It’s been nearly 20 years since I was on a Pershing this size. It was the shipyard’s first 115. On a gray, choppy day in October 2004, it carried me along Italy’s Ligurian coast from La Spezia to Genoa, about 45 nautical miles, in not much more than an hour. That yacht packed a little more horsepower than the new GTX116, but this “SUY” still has plenty of punch with 6,000 horsepower, triple waterjets and an impressive top speed. The shipyard can’t help itself: Pershing’s just have to be fast.

And with the GTX116, Pershing added the sort of spacious, family-friendly accommodations that yacht owners generally expect from something bigger, or slower, or both. With a beam of more than 25 feet (7.7 meters), this yacht feels huge on board.

Pershing embarked on this project with the U.S. market in mind, and it seems to have succeeded. The boat we caught up with at the Cannes Yachting Festival last fall was the second GTX116 off the line, but the first one was already in Florida, where her proud owner remarked: “I spent years searching for a yacht that’s perfect for Miami but could never find one.”

A shallow draft for the Bahamas was one of the owner’s considerations. His other requirements led to some changes on the main deck, including a larger bar inside rather than a dining table; a smaller galley; and a cockpit table installed farther forward to sit inside a “blade” of cooled air cascading from the deckhead. According to Pershing, he also asked for a lot of ice makers.

The standard layout has a formal 10-seat dining table forward of the salon seating, and an enclosed galley to starboard. The superstructure is asymmetrical, with one side deck, to port. This setup allows the salon and galley to extend into the additional volume on the other side. Headroom of 7 feet (2.1 meters) and full-height windows on the port side, which has a fold-down balcony, accentuate the feeling of space.

A walkway along the port side leads to the wheelhouse. It has a carbon fiber helm seat worthy of the starship Enterprise, a side door out onto the deck, and a forward companionway leading down to the three ensuite crew cabins in the bow.

With the cockpit doors open, the main deck is a fully realized entertaining space, all on one level from the foredeck lounge to the glass-and-steel cockpit balustrade. From there, steps on each side lead down to a broad expanse of teak that loose furniture will transform into a beach club. The swim platform is fitted with a transformer, and the crane for tender handling slots neatly into the bulwark on the port side. Down here, it’s easy to see what Pershing means when it describes the yacht as an “SUY”: The garage can accommodate a 16-foot, 5-inch Williams 505 Dieseljet tender, as well as a two-seat wet bike and other toys.

A hardtop shades the flybridge, which has a relaxation area for guests aft and a two-seat helm forward of a bar. A shower can be fitted into the starboard side of the hardtop overhang—a novel and quite practical idea for keeping cool.

There is plenty going on down below too. Five staterooms, all of them ensuite, put the yacht’s substantial beam to particularly good use. Even the smallest staterooms—a not-quite-matching pair with twin berths—feel comfortable, helped by the headroom of 7 feet, 2 inches (2.2 meters) throughout the lower deck. The master spans the yacht’s full beam with a walk-through his-and-her head flanking a double shower compartment so spacious that I actually felt moved to measure it: 8 feet, 9 inches (2.7 meters) by 3 feet, 5 inches (1 meter).

All through the lower deck, but especially in the master, it’s easy to appreciate the wisdom of jet drives, which allow the engines to be set well aft, maximizing the accommodations volume. The engine room, down a hatchway in the aft deck, is constrained by the tender garage overhead, but is otherwise spacious considering the amount of horsepower. Triple 1,800-horsepower MAN V-12s are standard, but both 116 owners so far have gone for the triple 2,000-horsepower option.

It is these power plants that give this yacht its 35.5-knot top speed, making it a proper Pershing. Cruising at 29.5 knots, owners are unlikely to meet anything of this size on the water that can keep up—unless, of course, that vintage 115 comes screaming past. 

For more information: pershing-yacht.com 

PERSHING GTX116

LOA 115ft. 11in. (35.33m)
Beam 25ft.4in. (7.72m)
Draft (full load) 4ft. 10in. (1.47m)
Displacement 293,215 lbs.
Construction GRP and carbon
Engines 3x 2,000-hp MAN
Naval architecture Fulvio De Simoni
Exterior design Fulvio De Simoni
Builder Pershing Yachts

This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue.