There's a certain kind of superyacht that treats the owner's suite like an upgraded hotel room, bigger bed, better view, same basic idea. Sirena's new flagship was built by people who clearly wanted no part of that thinking.
The Sirena Superyachts 42M has just gone into the water in Istanbul for the first time, and at 42 metres she's the largest, most ambitious yacht the Turkish builder has produced in its history. She's not hanging around either. Final fit-out is underway now ahead of her world debut at the Monaco Yacht Show in September, where she'll be shown off as the first vessel in Sirena's new steel-hulled superyacht range, a step up and a step apart from the composite Sirena Yachts line most people know the brand for.
The centrepiece is by that owner's arrangement. Designer Luca Vallebona has given the main-deck suite direct access to its own forward patio, a private, sheltered outdoor space with room for an optional jacuzzi, tucked away from the rest of the boat entirely. It's a signature move for Vallebona, who's used variations of the idea across his work, and on the 42M it effectively turns the owner's cabin into a self-contained apartment with its own front porch. Head aft and the theme continues at a different scale: a full beach club with fold-down bulwarks and a plunge pool, opening the transom straight onto the water. Between the two, the 42M reads less like a boat with nice extras and more like a piece of waterfront real estate that happens to move.
Milan studio Hot Lab, part of the Viken Group, has handled the interior, working across four lower-deck guest cabins including two VIP staterooms with transverse berths, alongside the owner's suite forward. Underneath it all is a steel hull and aluminium superstructure shaped by Dutch firm Van Oossanen Naval Architects, using their Fast Displacement Hull Form, a design that trades the usual efficiency-versus-speed compromise for reasonable pace across the whole range rather than just at one sweet spot. Detail engineering came from Eureka.
What makes the story sharper is that she was already sold before she ever touched water. Sirena's in-house commercial team closed the deal directly, no broker in the middle, weeks out from launch. For a yard building its first yacht in the 40-metre-plus bracket, that's a genuinely strong result, and CEO Çağın Genç framed the moment in suitably big terms. "We are incredibly proud to see the Sirena Superyachts 42m enter the water for the first time," he said. "This launch is the result of the dedication, expertise and passion of our entire team, as well as the trust placed in us by the owner. The 42m is much more than our flagship, it represents the beginning of a new era for Sirena Superyachts and demonstrates our ability to design and build world-class superyachts that combine innovation, quality and long-range cruising capability."
As first reported by Boat International, 2026 marks Sirena's 20th year in business, and the 42M is one of two flagship debuts the yard is fielding this year, alongside the composite Sirena 118. Two different hulls, two different materials, one very clear message about where the brand thinks it's headed.
Editor's take: We covered the Sirena 118 earlier this year as she prepared for her own Cannes debut, and there's a neat symmetry in seeing her big sister follow a similar script just weeks later, launched, sold, and straight onto the show circuit. Worth watching whether Sirena keeps that pace up once both boats have actually done their laps of Europe's two biggest yacht shows in the same season.
