Viking 92 Convertible Review, Specs and Used Price

Why the Viking 92 replaced two yachts in many fleets

The Viking 92 was announced in 2013, tooled in a 12-piece plug on Viking's five-axis milling machines, and premiered at the 2014 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show as the largest boat in the company's 50-year history. Hull No. 1 was tested off Atlantic City that fall, and the story every reviewer heard on the dock was the same. Two of the first buyers each owned a big motoryacht and a big convertible, and they were selling both because the 92 could do both jobs.

That is the right way to think about the boat. Below decks the viking 92 is a six-stateroom yacht with a full-beam master and separate crew quarters aft. Behind the saloon door it is a tournament convertible with a 238 square foot cockpit that backs down at 8.5 knots and spins like a 60-footer.

Viking delivered 21 boats in less than seven years, and the model ran in three configurations. The 92 Enclosed Bridge came first and was the largest resin-infused convertible built in the United States at its launch. An open-bridge 92 Convertible followed for owners who fish hard and want to feel the wind at the helm, and the 92 Skybridge split the difference with a climate-controlled bridge that keeps 360-degree sightlines. Viking replaced the whole family with the 90 in 2023, explaining that new emissions rules requiring SCR exhaust treatment made the 92 impractical to keep building.

A flatter, faster bottom than any Viking before it

The 92 broke with Viking tradition below the waterline. The two-step knuckle and the keel that defined older Vikings are gone, and deadrise at the transom drops from about 15 degrees to less than 12. Like the 52 and 62 convertibles of the same era, the hull is drawn to maximize lift and minimize drag, with a common raw-water intake to cut down through-hulls and Viking's VIPER independent electro-hydraulic rudders to reduce toe-in and feather the outside rudder in a turn.

Weight control is the other half of the story. The hull is vacuum infused with end-grain balsa and foam coring, the deckhouse is laminated carbon fiber, and Viking engineers ran Hull No. 1 before and after installing roughly 10,000 pounds of interior furniture and reported almost no change in speed. The boat runs slightly bow up without tabs, which gives the captain room to drop the bow with half tab and bring the finer forward sections into a head sea.

In practice that means a 205,000-pound yacht with real seakeeping. The first test boat ran through 4 to 5 foot seas at better than 30 knots, with about ten feet of freeboard forward keeping the windows dry.

Inside the 238 square foot cockpit

The fishing platform is where the 92 earns its tournament reputation. The cockpit measures 238 square feet, with teak covering boards and a center mounting plate that takes an unlimited-class fighting chair. Because each boat was semi-custom, cockpit layouts vary more than on smaller Vikings, and it pays to read the original build sheet for any boat you are considering.

Live bait capacity is generous. The transom carries a large illuminated fishbox and livewell that can be plumbed in several configurations, and many boats added a second refrigerated livewell in the lower mezzanine. Ice is handled by an Eskimo ice machine, upgraded on many hulls to a 1,000-pound-per-day unit feeding the fishbox, plus a large freezer and dunnage boxes in the sole. Tackle cabinets, fresh and saltwater washdowns and a refrigerated drink box are standard.

The two-tier mezzanine is a signature detail. The owner of Hull No. 1 liked it as a social space, while the owner of Hull No. 2 had the upper seating turned to face aft so everyone aboard is watching the spread rather than each other. That difference tells you a lot about whether a used boat was set up by a fisherman or a cruiser.

• 238 sq ft cockpit with chair plate for an unlimited-class fighting chair
• Transom fishbox and livewell with multiple plumbing configurations
• Optional refrigerated livewell in the lower mezzanine
• Ice maker options up to 1,000 lb per day, plus freezer and dunnage boxes
• Recessed electric teaser reels and Palm Beach Towers tower with minimal cross members
• Aft-facing wing or docking station on enclosed bridge boats to watch the cockpit

Tower, electronics and tournament use

Viking's sister companies build the parts that matter here. Palm Beach Towers designed the 92 tower with as few cross members as possible so the view from the top station is clean, and Atlantic Marine Electronics fitted most boats with triple main monitors on the enclosed bridge plus an aft station so the captain can watch baits during a backdown. Later boats commonly carry Furuno omni sonar, MTU dynamic positioning and a Seakeeper 35 class gyro.

