Say 52 (16m), the fast yacht that consumes very little – TEST and price

Among the docks at the Genoa Boat Show landed for the first time a boat that, to look at it, looks like something out of a Diabolik comic strip. All black, streamlined, aggressive. Just the right kind for those who are not afraid to go unnoticed. Her name is Say Carbon 52 and she is the flagship of the
German shipyard Say Carbon
which has put a lot of its ingenuity and “trademark” on this 16-meter boat: in fact, she is built with a hull structure made entirely of carbon fiber sandwich and epoxy. Extremely light, fast and with a patented Petestep hull to minimize fuel consumption. What does it mean? That this 16-meter at 25 knots consumes 74 liters per hour with two Volvo Penta D6s of 440 horsepower each.

Say Carbon 52

What kind of boat is it. A fast 16-meter with plenty of space aft, a large sundeck and a very protected center table with a double seat. Around it a walkway connects the aft platform to the helm station. This whole area is covered by a large hard-top with two uprights on the midships gangway head. To access the bow there are steps on either side of the bridge that lead to the pontoon area, which underneath hides a very bright and large sleeping area with a separate bathroom. Let’s say right off the bat that despite its 16 meters, we are certainly not dealing with a cruising boat, far from it. That said, there is plenty of space below deck.

Do you want to see our video evidence? Click here!

How this 16-meter boat sails

Let’s start with a basic premise. The water lines of this 52-footer are very distinctive. You see them in the photo below, the hull is very racer with a patented Petestep design. One must also consider that we are dealing with an exceptionally light boat for its size. 15 meters long, 4.40 wide and just 7.5 tons in weight. In boxing we would be talking about a “flyweight”-lots of muscle, but a decidedly low mass.

When we sit on the bridge to test it, visibility is good though not optimal, and we have to stand almost the entire time to see over the windshield. It’s not a matter of gybing before glide-in, but of the significant volume in the bow. Perhaps some seating could help with this. During the test there are 8 of us on board with 850 liters out of 1200 of fuel and about 180 liters of water out of the 300 that can be boarded. In short, the boat is by no means empty, yet consumption remains very low. At 29 knots we consume just over 85 liters, less than 3 liters per mile. How does it perform at sea? The first feeling is of a boat that is certainly very agile and snappy.

Glide speed is reached in a handful of seconds and, from zero to maximum, in a scant thirty seconds, by the way, accelerating not too “dryly” to give time for the diesel engines, which we had on test, to express themselves at their best. It is responsive, fun and has the party boat surface. During the test there is no wave, the water is flat and the waves, as usual, we look for them in the wake of some boat. Once we find them we cut them easily. Even at higher speeds, the carbon doesn’t make too much noise in the helm and we glide smoothly.

The deep-V hull has crazy grip on the water for “extreme” tacking even though, on the flip side, this makes us lean a lot. You don’t lose control and that is the important thing and it is definitely fun as an experience to tack tight at 40 knots, but from a comfort point of view it is not ideal. It should also be said that maneuvers like this are not usually common in sailing, in fact far from it.

The minimum glide is at 14 knots with the engines at 1650 rpm with an average consumption of 30 liters per hour total.

Let’s see in detail how much it consumes:

How much does the Say Carbon 52 cost

Gregorio Ferrari