Absolute 52 Fly review: Magical €1.6M motor yacht

The new Absolute 52 Fly appears to adhere very closely to the dynamic blueprint laid down by the latest generation 56 and 60. Alex Smith gets behind the wheel to see if that really is the case

Very few boats could claim to be as distinctive as Absolute’s latest line of flybridge cruisers. Take the Absolute 52 Fly you see here. Like the equally beautiful Absolute 56 Fly and Absolute 60 Fly, it has a pair of ‘stretched diamond’ glazing panels, each vast and darkly tinted – one raised almost to the gunwales at the elevated bow and one sunken beneath the rubbing strake amidships.

It also uses a cutdown bulwark amidships to expose the plunging full-height windows of the superstructure. And at the back end, ahead of an abruptly chopped transom, there’s another cutaway in the bulwark, this time to open up the cockpit and lighten the profile.

This is a boat you could identify on the strength of a momentary glance from a thousand yards and in a market where buyers tend to value a sense of custom individuality, that in itself is a major advantage. As you would hope though, the Absolute 52 Fly’s stylistic cues are about much more than just style.

The views from the saloon and the quality of the space in the forward owner’s cabin provide ample proof of that, but before we reach the inside spaces, the Absolute’s trademark “cockpit terrace” is particularly deserving of mention.

An extended deck, framed by symmetrical steps, pushes the socialising space a good way aft, above the hi-lo tender platform; and it makes the very most of that space by means of a glass balustrade at the transom and some slick modular furniture that you can arrange in whatever way you fancy.

On the test Absolute 52 Fly, it’s very much rigged in the fashion of the moment, with a pair of facing settees to keep the stern views wide open. These bespoke seats also enable you to opt for conventional legs or integrated storage built into a moulded base, but either way, views from a seated position, both aft (through the glass balustrades) and on the beam (through those stylish, skeletal bulwarks) are really outstanding.

As on the 56 and 60, this elegant aft cockpit is supplemented by outdoor socialising zones at the bow and flybridge – and happily, they feel less like secondary alternatives and more like destinations in their own right. On the foredeck, a large central walkaround unit comprises an integrated sunbed and an intimate low-level dinette capable of seating nine people; and up on the flybridge, there are distinct echoes of the main deck.

A relaxed stern terrace with freestanding seats is serviced by a central bar built into the back of a big C-shaped dining station. There’s also a three-person sunlounger ahead of the twin helm, which means you could feasibly seat the entire ship’s company of 14 up here, while keeping a wary eye on your children during a long passage.

Delicious detail

On the face of it, the saloon holds no major surprises. After all, there’s a transverse aft galley, attractively integrated with the aft cockpit by means of a single-level deck and a wide three-part sliding door; and ahead of that, there’s a dinette to port and a sofa to starboard.

However, it’s the details that really hit home. There are huge drop-down windows on both sides, which means that if you spec solar panels on the hardtop, you can keep the generator switched off at anchor and run all your basic hotel loads while still getting a cool draft by means of the saloon’s natural ventilation rather than a power-hungry AC unit.

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The galley is suitably well equipped with a full-height fridge and separate freezer, plus a very decent pantry, and here, as elsewhere, the Absolute 52 Fly is trimmed with a mix of pale, organic-feeling timbers and fabrics that makes excellent use of the light.

Headroom is impressively generous, views are outstanding and the artificial lighting is very stylishly done with a combination of asymmetrical LED patterns, subtly recessed into the deckhead lining. There’s also a simple but beautifully conceived angle factored into the forward part of the dinette – and that’s particularly welcome because it’s basically unnecessary.

It would have been all too easy for Absolute to take the obvious route with a conventional right-angled C-shape but here, the slightly obtuse rake of the aft-facing settee adds interest to the space, while making it much easier to make your way in and out.

This disruption of the norm is also in evidence at the starboard helm, where you get a slight V shape to the dash, causing it to pivot around the skipper. It brings all the key touch points that bit closer to your hands and it also does a great job of minimising glare on your two 16in plotters.

It doesn’t end there either. Like the rest of the boat, the skipper’s side door is very well arranged for single-handed helming; all-round visibility is astonishingly strong for a flybridge cruiser; and the fact that the main helm is to starboard ties in well with the fact that there’s a port helm up top and an optional third helm in the cockpit. It’s designed to be an easy boat for an inexperienced family to operate without any crew, and even before you take it to sea, that’s perfectly evident.

Reverse layout

The lower deck consists of three cabins and two shower rooms, and although plenty of people will raise an eyebrow at Absolute’s design decision, the inclusion of a forward owner’s cabin feels to us like a really positive move. It’s accessed by means of a companionway that wraps around to the port side, freeing up the forward bulkhead.