On the tournament circuit the 92 is a mothership as much as a raise-and-release machine, often campaigned in the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Central America with a center console running alongside. The size gives the crew room to rig, sleep and eat properly during a multi-day event, and 3,410 gallons of standard fuel (4,000 optional) means few stops between tournaments.

The trade-off is draft and maneuvering room. At 5 feet 11 inches of draft and 24 feet of beam, a 92 is shut out of some shallow Bahamian harbors and many fuel docks.

Six staterooms, a full-beam master and a real crew zone

Most 92s have five or six staterooms with private heads and a day head on the main deck, so total head count runs from six to eight depending on the plan. The full-beam master amidships was offered with his-and-hers facilities, and dedicated fishermen sometimes traded the second bath for a larger closet and a second laundry, which tells you how custom these boats were.

Separate crew quarters sit aft under the upper mezzanine deck with their own entrance, a bunk room, head, shower and kitchenette. That arrangement matters for resale: a 92 needs at least a captain and a mate, and boats where the crew can live without walking through the owner's spaces are easier to staff.

The enclosed bridge is close to the size of the saloon on a 100-foot motoryacht, with lounge seating and air conditioning. One early buyer who ordered an open bridge switched after standing in it, which explains why EB and Skybridge boats dominate the brokerage fleet.

MTU or Caterpillar, and what the test numbers say

Standard power was a pair of 1,925 hp Caterpillar C32 ACERT diesels, but nearly every buyer chose the optional 2,635 hp MTU 16V2000 M96L engines with ZF transmissions and six-blade VEEM propellers. With the MTUs, Hull No. 1 accelerated from idle to 2,100 rpm and better than 30 knots in about 14 seconds, and Power and Motoryacht recorded 38.5 knots at 2,430 rpm.

Fuel burn is serious money. At 2,000 rpm the test boat made 28.8 knots on 166 gallons per hour, and a fast cruise of 33.1 knots at 2,250 rpm took 212 gallons per hour. Slowing to 12.6 knots cut the burn to 30 gallons per hour and stretched range past 1,500 nautical miles on the 4,000-gallon tankage, which is how most owners make long repositioning runs.

Standard systems included twin 40 kW Onan generators (55 kW optional), a 12-ton chilled-water air conditioning plant, an 1,800-gallon-per-day watermaker, a hydraulic bow thruster and an oil-change system. These are big-yacht systems with big-yacht maintenance.

What a 92 really costs to run

Plan on $1 million to $1.8 million a year before depreciation for a boat that fishes a full tournament season. Full-time crew of two to four, insurance on an eight-figure hull, dockage for a 93-foot boat in South Florida or the Bahamas, fuel, MTU service and a yard period every year drive that number. The MTU 16V2000 has a long service interval, but the major services on a pair of 16-cylinder engines are six-figure events.

Fuel is the most variable line. A boat that runs 400 hours a year at around 200 gallons per hour, the test burn near a 32-knot cruise, uses roughly 80,000 gallons, well over a quarter of a million dollars at 2026 marina prices.

Reading the 92 brokerage market

The viking 92 for sale market is small and specific. Most listings sit between about $6.5 million for early enclosed bridge boats and about $12.5 million for the last Skybridge hulls with low hours, and serious buyers usually shop the 90 Convertible and late 92s side by side. Because the 92 did not need SCR equipment, some owners actually prefer it for simpler engine rooms and lower long-term maintenance.

Bridge type and engine hours are the first filters. A Skybridge with fresh electronics, a Seakeeper, sonar and dynamic positioning sits at the top of the range, while early boats with original electronics and 5,000-plus hours need to be priced for the refit that is coming.