With extensive photography, video, and background material, Royal Huisman now shares Project 408, the new 65m / 212ft Aquarius. Built for returning owners who described their previous, Royal Huisman Aquarius as “nearly perfect”, the brief was not to reinvent, but to enhance comfort, performance, and space. Shaped by an experienced team and lessons learned, Aquarius opens a new chapter in superyacht elegance.

The ultimate compliment clients can pay a shipyard is to return for a second vessel. But when these owners labeled their first yacht “nearly perfect”, the bar measuring excellence is set very high. This is precisely the story behind Royal Huisman’s second Aquarius delivered in 2025. Its meticulous brief called for the same elegance and family comfort as the world cruising ketch delivered to her experienced husband and wife owners in 2018, but with more volume and accommodations, and even more spirited sailing performance.
“This Royal Huisman ketch eliminates compromise to exceed her owners’ expectations for speed and comfort”.

The brief called for an additional ensuite stateroom in the guest complement and one more double crew cabin. The owner's gym and media room would be enlarged. Beyond that were requests for a larger engine room and service areas and more storage to support longer passages. To accomplish this, volume would need to increase by 45 percent. Drawing a successor with greater length and beam was not the challenge.

But ensuring this new 65m / 212ft edition would be faster and more responsive would mean the design and build team would be pulling out all the stops for a yacht with retro looks but rocket-like performance. The owners were clear that the perfect yacht for their lifestyle would also be capable of regatta success.

THE VALUE OF COLLABORATION AND LESSONS LEARNED

Having paid close attention to the development of their first custom build, including several shipyard visits during construction, and having been so pleased with the outcome, the owners found reassembling the original team for the next boat to be an easy decision, with owners’ project manager Godfrey Cray, captain James Turner, Dykstra Naval Architects, Mark Whitely Design, and superyacht builder Royal Huisman back for another round.

With the teamwork brief, the team, and the design strategy for the larger boat now established, the second Aquarius benefited from a highly credible list of 728 ideas compiled by the owner's captain and the crew. Based on their experience sailing with the family for six years, the list identified practical interior changes for daily living, smart maintenance improvements, and requests for more galley space, systems, and storage. Rather than an abstract wish list, these lessons learned in actual use dovetailed with the ambition to improve on "nearly perfect. We like the balance of a ketch rig but recognized our first yacht sacrificed some performance," they said.

At first glance, it is hard to tell the previous Aquarius and the new Aquarius apart. The 56m / 184ft yacht and her 65m / 212ft successor look almost identical from a distance, exactly as requested.

Initially, Godfrey Cray, the design team, and Royal Huisman briefed the owners on contemporary exterior design trends. However, seeing other styles only reinforced their love for a
classic spoon bow and an overhanging stern, a black hull, and gleaming teak deckhouses.

Yet, Erik Wassen of Dykstra Naval Architects notes that the new Aquarius is neither a replica of a classic yacht nor simply a scaled-up version of the previous. Compared with traditionallooking Dykstra projects, he points out she is much more modern in profile, yet still a romantic, retro-style. Her deck is far less cluttered with funnels and fittings than those of vintage yachts. Cray vetoed “bling,” such as decorative metal fittings over deckhouse skylights and other polished, non-essential metalwork. The result enhances the chic factor and reduces maintenance, allowing the crew to concentrate on sailing and serving guests.

DIALING UP SAILING PERFORMANCE

While not conceived as a Grand Prix racing yacht, this world cruiser built of lighter, stiffer and corrosion-resistant Alustar® aluminum alloy tipped firmly in the direction of speed and excellent performance. Early in the design meetings, the owners had to make the call – a mast low enough to transit the Panama Canal or performance. Without hesitation, their reply was "we choose performance."

Her massive Rondal custom carbon fiber ketch spars, furling booms with performance outhaul feature, impressive structured luff sail plan by Doyle Sails, and Carbo-Link’s elliptical
carbon rigging make that intent clear. As is typical with performance sailing yachts, the mast height exceeds the hull length. But consider that Aquarius has a single-piece main mast of 67.5m / 221 ft, followed by a 61m mizzen / 200ft. This grants plenty of sail area, but the split rig creates space between the main and mizzen, allowing a furling mizzen staysail and an optional gennaker to add significant horsepower for racing or light-air cruising.

Replacing check stays with runner deflectors improves the deck layout. mast bend and sail shape. She has an impressive upwind sail area of 1,958m² / 21,076sqft and her downwind sail area is 4,671m² / 50,278sqft. Controlling this much sail is no small task, and when racing, each mast has its own crew calling hoists and trim. As captain James Turner says, the yacht is "a lot more sporty" than her predecessor. Aquarius is treated to a full suite of 16 Rondal captive winches with pulling loads up to 18 tons.

All winches are located below deck with lines guided to the exits using blocks and sheaves, maintaining tension to prevent tangling. Rondal’s feeders, positioned at the deck exit or at the exits of both booms, direct the line towards the winch. They are designed to guide and tension the line but not to increase pulling force – that's the winch's role.

DESIGN CHANGES FOR RELAXED LUXURY

A 9m / 30ft increase in overall length combined with more hull depth and increased beam delivers 45 percent more volume than her predecessor. This provides a far more workable crew area, mess and galley. The galley itself is now 67 percent larger. The main cockpit, owners' cockpit, and both deckhouses were scaled up proportionally.