Against the stunning backdrop of St. Tropez, France, El Leon made her official debut in late July. The first Mangusta GranSport 54, at 178 feet, is the new flagship of the Italian builder’s fleet. Furthermore, as a fast-displacement design, she puts the “fast” in “fast displacement.”
The concept behind a fast-displacement yacht is to ensure long range, which is a benefit of a displacement design, along with good speed, a benefit of a semi-displacement design. The all-aluminum El Leon should hit nearly 30 knots with her quadruple MTU diesel engines. That makes her fit right in with the maxi megayachts for which Mangusta is renowned. In addition, she should see a range of about 3,500 nautical miles even while traveling at that impressive speed. Furthermore, range improves when the captain throttles back the engines—but he doesn’t have to throttle back too much. In fact, even at 20 knots, El Leon should still see a range exceeding 4,000 nautical miles.
With styling by Alberto Mancini, El Leon asserts her position on the water. The all-aluminum megayacht catches your attention with her sleek stance, sloping lines, and individual features. Those features include a foredeck pool (with a glass bottom bringing light down into the master suite) as well as a beach club with fold-down hatches to three sides. In addition, El Leon has a fold-down balcony off the master, with automatically deploying handrails.
You get a glimpse of those handrails in action, as well as El Leon in action overall, in this video. What you don’t see, unfortunately, is her interior design. You’ll have to wait for the Monaco Yacht Show to get a first-hand look. Suffice it to say, for now, that with 29’6” (9 meters) of beam, from the beach club to the flying bridge, there’s plentiful space to relax.
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