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Sabre 45 Salon Express

The published record on this model and what owners report, with the questions worth asking while a boat is still a listing. This page covers the model. Every boat still needs its own homework.

The published record

Length overall49.44 ft
Beam14.67 ft
Draft3'9"
Fuel450 gal
Water150 gal
Holding65 gal

Source: Sabre Yachts, 45 Salon Express page (draft: PowerBoat Guide). If a listing disagrees with these numbers, the listing may still be right. Settle the difference before it costs you.

A downeast express that clears the Loop's bridges by about five feet and has the range for its longest leg even on plane. The questions are her pod drives and their service record.

The Sabre 45 Salon Express is a downeast-style express cruiser that Sabre has built in Maine since 2018, per the PowerBoat Guide, and still builds. She is 49 feet overall on a 45-foot hull, with a 14'8" beam and two staterooms, and runs on Volvo Penta IPS pod drives. Sabre lists an air draft of about 14 feet, well under the Loop's 19'6" limit, and 450 gallons of fuel. Yachting measured about 0.8 miles per gallon at 23.5 knots, enough for the Loop's longest leg. Boats on the market ask roughly $975,000 to $1.3 million.

How to read the tags on this page. CLAIMstated by one source, not yet confirmed QUESTIONopen, and settled by looking at the boat itself Sources are linked where published.

Reading the boat

CLAIM
Built since 2018 and still in production; listings often call her the "45 SE" The PowerBoat Guide dates the 45 Salon Express from 2018 and lists her as current, and Sabre still builds her in Maine. Listings shorten the name to "45 SE" or "45SE". She isn't the 42 or 48 Salon Express, which are different hulls, and the 48's early boats ran Cummins Zeus pods. Boats from 2018 to 2023 on the guide's listings ask from $975,000 to $1,325,000. src: PowerBoat Guide (HMY), 45 Salon Express (2018 to current); Yachting (2011) on the 48
Your move: Read the year and hull number off the hull identification number, and confirm which Volvo package she has.

Air draft

CLAIM
About 14 feet, well under the Loop's 19'6" limit Sabre's own page lists an air draft of 14'8" and a second figure, 13'8" "with mast", and doesn't say what either one measures. The PowerBoat Guide lists 13'8" for the mast. Either figure leaves about five feet under the Loop's 19'6" limit, so this isn't the number that decides her. Radar, antennas and anything added on top still count. src: Sabre Yachts, 45 Salon Express page; PowerBoat Guide (HMY)
Your move: Measure from the waterline to the highest fixed point with the antennas up.

Draft

CLAIM
About 3 feet 9 inches of draft, on pod drives The PowerBoat Guide lists 3'9" of draft. She runs on pod drives, so the pods and props hang below the hull, and no source we opened says whether 3'9" is measured to the bottom of the pods. src: PowerBoat Guide (HMY), Sabre 45 Salon Express
Your move: Ask the seller or dealer what the 3'9" is measured to, and allow for it in the Loop's shallow stretches.

Fuel & range

CLAIM
About 0.8 miles per gallon at 23.5 knots, enough for the Loop's longest leg even on plane Yachting's 2018 test measured 23.5 knots at 3,000 rpm at about 0.8 miles per gallon. Sabre lists 450 gallons of fuel. Holding back 10% leaves 405, which at 0.8 miles per gallon is about 320 miles, more than the 250 miles from Alton to Paducah even at that speed. We found no burn figure at slow displacement speeds, where most Loopers run. src: Yachting, Lenny Rudow, Sep 5 2018; Sabre Yachts (fuel capacity)
Your move: Ask for fuel-flow readings at 8 to 10 knots and at cruise on the sea trial.

Handling

CLAIM
One guest's account: wind against current in Delaware Bay forced her down to 4 to 6 knots A guest aboard a friend's 45 wrote in 2025 that a 15 to 20 knot wind against the current in Delaware Bay forced them down to 4 to 6 knots to keep the boat from pounding, and that she buried her bow several times and took green water over the windshield. That's one account from one day. Yachting's tester, in 15 knots on the Chesapeake, found the ride smooth, with the boat's gyro stabilizer running. src: svrover.com, Jul 16 2025 (a guest aboard); Yachting, Sep 5 2018
Your move: Plan the open-water legs, like the Chesapeake, Delaware Bay and Lake Michigan, around wind against current.

Leaks

QUESTION
Have the sunroof and the powered aft window ever leaked? We found no owner reports of leaks on the 45. A power sunroof is an option, and the salon's aft window opens electrically, so both have seals that age. src: PowerBoat Guide (HMY), Sabre 45 Salon Express
Your move: Have the surveyor water-test the sunroof, the windshield and the aft window.

Engines

The engines research is part of the full profile inside the product. It covers factory options, tested performance and the engine-specific questions in our members' dossiers, and it travels with every dossier and survey brief built on this model.

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