Aviva

• 98.4 m LOA, 17.2 m beam, 4,966 GT
• The yard's largest yacht from 2017 until Liva O in 2023
• Delivered 2017, steel hull with aluminium superstructure
• Hybrid propulsion, around 11 knots on electric power alone
• Top speed 20 knots on twin MTU main engines
• Full-size padel tennis court built into the hull
• Exterior and interior design by Reymond Langton
• Accommodates 16 guests with a crew of around 25

The yacht that raised Lemwerder's ceiling

Delivered in 2017, Aviva stood at the top of the Abeking & Rasmussen fleet by every measure, and she kept that position until the 118 metre Liva O arrived in 2023. At 98.4 metres and 4,966 GT, with a 17.2 metre beam, she carries the internal volume of vessels well over 100 metres. She was also the third yacht of the same name the yard had built for the same repeat client, a relationship stretching back across decades.

That continuity tells a buyer more than any brochure. Owners at this level can build anywhere, and the ones who return to the same shipyard three times are voting with the largest cheques in yachting. Aviva was conceived as a vessel to live and work aboard for long stretches, which shaped every major decision in her design, from the volume distribution to the machinery choices below the waterline.

Hybrid power, used daily

Aviva carries a hybrid propulsion arrangement that was genuinely ahead of its time in 2017. On diesel-electric power alone she can make around 11 knots, enough for repositioning, coastal passages and quiet nights underway, all without starting her main MTU engines. With the mains online she reaches 20 knots, a serious turn of speed for a vessel of nearly 5,000 gross tonnes.

The point of the system is how the yacht is actually used. A vessel that serves as a floating base spends most of its life at anchor or moving short distances, exactly the profile where electric drive pays off in silence, vibration and fuel. Guests notice the absence of engine noise before they can name it. The arrangement also positioned Aviva well ahead of emissions rules that have since tightened around the Mediterranean.

The third yacht of the same name, from the same yard, for the same client. No reference in yachting is stronger.

A padel court inside the hull

Aviva's signature feature is a full-size padel tennis court enclosed within the hull, the first of its kind at sea. It is not a marketing flourish scaled down to fit, it is a genuine court with proper run-off, and the entire structure of the yacht was arranged around the double-height volume it demands. Very few yards would have accepted the engineering consequences of that brief.

The court explains the yacht better than any rendering. Aviva was built as a working residence, a place where her owner could keep the routines of home, sport included, while spending much of the year aboard. The rest of the interior follows the same logic, with genuine office space and living areas designed for daily use over months at a time, an approach that reads closer to a private estate than a holiday yacht.

Reymond Langton, inside and out

The British studio Reymond Langton drew both the exterior and the interior, and the coherence shows. Aviva's profile is long, low and almost restrained for her size, with sweeping glazing that hides her true scale until something familiar appears alongside for reference. There is none of the wedding-cake stacking that makes some large yachts look taller than they are long.

Inside, the same hand produced a calm, contemporary environment arranged for living well over long periods. The design brief favoured light, sightlines and connection to the water over spectacle. The result is a 98 metre yacht that photographs quietly and impresses completely in person, which is precisely the order of priorities her owner intended and a fair summary of the Abeking & Rasmussen house character.

What Aviva signals to a buyer

Aviva is the proof that Abeking & Rasmussen operates at the very top of the custom market. Building a technically novel 98 metre yacht, on schedule, for a client who had twice before trusted the yard, is the strongest reference any builder can hold. She demonstrated that Lemwerder could deliver Lurssen-scale complexity while keeping the project entirely out of public view until launch.

For a prospective owner the lesson is practical. The yard that engineered a hybrid powertrain and a padel court into one hull in 2017 can accommodate whatever unusual conviction your own brief contains. Aviva remains in service, maintained to yard standard, and she is routinely cited by the trade press among the most significant German yachts of her generation.

Pour qui: An owner who plans to live and work aboard for months at a time and wants flagship scale delivered with total discretion.