SALLYNA is the biggest thing Su Marine has built, and she arrived in 2023 as the yard’s flagship rather than as another hull in a series. Forty-eight metres, a steel hull under an aluminium superstructure, a dark navy topside and a rig that puts her sail plan well above what a gulet of this size would normally carry. She is a modern boat wearing a traditional silhouette, and the gap between those two things is where she gets interesting.
Start with the deck saloon, because it is where she departs from the type. Rather than a low, dark cabin under the coachroof, SALLYNA has a raised room with a full-length skylight along its centreline, cream leather banquettes down both sides and two polished mahogany tables that seat twelve between them. The light coming through the skylight at midday is the single best thing about her interior. Forward of the settees, in the same volume, sit the galley bar, the inside helm console and a wall screen – so the room does everything without ever needing a bulkhead.
Interiors are by Stephen Huish Yacht Design and are deliberately quiet: pale sycamore, brushed bronze, dark timber inlays and blue-glass portholes with polished bezels. Nothing shouts. The accommodation runs down a single long companionway on the lower deck, and it is a genuinely well-proportioned one – wide, well lit and free of the pinch points that make the walk to a cabin feel like a service corridor.
Five cabins hold twelve guests. The full-beam master is forward, with a centreline king bed, a low settee along one side, a writing desk and an ensuite with a shower. Two VIP cabins take double beds with side sofas that convert to single berths, which is the flexibility that lets a family put a child in the same room. Two twins complete the layout. All five are ensuite, all five carry entertainment systems, and the ceiling detailing in each is more considered than the category usually manages.
On deck she is built for the Aegean rather than for photographs. The aft cockpit sits under a fixed bimini with a varnished table for twelve, deep banquettes and director’s chairs on teak. Forward, the coachroof and foredeck carry sunpads and two low tables, and the helm is aft and open, with a red-spoked wheel and a proper view of the rig. Under sail she is a working boat and she looks like one from the helm.
Her figures are what they should be for a yacht of this shape: ten knots cruising and thirteen at the top end under two MAN diesels, 8.2 metres of beam and 3.9 metres of draft, with eight crew aboard for twelve guests. That crew ratio is the one to notice. She was launched new into charter and has been run by the same team since.
SALLYNA works Turkey and the Greek islands from a base in Bodrum, which puts the Gulf of Gokova, the Dodecanese and the whole Carian coast within a day. Delivered in 2023, she is still close to new, and for a group of twelve who want a large sailing yacht with real deck space and none of the compromises the gulet market usually asks for, she is a rare thing in that fleet.
