Sunseeker's New Manhattan 94 Launches Already Sold, Two More Building

A Flagship That Sold Before It Existed

The first Manhattan 94 slid into the water at Sunseeker's Poole yard in the first week of August 2026, four years after the model was first shown as a concept at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2024 under its original name, the 94 Yacht. The hull had already found an owner: Sunseeker sold it shortly after that 2024 unveiling, well before construction reached the water, and the undisclosed buyer will take delivery once sea trials and fit-out finish over the coming weeks. Sunseeker's own craftspeople lined the quayside for the float-off, a tradition the yard keeps for a new model line rather than just for a flagship. The production yacht carries a new name, Manhattan 94, folding it into the marque's long-running flybridge series rather than leaving it to stand alone as a one-off 'Yacht' model.

Sunseeker frames the 94 as the scaled-down heir to its 100 Yacht flagship, carrying the same 'Intentional Design for Effortless Connection' philosophy down eight feet without losing the full-beam owner's suite that made the bigger boat's case. Two more hulls are already committed: a second is under contract and in build, and a third began construction earlier in 2026, according to BOAT International, giving the model a three-strong order book before a single public sea trial has taken place. The global debut is booked for the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2026, where Sunseeker will let brokers and buyers who were not first in line see the boat in the metal rather than in a rendering.

What Sunseeker Actually Built

The Manhattan 94 runs 28.6 metres (93'10") length overall on a 6.55-metre (21'6") beam, with a 2.07-metre (6'9") draught. Power is twin MTU 10V 2000 diesels, rated at 1,950hp each as standard, with an optional M96X rating to 2,000hp per side. On the standard engines Sunseeker states a top speed of 26 knots, and a cruising range of about 1,255 nautical miles at a 10-knot cruise. Stabilisation comes from Humphree interceptors rather than the fin stabilisers more common on slower, heavier displacement hulls, a choice that suits a boat built to run fast rather than idle at trawler speeds.

That range is worth reading plainly rather than skipping past: 1,255nm at 10 knots is a coastal and regional figure, not an ocean-crossing one. It is enough for the Mediterranean in summer, the Bahamas and the US East Coast, or a Caribbean season, but an owner planning genuine long-range passages needs a different kind of boat entirely, and Sunseeker is not claiming otherwise. The 94 is built to run at speed between marinas and anchorages a few hundred miles apart, not to cross an ocean unsupported, and the engine choice and hull form both follow from that brief rather than fighting it.

The Design Brief: A Home That Happens to Float

The interior is a collaboration with the British studio Design Unlimited, working in an earthy palette of browns, warm creams and natural materials rather than the colder white-and-chrome look common at this size. Layout sleeps up to 10 guests across five staterooms, led by a full-beam owner's suite forward on the main deck, complete with its own lobby, en suite and glazing on both sides, a feature more commonly reserved for yachts several metres longer. The saloon carries floor-to-ceiling glazing and sliding glass doors to starboard, opening onto a dining area that seats 10 and sits forward of a feature wall separating guest space from the crew area.

Outside, an X-TEND extendable sunbed system and a foredeck terrace that flows up to the flying bridge do the work of making a 94-foot flybridge boat feel bigger than its length. A tender garage houses a Williams SportJet 395 as standard rather than as a paid option, launched via a hydraulic platform rated to lift 1,000kg. Onboard systems run to a Simrad navigation suite, Sonos speakers across the exterior areas, and eight-inch external units built into the deck spaces rather than bolted on afterward.

A Yard Finding Its Feet Again

The launch lands in the middle of a genuinely turbulent year for Sunseeker's ownership. In March 2026, a consortium led by KCP Holdings agreed to buy out Sunseeker's existing lenders, Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners, and then acquire 100 per cent of the yard's shares, with Andres Rubio lined up as the permanent CEO for the new structure. The deal collapsed in April 2026: Sunseeker said the KCP consortium 'was unable to complete the previously announced and agreed debt purchase and subsequent share acquisition within the required timeframe as it was not able to finalise its funding arrangements in time.' Rubio never took the CEO role. Steve Timms, Sunseeker's chief operating officer of more than 25 years who started at the yard as an electrician in 2000, was named interim CEO on 9 April 2026 to steady the company through the gap.

Rather than sell to an outside buyer, Cheyne Capital and Cross Ocean Partners, the two firms that already held Sunseeker's debt, took ownership of the yard themselves, completing the transfer on 28 July 2026 and describing themselves as its 'new long-term owners' with fresh capital committed to operations and growth. Scott Millar, who spent 27 years in business transformation work and had already helped Sunseeker's advisers at Teneo draw up the yard's five-year growth plan, was named incoming CEO, backed by a rebuilt executive team: Andy Gawthorpe as chief commercial officer, Ian Morgan as chief strategy officer, James Grove as chief information officer, and Adrian Mardell as non-executive chairman. Sunseeker has said it will unveil a rebrand and new product concepts at Cannes in September 2026, alongside its stated ambition to reposition itself as a superyacht builder. The Manhattan 94 is the first hull to reach the water since that reset began.

What a Buyer Should Weigh Before Cannes

Three hulls sold or under contract before the first one finished sea trials is a real demand signal, and it is the strongest fact in this story. But the launch also lands squarely inside a continuity question any serious buyer should ask before signing: what warranty, parts and service commitments carry over now that the yard's own lenders own it outright, and how the promised September rebrand will change the models that follow this one. No independent sea trial of the Manhattan 94 exists yet; every speed, range and performance figure in this article is Sunseeker's own. Price is the clearest gap in what has been made public: Sunseeker has not disclosed a figure for the Manhattan 94, and none of the three known hull contracts, sold or building, has had its value made public by the yard or a buyer.

For now, Sunseeker's dealer network is the only route to an order, and a buyer starting today joins a backlog that already has a third hull in build behind the two ahead of it. The realistic first chance to inspect the boat in person, rather than take the yard's own numbers on trust, is the Cannes Yachting Festival from 8 to 13 September 2026, where Sunseeker is expected to show the Manhattan 94 alongside whatever it unveils under its new ownership.