Sabre 52

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Photo by: Billy Black

As daylight illuminates the Shojii screen double pocket doors that make my stateroom a private retreat for its lucky owners, I find myself fascinated. From my perch on the edge of the queen-size island berth in the master stateroom, I can watch faint geometric shadows cast by the screen’s frame glide across the hand-laid teak and holly sole. It’s the Far East meeting the Downeast, and I’m pleased to see that the twain do meet—at least on board the new Sabre 52 Salon Express.

Outside it’s a crisp 28 degrees F. and about to get colder across the decks as we prepare to cast off and move the Sabre 52 out of Portland Harbor and into Casco Bay for our sea trials. The wind is a steady 17 mph with gusts to 25 mph. Inside the master stateroom, however, I can still be oblivious to the weather outside, thanks to being centered in a quiet amidships location. But twin Caterpillar C15 diesels coming to life in a muffled rumble are my cue to slide apart the Shojii doors, lock them in place and step through the four-foot-wide opening. Turning my head to the right, I look forward along the companionway, through the door into the guest stateroom. To my left, a short flight of teak and holly stairs leads up to the helm deck and, straight across, an extraspacious contemporary kitchen running along the port side.



The length, breadth and depth of this interior are extraordinary, because light and space are such key components in the success of Sabre’s newest and largest express yacht—the first with a fully enclosed saloon at the helm deck level. Like every Sabre motoryacht design stretching back to the first Sabreline 36 Trawler in 1989, the Sabre 52 is a distinctive design with a heritage of quality construction, comfortable cruising accommodations and satisfying performance. When the company launched its first express, the 36 Express Motor Yacht, in 1996, it found a waiting audience that appreciated a commitment to craftsmanship and reliability, especially when those virtues came in pleasing and emblematic designs. Since that time, Sabre has debuted a trend-setting 42 Express, a 38 and now a new 34 in concert with the new 52 Express. That they have accomplished this in less than a decade without straying from their now well-known philosophy is noteworthy.

“Our goal has been for almost ten years to develop a range of boats form the mid-30s to the mid-50s with similar styling and consistent details,” says Bentley Collins, Sabre’s vice president of sales and marketing, “making it easy and desirable for customers to feel comfortable moving from one to another. Inevitably, customers wanted to know when the larger version would be available.”



Collins points to small refinements on the 52 Salon Express that set it apart slightly from its peers. By fully enclosing the back of the deckhouse, adding a sunroof and doing a little bit of Italian contemporary styling (those curved aft windows, the interior valances, the sunpad for the foredeck), it’s just as easy to imagine this yacht at home in the Med as anywhere along the coast of Maine. In both places, owners will appreciate the comfort and season-extending protection of a fully enclosed salon, though for different reasons.