By coupling this with a bathroom that’s tucked up in the V of the bow, Absolute has created a remarkable amount of space around the large, central, forward-facing bed – and as we expected, the light and views through those big raised bow windows are absolutely first class.

Despite being tucked in the bow, the bathroom still provides a decent separate shower, some useful storage and plenty of headroom and the fact that the owner’s cabin is perched so far forward has other benefits too. It means it’s further removed both from the noise of the engine room and from curious passers-by when berthed stern-to at a Mediterranean marina. And it also means that your views from bed are likely to be far less constrained when parked up at close quarters alongside other boats.

In any case, as you step further aft, past the stairwell with its dedicated slot for an optional washer drier, the starboard cabin looks pretty well arranged too. Even as standard, you can convert it from a twin to a double with a simple push-button system, and when you do so, you get access to a small companionway that leads forward to an excellent walk-in engineering space, containing the switch panel, the blackwater tank and the bow thruster. There’s also a very neatly arranged plumbing compartment here, and while we’ve seen these features on larger Absolutes before, it’s great to see them make their way down to the smaller models.

As for the VIP cabin, that sits in the full-beam space amidships and, like the owner’s cabin, it’s blessed with truly massive rectangular windows. It does have to share its heads and shower compartment with the twin cabin and the day guests but the space that opens up elsewhere makes this look like a very productive design decision. And in any case, if you want extra privacy down here, the aft crew cabin does a good job of helping out with that.

Running transversely across the transom, it comes with really generous windows and portlights and because it uses a vertical door from the swim platform, as well as a hatch at the aft end of the cockpit, access to the space is extremely easy. There’s also some storage in here, plus a heads and shower compartment, and that means that if you’re enjoying a day of watersports at anchor or a party in the cockpit, it’s a great place to change, to shower or to use as a rapid-access day heads.

Easy rider

There’s very little in the way of swells during our test day, so we hunt out a few wakes from passing ships and while there’s a sense of firmness from those forward hull quarters, this is in fact a remarkably dry boat. At no point does any water make its way onto the foredeck, side decks or cockpit, let alone the screen or wind deflector. And refinement seems to be a major strength too.

We’re seeing just 66dB at 20 knots, rising to around 70dB at the 30-knot top end, so cruising long distance would be a perfectly comfortable undertaking. And better still, this boat will run with no more than a couple of degrees of bow lift at 10-16 knots, so if you do feel the need to peg back the pace, reduce the noise and save some fuel, that’s a very easy thing to achieve.

But either way, the cruising band here is vast, and not just because of the flat running attitude but because of the unusual fuel flow curve. In fact, it’s not actually a curve at all. From about 12 knots, our running efficiency shows a subtle improvement with every knot gained, right up to 29 knots, where we see 7.8 litres per mile for a range in the region of 175 miles.

It’s only when we push beyond 3,000rpm to the very top end of 30.1 knots that we see a minor spike but even then it remains below the level achieved at 16 knots. And the simple upshot is that you can drive this boat in whatever way (and at whatever speed) sea conditions, guests or on-board activities demand without compromising either the running attitude of the boat or your wallet.

The 52 handles a bit too. Like most Absolutes, there are no engine options. What you get here is a pair of D8 600s hooked up to IPS drives, and while that’s not an especially beefy rig for a flybridge cruiser measuring 55ft in length and weighing around 20 tonnes, it works a treat, with steady pick-up, decent responsiveness and a settled and controllable heel in the turn.

You could of course argue that the excellent lower helm has the potential to feel a touch solitary. It’s a single position with a handy storage tray to the left and a fridge in the seat base; and there’s no companion seating here because the steps to the lower deck drop away on the portside and the dinette begins further aft.

It’s great to see then that the upper helm remedies this in a big way, with a sociable wraparound starboard dinette and a spacious sunbed that extends well forward of the skipper’s position.

Absolute 52 Fly specifications

LOA: 54ft 11in (16.76m)
BEAM: 14ft 4in (4.67m)
DRAFT: 4ft 7in (1.40m)
DISPLACEMENT: 18,400kg (light)
FUEL CAPACITY: 1,800 litres
WATER CAPACITY: 650 litres
ENGINES: Twin Volvo Penta D8-IPS800s
RCD: B14
BUILDER: absoluteyachts.com

Absolute 52 Fly costs & options

Price: from €1,340,000 ex VAT. Test boat includes the following options…
Seakeeper 9 gyroscopic stabiliser
Air conditioning
17.5kW generator
Hardtop with solar array
Crew cabin with bathroom

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