If you want something that feels different, inside and out, the Pearl 72 is a boat you need to see. Alex Smith reports...
Puerto Portals in Mallorca is certainly not short on boating exotica. But as I approach the new Pearl 72, with its stratified ranks of glass, its raked screen and its swept spears of fibreglass, this looks to me like one of the most striking and distinctive boats in the entire marina.
The local Pearl crew is on hand to greet me with crisp croissants and piping hot coffee – and as Cenk Efe, the MD at the Mallorca Marine Group, walks me rather fondly through the boat, it’s immediately clear that the internal arrangement is even more divergent than the styling.
From the aft terraces and the space-saving V-drives to the galley placement, the light management and the extraordinary owner’s cabin, this second smallest of the Pearl fleet immediately feels like a boat with a very big personality.
Day space delights Bill Dixon and Kelly Hoppen have been a formidable combination over the years – Bill for his proven excellence with spatial management and Kelly for her capacity to make slick high-end environments feel homely and welcoming rather than niche or esoteric.
The same is undoubtedly true here. But given that we’re basking under the sun on a boat finely tuned to take advantage of that, our first port of call has to be the external day spaces. While the aft cockpit is not huge, it’s easily enough to seat 12 around the twin tables, thanks to a broad aft bench and freestanding furniture.
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There’s also room for a port wet bar so you don’t have to head inside for your drinks and nibbles and there’s ample shade from the fly deck above. The aft end also enjoys some impressive watersports facilities.
The swim platform comes with a three-man aft-facing bench neatly integrated into the hatch for the tender garage. There’s also a pair of fold-down water-level terraces to expand the beach area – and to really drive home that advantage, the garage itself is cavernous, with plenty of room for a Williams Jet 345, plus a proper two-man sit-down jetski.
It does of course steal a bit of volume from the engineroom down below, but given that the owner is unlikely to do their own servicing, that seems like a sage design decision.
Read Alex’s full review of the Pearl 72 in the July 2023 issue of MBY, which is out now.
Update: The Pearl 72 will be going on display at the 2023 Cannes Yachting Festival.
Pearl 72 specifications
LOA: 72ft 2in (21.99m)
Beam: 18ft 10in (5.75m)
Draft: 5ft 7in (1.7m)
Displacement (light): 52.8 tonnes
Fuel capacity: 4,250 litres
Engines options: Twin MAN V12 1400s or Twin MTU 10v 2000 M96l 1600s
Test engines: Twin 1,600hp MTU 10v 2000 M96L
Top speed on test: 31.5 knots
Fuel consumption: 340lph @ 20 knots / 63lph @ 9.5 knots
Cruising range: 200nm @ 20 knots / 513nm @ 9.5 knots
Noise: 75.5d(B)A @ 20 knots
RCD category: B
Starting price: €2,630,000 (ex. VAT)
Price as tested: £3,200,000 (ex. VAT)
