The Salperton is 173.8 ft. LOA with a beam of 33.95 ft. and a draft of 15.9ft. The vessel is ketch rigged and fitted with carbon fibre spars with the mainmast being 196 ft high. Designed by Dubois Naval Architects of England and built by Alloy Yachts International of Auckland, Salperton is the largest pleasure craft ever built in New Zealand. Salperton is constructed in aluminum to ABS Classification and has a 1400hp diesel engine.

The ship is fitted with a WAGNER LA2 4.0-35-EB2 single rudder steering gear consisting of two L100-419 cylinders, L100 tiller pins, M1025 Accumotor, full follow-up control, header tank and auto fill valve. Two 7½ HP electric motor pumpsets provide a rudder speed of 11 seconds with both pumps running. Model B4 helm pumps provide 2½ turns hard over to hard over on power steering and 15 turns over 2 x 15 degrees on manual back-up. Autopilot interface is provided through the M10 control valve.