Viking 90 Convertible, Viking's Sub-24-Meter Flagship Explained

Why the flagship got shorter

The Viking 90 exists because of an exhaust rule. Viking built 21 of its 92 Convertible in less than seven years and would have kept going, but international emission regulations would have required Selective Catalytic Reduction systems on a boat of the 92's size. Viking argued that SCR equipment small enough for the 92 did not yet exist and would have added cost, weight, service complexity and tankage while hurting performance. Even after the U.S. Coast Guard announced a three-year suspension in early 2021, Viking was already committed to a replacement.

Pat Healey's explanation is blunt: Viking was not going to be forced into SCR, so it invested $20 million and more than 240 new molds in a flagship that does not need it. Healey told Yachting the team took 13 inches out of the beam and 27 inches out of the length to get the hull under 24 meters. The 90 was announced at the Fort Lauderdale show in 2021 with 10 orders in hand, premiered as a Sky Bridge at the Miami International Boat Show in February 2023, and had 16 sales by April of that year. For anyone browsing viking boats for sale at the top of the range, the 90 is now the biggest new sportfisherman Viking builds.

Faster than the 92, thanks to the 80 demo program

Much of the 90's development happened on Viking 80 demo boats. Healey says three successive 80s went from 40.5 knots to 43.5 knots as Viking tested lighter interior woods, flow-aligned struts and rudders and refined drivelines, all in anticipation of the 90. The new flagship uses the latest lifting-strake design, prop pockets and a running surface tuned with computational fluid dynamics. Construction adds more carbon fiber and Light Resin Transfer Molding, and Viking streamlined how the enclosed and open bridges are built to save weight and lower the profile.

The result is a big gain over the 92. Healey told Yachting the 90 cruises at 32 to 33 knots and tops out at 38 full of fuel, with 40 knots seen regularly. Marlin's trial with 12 people and 70 percent fuel averaged 38 knots with one pass at 39.3, and found 32-plus knots at 2,100 rpm for a range of about 582 nautical miles. Viking itself quotes 38-plus knots, a 32 to 33-knot cruise and nearly 600 nautical miles of range for Hull No. 1 with twin 2,635 hp MTU 16V2000 M96Ls. The 92's best published top speed, by comparison, was 38.5 knots with the same engines.

• LOA 90 ft 0 in, beam 23 ft 2 in, draft 5 ft 11 in
• Displacement 188,000 lb with standard fuel per Viking; magazines list 193,490 to 203,659 lb depending on version
• Fuel 3,801 gal in four tanks, water 480 gal
• Standard Caterpillar C32A 1,925 hp; options C32B 2,433 hp and MTU M96L 2,635 hp

A 224 square foot cockpit and a two-level mezzanine

The cockpit measures 224 square feet and keeps the same fore-and-aft length as the 92's. It carries a 203-gallon transom fishbox and livewell, two full-length 103-gallon insulated in-deck boxes with optional refrigeration, lockers under the gunwales and a reinforced sole for a fighting chair, rocket launcher or table. A single watertight centerline hatch opens to the Seakeeper 35, a layout first proven on late 80 demo boats.

The biggest change from the 92 is the seating. Viking found most owners wanted to sit facing aft, where the action is, so the 90 has a lower observation mezzanine with an air-conditioned centerline lounge and tackle cabinets, then staircases on each side to an upper mezzanine with an L-shaped aft-facing lounge, teak table and a starboard refreshment station that can take a grill and ice maker. An optional 43-inch TV drops from the overhang.

The 92's six staterooms squeezed into a shorter hull

Interior design manager Steve Walker's brief was to keep the 92's six staterooms and seven heads while cutting length and weight. His team went through the layout inch by inch, kept bed sizes and doorways the same, and still fit an enclosed laundry with a full-size stacked washer and dryer. The salon opens through an electric sliding door to a huge U-shaped lounge to port facing a 65-inch pop-up TV and wet bar, with a wraparound galley to starboard that seats five at the counter and carries two Sub-Zero refrigerators, a freezer, dishwasher and four-burner range. A raised U-shaped dinette sits over a rod locker.

The full-beam master has a king bed, a walk-in closet, a vanity and his and hers heads sharing a shower. Viking describes five guest staterooms each with a private head and shower, crew quarters with direct engine room access, a pantry with an athwartship crew berth and a day head; Marlin's description counts the master, four guest staterooms and aft crew quarters with their own small galley and laundry. Either way, Marlin's conclusion holds: the 90 can comfortably spend a month at sea.

Open, enclosed or sky bridge

Hull No. 1 was a Kingston Grey Sky Bridge, with a starboard open helm on top of an enclosed bridge. The enclosed bridge is a second salon with an L-shaped lounge, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a pop-up TV, and its helm uses a one-piece wraparound windshield with no mullions and the first Viking pod designed for five displays; the first boat carried five 24-inch Seatronx screens. An aft control station on the bridge deck lets the captain back down while watching the cockpit.

The open-bridge 90 has a center console with four displays, three teak ladder-back helm chairs on a raised platform, and lounges and a large freezer forward. Viking subsidiaries handle the rest: Palm Beach Towers builds the hardtops and towers, and Atlantic Marine Electronics fits the electronics.

Engine room access and a seven-figure annual budget

Viking's engine rooms are a selling point and the 90 has more than 7 feet of headroom on centerline, 40 inches between the main engines and Snow White Awlgrip everywhere. Systems include a Furuno omni sonar tube, Octoplex digital switching, Optimus steering, a Spot Zero watermaker, a redesigned centralized seawater system with an ElectroSea ElectroStrainer as standard, composite seacocks, 40 kW generators mounted aft of the engines for weight balance and an 18-ton chilled-water air conditioning plant.

This is a crewed superyacht-class sportfisherman, and a full program with captain and mates, insurance, a 100-foot slip, MTU service, gyro and generator upkeep and fuel can cost $900,000 to $1.6 million a year. Resale has so far been strong: early boats are rare on the market, and the 2025 hull listed at $14.595 million was asking close to new money. The other route is a late Viking 92, which some owners prefer because it predates SCR rules entirely.