough grunt on a conventional GRP build and partly because it puts the engines (and a big chunk of weight) right at the stern.
Nearly all of its immediate rivals use more powerful IPS drives, putting the weight, steering and thrust point further forward.
The lower dinette can convert to an extra bed but it’s in the same cabin as the double berth
Performance and economy
Any concerns we had about how this might affect its trim and handling soon evaporated in the heat of the Mallorcan sun. Even with the heavier D6 engines, the SAY 52 felt beautifully balanced and accelerated onto the plane far quicker than expected of a boat this size. The harder we drove it, the better it got.
Flat out it reached an impressive 41 knots (10 knots quicker than a Princess V50) and even when pushed through the turns at full speed with the hull banked over at seemingly impossible angles, it clung on like a cat to a blanket. In short, it behaves like a boat half its size, except when dealing with a chop. Here its long razor-edged bow helps it slice through the waves as cleanly as a Samurai sword. Admittedly, it still has its limits; on a night ride back to Palma in larger 4-5ft seas we did have to throttle back to semi-displacement speed, getting pretty wet in the process, but with the Seakeeper 3 stabiliser doing its bit to help, it still felt impressively safe and secure.
SAY Carbon Yacht’s new flagship claims to offer superboat performance
The really pleasing thing about the SAY 52, is that it does all this while using far less fuel than its rivals. At 20 knots it was burning just 48lph with a crew of six and 50% fuel and water.
To put that in perspective, a Fairline Targa 45 GT burns 119lph at the same speed while a Sunseeker Superhawk 55 burns 150lph and neither of them are as fast or fun to drive. Even Frauscher’s gorgeous Demon 1414, arguably its closest spiritual rival, falls short on both these metrics, topping out at 39.3 knots and burning 70lph at 20 knots.
The SAY 52 also gives you a very decent cruising range of well over 300nm at 25 knots from its 1,200-litre tank.
Volvo’s joystick control helps with manoeuvring around the marina but there’s a lot of bow to control with a pair of sterndrives out back so you will need to use the thruster to keep it in check in any kind of cross wind. The only thing that detracts from the helming experience is the amount of flex at the front end of the hard top and a slight shake of the helm wheel over lumps and bumps.
Both are structurally sound and well within tolerances but would look and feel better if damped down. Getting to the engines is also something of a mission that involves emptying the aft locker and removing two cumbersome floor panels, although once you get there access is pretty good.
Sharp looks, strong performance, entertaining handling and exceptional fuel efficiency are the SAY 52’s stock in trade
SAY 52 specifications
LOA: 52ft 4in (15.95m)
BEAM: 14ft 5in (4.40m)
DRAFT: 3ft 2in (0.96m)
DISPLACEMENT: 7.5 tonnes
ENGINES: 2 x Volvo Penta 440hp D6 DPI diesel or 430hp V8 DPS petrol
FUEL CAPACITY: 1200 litres
WATER CAPACITY: 250 litres
RCD CATEGORY: A for 12 people
CONTACT: saycarbonyachts.com
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Verdict
The SAY 52 is as beautiful to look at as it is to drive. It’s also an engineering tour de force that demonstrates what’s possible by building out of carbon fibre. Cutting the weight by 50% doesn’t just look good on paper, it delivers serious real world benefits in terms of speed, acceleration, handling and fuel efficiency. The result is the most entertaining 50ft sportscruiser we’ve tested in years, possibly ever, and yet it burns half as much fuel as most of its rivals. And unlike the smaller SAY 42, it comes with the option of diesel power and all the amenities you’d need for both day guests and weekends away for two. How many buyers care enough about driving enjoyment and fuel consumption to sacrifice the extra volume and versatility of its rivals while also paying a premium for its carbon fibre build is another matter. We certainly would and hope that others will too because something this special deserves to succeed.
