A special moment for the Royal Huisman project 408, AQUARIUS II. Yesterday was the hull turning in Vollenhove: home to the world's finest superyacht building.
She has a length of 65 meters and is built in aluminum. Her naval architecture and exterior styling will be done by Dykstra Naval Architects. And her interior by Mark Whiteley Design. The owner's project manager is Godfrey Cray.
The AQUARIUS II is a larger ship and gained some new opportunities and additional benefits like a fourth guest cabin, a big increase in size for gyms, a larger deck house, a larger galley, crew mess, and laundry, and the engine room and technical space have been enlarged. The sailing performance has also increased.
This is what Godfrey Cray has to say about this new yacht:
"... to achieve the required increase in interior spaces and taking into account a mast height of 64m/210ft, led us to an overall length of 61 m / 200ft with a plumb bow, bowsprit, submarine anchors, lifting keel and a main mast of 64m / 210ft. This was starting to look like it ticked all the boxes. However, a final check with the port authority in Panama informed us they were no longer entertaining a heeled-state transit under the bridge.
In further consultation, the owner re-stated that he wanted no compromise to the sailing performance and therefore we should make no concessions for Panamax. He also reiterated his preference for a spoon bow on similar lines to AQI. No longer constrained by mast height, and with a spoon bow and no bowsprit, we pushed the length out to 65m / 213ft..." - Godfrey Cray
