SIRENA 88

With its flagship, Sirena is taking on the semi-custom big boys. The 88 boasts presence, volume and a master suite to die for but is this enough in an arena packed with top-end talent?

- Alan Harper

Designing a big yacht is easier than a small one. Whether you’re working on a waterline of 20ft or 200ft, people stay the same size. Headroom, beds, room to swing the family cat – it all needs to be incorporated somehow, and the less space you have, the tougher it is. So although the well-known urge of most boatyards to build ever larger craft is often explained in economic terms, it being easier to make a profit on a big boat than a little one, there is also the holy grail aspect to consider – the conviction that the design of the next model up will have none of the drawbacks of the previous one.

Nonsense, of course, but it does perhaps explain why most 85ft motor yachts look like scaled up versions of their 75ft predecessors, which bear a striking resemblance to the earlier 65ft model, itself eerily similar in profile to the 55… and so on.