Sirena 48

• LOA 16.04 m, beam 5 m
• Frers semi-displacement hull, CE Category B
• Twin Cummins 550 hp, 670 hp optional
• Top speed 24 to 27 knots
• Range 477 nm at 10 knots
• Fuel 1,900 litres
• 3 cabins, 6 berths, 2 heads
• Optional aft crew cabin with head

Twenty sold before the curtain went up

Sirena announced the 48 as its new entry model and premiered it at Cannes in September 2023 with an order book already past 20 hulls, a figure the trade press led with. Those buyers were effectively purchasing the brand's track record at 58 and 68 feet scaled down a size, and the yard's decision to keep German Frers on naval architecture duty for its smallest boat made that a well-grounded bet.

The styling moved fully in-house, with Sirena's own team drawing both exterior and interior, and the family resemblance is deliberate. Plumb bow, near-vertical superstructure, deep protective bulwarks and long runs of dark glazing mark the 48 unmistakably as the 88's small sister. An American show debut followed within months of Cannes, feeding the United States dealer network that the 58 and 68 had spent years building.

A pocket Frers

The semi-displacement hull runs twin 550 hp Cummins QSB 6.7s as standard through V-drives, good for 24 knots, with 670 hp Cummins QSM 11s on the options list taking that to 27. Fast cruise sits at 16 knots. The more interesting figures live lower in the rev range, where ten knots returns 477 nautical miles from the 1,900 litre fuel capacity, trawler arithmetic from a boat that still looks like a contemporary flybridge yacht.

Passagemaker's review put the long-legs number at 760 nautical miles at 7.6 knots, the kind of range that turns a coastal 48 footer into a genuine passage-maker for an unhurried owner. The dual character of the bigger boats survives the scaling intact, and it remains the single most distinctive thing about running any Frers-hulled Sirena, whichever end of the throttle quadrant the day calls for.

More than 20 hulls were sold before the boat ever reached a show.

Deck space out of proportion

The five metre beam and plumb bow buy deck and interior volume that read a size larger than the paperwork. The extended flybridge carries alfresco dining and sunpads forward with room to spare, and the cockpit steps down to a hydraulic swim platform, with an optional passerelle to bridge guests aboard stern-to in the Mediterranean manner. At the premiere it was the passerelle that carried visitors over the platform and into the cockpit.

Reviewers kept returning to the creative use of hull volume. Stowage is sized for actual cruising, the side decks are walkable with proper handholds, and the foredeck adds a further social zone, so the boat offers three distinct outdoor living areas on a 16 metre footprint. That outdoor bias matches how boats of this size genuinely get used, at anchor for most of the season, with the platform down and the toys wet.

Three cabins, two heads, one honest layout

Below deck the 48 sleeps six in three cabins, a full-beam master amidships, a VIP in the bow and a third guest cabin, served by two heads. Handing the master the entire beam at this length is the layout's boldest call, and it produces an owner's cabin that would pass muster on the 60, with the hullside glazing doing the same work of pulling the sea into the room.

An optional aft crew cabin with its own head lets owners carry a deckhand, or claim the space as stowage, an office or a teenager's bolt-hole. The in-house interior keeps the pale, calm language of the larger boats, and the galley is positioned to serve cockpit and saloon equally, which is where meals actually happen on a 48 footer, with the doors open and half the party still in swimwear.

Category B, and why that is fine

One line of the specification separates the 48 from every larger Sirena. Certification is CE Category B, offshore, where the 60 through 88 all carry Category A, ocean. That is an honest statement of the brief, coastal and offshore cruising in the Mediterranean, the Intracoastal and the islands, and the boat is still engineered by a yard whose habits were formed building to the harder standard.

Motor Boat and Yachting framed its review around whether the entry-level 48 could repeat the success of its bigger sisters, and the pre-sold order book had largely answered the question before the ink dried. For the brand the 48 is the feeder model in the strategic sense, the first Sirena for owners the yard fully expects to meet again a few seasons later, shopping at 60 and 68 feet.

Für wen: A family moving up from a sportscruiser, or an experienced owner scaling down, who wants Frers efficiency, three cabins and big-boat deck space in a 16 metre they can run without help.