Sabre 54FB

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Photo by: Billy Black

I admire people like Bill Seale—those who know exactly what they want and refuse to compromise. Me, I’m too impatient. I should get a tattoo that says “Ehhh, close enough.”

Of course, if we’re talking about the difference between a Sabre 52 and a Sabre 54 Flybridge, no one gets the short end of the stick. But I respect that Bill Seale looked at the 52, loved it and still decided to walk away. He knew exactly what he wanted.

“We fell in love with the Sabre 52 before we bought our Grand Banks Europa 47, but we really wanted a flybridge,” Seale said as we readied Traveler, his Sabre 54FB, for a run from Key Largo’s Ocean Reef Club to the Miami International Boat Show. Seale’s wife, Marguerite, is still a sailor at heart, and being able to enjoy fresh air and sunshine under way was key, for both of them.

“I told Bentley Collins [Sabre’s vice president of marketing and sales], if you ever build a flybridge model, I will buy one,” said Seale. Enough people asked about adding a flybridge and Sabre listened.

“They’re cautious people,” he said of Sabre. “They didn’t just jump in.”


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Dave Newcomb, who is the company’s engineering department manager, first invested a lot of time and expertise in designing the new flybridge model, which extended the 52 hull by two feet. When Sabre was confident it had a design that would live up to its own high expectations, Collins let Seale know.

An experienced owner of both sailboats and powerboats, this is the first boat Seale has ever had built. But he said it was a great experience.

“Everyone at Sabre is a dream to work with,” Seale said. “You get to know everyone who’s working on your boat.

“We had a bit of concern about the ladder to the flybridge,” Seale confessed. “But they are the most delightful people to deal with, and Dave was fantastic.” In fact, one of the details I noticed immediately was a window in the after bulkhead underneath the exterior stairs to the flybridge. While this simple rectangular window may occasionally give you the odd view of someone’s feet ascending, most of the time what it’s doing is adding to the light that positively floods the Sabre’s salon. I loved it.

“It was their idea to do the window, letting the light in, but I have to admit I would have been disappointed if it was solid. To me, light is everything,” Seale confessed.