GX42's First Hull Splashes as Merinos, EUR 32m Asking

What splashed at SES Yachts on 25 August, and how far along is the GX42 project now?

The GX42's debut hull, now named Merinos, went into the water at SES Yachts' shed in Tuzla, near Istanbul, on 25 August 2026, moving GX Superyachts from a two-year-old concept to a physical yacht in final sea trials ahead of its Monaco Yacht Show unveiling on 23-26 September.

GX Superyachts was introduced at the Monaco Yacht Show in September 2024 as a new large-yacht division of Greenline Yachts, the production builder that has delivered more than 1,000 hybrid boats since pioneering the segment on boats under 58 feet in 2008. Keel-laying for the first GX42 hull took place on 1 June 2024, and construction moved through a hull-turn in January 2025 and a hybrid propulsion workshop test in July 2025 before the yacht entered final interior fit-out in early 2026. GX Superyachts chief commercial officer Maurizio Magri, who joined the brand from an established superyacht background in December 2025, said construction had stayed on target through that phase. Company founder Vladimir Zinchenko, who also owns Greenline, said of the launch: "Only two years ago, we introduced a bold new vision for the future of superyachting in Monaco. Seeing the first GX42 enter the water proves this vision has become reality."

Merinos measures 41.8 metres with an 8.5 metre beam and a 1.9 metre draft, for a gross tonnage of 353. She sleeps up to ten guests across five cabins, with the owner's suite on the main deck. BOAT International reports an asking price of EUR 32 million, a figure GX Superyachts has not itself confirmed. A second hull, built to the RPH configuration, is already under construction at SES Yachts for delivery in 2027 - an order placed before the first boat had even left the shed. GX Superyachts says the GX42 is the opening model in a planned range running from 24 to 56 metres.

What does the hybrid system actually deliver, and is the 48-hour silent claim believable?

The parallel diesel-electric system pairs two MAN D2862 diesel engines with two 200kW electric motors and a lithium battery bank fed by an integrated solar array, and GX Superyachts says the combination can hold the yacht at anchor on stored and solar power alone for up to 48 hours while cutting onboard electrical consumption by up to 45 percent.

In parallel hybrid mode the diesels and electric motors can drive the shafts together or separately, letting the yacht run on battery power alone at speeds up to 6 knots, on diesel for a 16-knot top speed, or on a blend of both. GX Superyachts quotes a range of 11,571 nautical miles at the 6-knot electric-assisted cruise, and the extensive solar array is intended to keep the battery bank topped up at anchor without running a generator, which is the mechanism behind the 48-hour silent-running claim. The company frames the system as a scaled-up version of the parallel and serial hybrid architecture Greenline has refined across more than 15 years and over a thousand production boats, rather than a new technology developed for this hull alone.

None of those figures has been independently verified yet. Merinos left the shed only two days before this article was reported, and no sea trial, class survey or third-party test of the hybrid system at superyacht scale has been published by anyone outside GX Superyachts. The 16-knot top speed is modest for a 42-metre yacht, and it is the direct cost of carrying a diesel-electric plant and a lithium battery bank rather than a lighter conventional driveline - a trade-off familiar from Greenline's smaller boats, now applied for the first time at a hull length where owners typically expect more speed, not less.

Why is Vladimir Zinchenko building superyachts in Tuzla rather than buying into an established yard?

Zinchenko controls the whole chain - brand, design office and the Turkish yard building the hull - because GX Superyachts is a bet that Greenline's production hybrid record can be scaled up faster and cheaper outside the Dutch and Italian sheds that already hold the segment's reputation.

Naval architecture and exterior design for the GX42 come from Francesco Rogantin of NAMES studio, and the interior is by Marco Casali of Too Design, both engaged directly by GX Superyachts rather than inherited from an established yard's in-house team. Building at SES Yachts in Tuzla rather than at a Dutch or Italian shed keeps construction costs down at a price point - EUR 32 million for a 42-metre hybrid yacht - that undercuts comparable new builds from brands with decades of superyacht deliveries behind them. Hiring Magri as chief commercial officer in December 2025 was a direct move to add a recognised superyacht-market name to a leadership team that, before that, was drawn entirely from Greenline's production-boat business.

The order book is the clearest signal of confidence GX Superyachts has: a second GX42, in the RPH layout, is already under construction for a 2027 delivery, meaning a buyer committed to the brand before hull one had proven itself in the water. Timing the Merinos launch five weeks ahead of the Monaco Yacht Show matters commercially, because Monaco is where a brand-new name gets judged in person against Feadship, Sanlorenzo and Benetti stands a few berths away - the first point at which GX Superyachts' pitch of hybrid pedigree at a lower price has to hold up next to yards with fifty years of delivered hulls behind them.

What would an owner actually be buying, and what is still unproven?

A GX42 buyer gets a brand-new, EUR-32-million hybrid superyacht with a genuinely distinctive silent-running feature and a hybrid pedigree borrowed from a different, much smaller class of boat, since nothing about this hull, this yard or these systems at 42 metres has been tested by anyone outside the builder yet.

The strongest points in the GX42's favour: a hybrid system built on real production experience rather than a one-off engineering exercise, a price that sits well below comparable 40-metre-plus new builds from established brands, and a second buyer who signed before the first hull was launched. The 48-hour silent-anchorage figure, if it holds up under independent testing, would be a genuine point of difference in a segment where most yachts still run a generator through the night. Casali's brief for the interior was reportedly a warm, natural-material finish rather than the showroom look common on debut hulls from new brands, aimed at owners who plan to actually live aboard rather than simply display the yacht.

Against that: no independent sea trial, class survey or owner report exists for Merinos or for the GX42 as a class, because the hull left the water two days before this story was reported. The 16-knot top speed lags the segment. SES Yachts has no prior record building yachts at this length, whatever Greenline's smaller-boat history suggests. And the EUR 32 million figure comes from a single trade publication rather than from GX Superyachts itself, so a prospective buyer should treat it as indicative rather than confirmed until the builder publishes its own pricing.