Sunseeker’s new 88ft yacht, the Ocean 182, is a response to American boating’s diverse weather conditions. Initially, a variant of the successful Ocean 90 model, the 182 features a fully enclosed flybridge, catering to customer demands for climate-controlled comfort. The enclosed sky lounge and redesigned salon offer a luxurious and adaptable yachting experience, showcased at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Continue reading to learn more about Sunseeker’s new 88ft yacht and other Sunseeker yachts.
American boating tends be about extremes. Depending on region, it can either be too hot or too cold. Or in some places, even too wet. That meteorological conundrum has created something of a quandary for Sunseeker, the British motoryacht builder.
Since 2020, the yard has been behind its 90 Ocean model, with its expansive, open flybridge. It’s designed for sun-worshipping, alfresco entertaining, and generally relishing the great outdoors.
But potential buyers have since been asking for a buttoned-down version with a fully enclosed flybridge, to enjoy the air conditioning in summer heat, or in the shoulder season, heating to counter the autumn chills.
Sunseeker’s latest offering, the Ocean 182, answers the call by providing a very different experience on the same hull as the 90-footer. It made its debut at the recent Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS), where Robb Report took a full tour to see the major differences from the 90 Ocean, docked right beside it.
A note on the names. The 182 is not 182 feet long. In fact, it shares the same 88’11” length as the Ocean 90, as well as the 23’5” beam. According to Mark Chinery, Sunseeker’s international director of sales, the number 182 reflects the vessel’s gross tonnage, or GT, which is the industry yardstick for internal volume.
Two other high-volume yachts by Wally, the wallywhy220 and wallywhy110, also use gross tonnage in their names, mostly because their volumes are much larger than competitors’ yachts of the same length.
“We decided that as this new Ocean is all about its increased interior space, we’d refer to it the same way. It also differentiates it from the 90,” says Chinery.
Telling friends that you own a 182 Sunseeker, rather than a 90, would naturally result in increased bragging rights. On the flip side, it might require an explanation to marina managers when it comes to negotiating docking fees, which are typically paid by the yacht’s length in feet.
While the 90 and 182 share a common hull, offer the same engine options, and largely have the same four-cabin lower-deck accommodations, an enclosed sky lounge on the 182 has allowed Sunseeker’s designers to switch around the upper spaces.
Entering the main-level salon of the 182 is indeed dramatic. Gone is the forward helm station and amidships galley of the Ocean 90, replaced with an open-plan layout. Instead of the helm, which moves to the sky lounge a floor above, there’s a dining table for eight and a well-equipped, open-plan galley opposite up at the front.
This allows for a legitimately massive salon at the rear, defined by an L-shaped sofa, big-screen TV and cozy sitting area. Floor-to-ceiling windows across the salon, with sliding glass doors on the port side, flood the space with light. The near full-width doors at the rear connect the cockpit seamlessly to the indoor area in warm weather.
One of the yacht’s standout features is its spiraling, stainless-steel staircase leading up into the other surprise design feature—the enclosed sky lounge.
