Sabre 45 Salon Express: Review, Performance Data and Price Guide

Sabre boats at the sweet spot of the range

Ask brokers which Sabre boats move fastest and the 45 Salon Express is usually the answer. It sits in the middle of the Maine builder's express range, big enough for two couples and a week of coastal cruising, small enough for a couple to run alone with joystick help. Sabre told Yachting it has built more than 660 boats in the 40 to 45-foot range since 1987, and the 45 has been the core of that segment since its debut.

Sabre received the hull mold in August 2016, built hull number one that winter and ran it through factory trials in March 2017 before showing it at Annapolis that fall. The boat is still in the 2026 lineup, now alongside the smaller 43 Salon Express that replaced the 42 and the new 51. Because it has been built continuously for nearly a decade, the used market offers everything from 2017 hulls to boats that are barely run in.

A warped bottom drawn around Volvo IPS

Kevin Burns, Sabre's vice president of design and product development, told Power and Motoryacht that the company designs from the outside in: performance targets first, then hull form, then interior. The 45 has a warped bottom whose deadrise eases from 23 degrees amidships to 16 degrees at the transom, refined with computational fluid dynamics rather than old rules of thumb, and with after sections shaped to Volvo Penta's requirements for IPS pods.

Sabre set a 35,000-pound dry-weight target and hull one hit it. The hull, bottom, topsides and transom are VIP resin-infused biaxial E-glass over Corecell SAN foam with an ISO NPG gelcoat and vinylester barrier, and the stringers are foam-cored biaxial E-glass. Decks and hardtop use balsa core. Sabre prefers gelcoat over paint because a thicker coat is easier to repair.

Yachting's tester took the 45 out on the Chesapeake in 15 knots of wind against the tide and found it flattened a head sea and stayed steady in a beam sea up to its 30.9-knot top speed, with a Seakeeper adding to the comfort.

IPS600 or IPS650: the factory trial sheets

Sabre publishes detailed trial data. Hull FF-001 with twin IPS600 (D6 rated 435 hp) was run off Jupiter, Florida, in 4-foot-plus seas with five crew, full fuel and full water. It reached 32 knots at 3,600 rpm burning 44 gph, and Sabre's recommended maximum continuous cruise of 3,250 rpm produced 27.6 knots on 34.5 gph, about 0.8 nautical miles per gallon and 323 nautical miles of range on 90 percent of the 450-gallon tanks. At 1,000 rpm it made 6 knots on 1.7 gph.

Hull FF-044 with the optional IPS650 (480 hp) was run in Charleston in calm water with seven aboard. It reached 33.5 knots at 3,820 rpm on 50 gph, cruised at 28.7 knots on 37 gph at 3,400 rpm, and planed in six seconds. In short, the bigger engines add only a knot or so of speed, but they hold cruise more easily when the boat is loaded with tender, gyro and water.

Sound is the surprise. Sabre measured 73 dB(A) at the helm at a 3,250-rpm cruise, and the IPS650 boat logged 60 to 63 dB(A) in the salon across the cruising range. Yachting compared it to a quiet car.

The half-up galley and a utility room most 45s lack

The salon has an L-shaped settee to starboard with a high-gloss hi-lo table, a straight settee to port with a TV on a powered lift, and a mirror-polished stainless and glass door plus a powered drop window to the cockpit. The galley is half-up: two steps below the salon and two above the cabins, so the cook is part of the conversation without the galley eating salon space. It has an induction cooktop, convection microwave, two refrigerator drawers and a freezer drawer.

Forward, the master has an island berth, cedar-lined hanging locker, four-drawer bureau and an en suite head with tiled shower. The guest stateroom to starboard has twin berths that slide together into a double. The second head has doors to both the guest cabin and the passageway, so it doubles as the day head. Interior joinery is varnished cherry with cherry hull ceilings and a teak-and-holly sole.

The clever part is the utility room reached through the salon sole, between the guest stateroom and the engine room, made possible by compact IPS drives. Owners fit a washer and dryer, freezers, a wine chiller or simply stowage.

Helm, side door and a U-shaped cockpit

Two Stidd helm seats face a cherry dash with a teak wheel and twin Garmin displays integrated with Volvo's engine data and autopilot. The joystick sits on the Stidd armrest, Volvo's Dynamic Positioning System is standard, and a hinged door to the starboard side deck lets the skipper step out to handle lines while the boat holds position.

Aft, a U-shaped settee and teak table fill the cockpit under the hardtop overhang, with gates on both sides of the transom to the swim platform and a pair of inboard cleats near centerline that keep crossed mooring lines out of the walkway. Options include an electric cockpit shade, a power sunroof, a FreedomLift tender lift and natural or faux teak decking.

Owning a twin-IPS Downeast yacht

At a 27 to 28-knot cruise the 45 burns about 34 to 37 gph, so 150 hours a season at speed is around 5,000 gallons of diesel. Slow it to 10 to 12 knots and the burn drops to 10 to 12 gph, though the hull is happiest on plane.

Budget roughly $45,000 to $90,000 a year for a 50-foot slip, insurance, IPS service (pod oil, props, anodes and seals on schedule), generator and air-conditioning service, bottom paint, varnish and canvas. A captain or a Seakeeper raise that figure. IPS service is not optional: skipped pod maintenance is the most expensive mistake a 45 owner can make.

Used 45 values and what buyers pay for

The 45 holds value well. Yachting's March 2025 survey found 10 boats from $959,000 to $1.29 million, and individual listings for a 2018 boat at $1.195 million and a 2020 IPS650 boat just under $1.23 million show how little early boats have depreciated against a new price that has risen steadily.

Buyers pay for IPS650 engines, a Seakeeper, the FreedomLift, a power sunroof and cockpit shade, and documented Volvo dealer service. Boats with high pod hours, older Garmin glass, or missing utility-room options trade at the bottom of the range.