Aquarius

• LOA 56 m, launched 2017, delivered early 2018
• Naval architecture by Dykstra, interior by Mark Whiteley
• St Barths Bucket winner 2019 and 2022
• ISS Best Sail 40m+ and overall Best Interior 2019
• Robb Report Best of the Best sailing yacht 2019
• 8 guests in 4 cabins with split-level owner's suite
• Crew of 9, Rondal rig
• Successor Aquarius II, 65 m, delivered to the same owners in 2025

An elegant brief, precisely executed

The owners asked Dykstra Naval Architects and Royal Huisman for an elegant yet muscular sailing yacht with a classic profile, equally suited to crossing oceans with family aboard and lining up at a Bucket regatta. It is the most demanding kind of brief because it forbids extremes, no raceboat rawness, no motorsailer softness, just balance held at 56 metres.

Dykstra delivered a ketch whose spoon bow, counter stern and low deckhouses could pass for a design from the 1930s, sitting on an entirely modern underbody with a tall, efficient Rondal rig. The reference points are the great classics, but nothing beneath the waterline is nostalgic, and her regatta record settles any doubt about which era her performance belongs to.

Proven where it is hardest to hide

Aquarius won her class at the St Barths Bucket in 2019 and repeated the result in 2022, racing against the strongest large sailing yachts in the world. Bucket results are the closest thing the superyacht world has to an honest benchmark, same water, same wind, crews that include professional sailors, and a classic-styled family cruiser beat the fleet twice.

The trophy shelf filled quickly ashore as well. In 2019 she took Best Sail 40m+ and the overall Best Interior at the International Superyacht Society awards, and Robb Report named her its Best of the Best sailing yacht the same year. For a yacht conceived around family cruising, the sweep across performance and design honours is the strongest possible validation of the original brief.

A classic-styled family ketch that won the St Barths Bucket twice, then sent her owners back to order a bigger one.

Whiteley's interior, a family home at sea

Mark Whiteley arranged the accommodation for eight guests in four cabins, headlined by a split-level owner's suite, with a private deckhouse and cockpit reserved for the owner's party. A large deck salon, a media room and a fully equipped gym complete a layout drawn for long months aboard, and a crew of nine runs the yacht without friction.

The finish is the point of difference. Whiteley's paneling and furniture were executed in Vollenhove's own joinery halls, where cabinetmakers spend careers on this standard, and the natural light through the deckhouses gives the interior a warmth photographs undersell. It is a home that happens to win regattas, which was precisely the commission.

The owners came back for more

The clearest verdict on Aquarius arrived as an order. Her owners returned to Royal Huisman to commission Aquarius II, a 65 metre ketch delivered in May 2025, with the stated ambition of repeating the original yacht's Bucket-winning form at a larger scale. The first Aquarius has since passed to new owners and sails on as Apsara. In an industry where satisfaction is measured in repeat business, a bigger sister ship is the highest score available.

That continuity also tells buyers how the yard works. The team, the design office and the spar maker that delivered the first yacht carry directly into the second, compounding everything learned. Royal Huisman's order book has been shaped this way for decades, generations of owners building their next boat with the same people who built their last.

The case for a modern classic

Classic-styled yachts carry a risk, the look can outrun the substance. Aquarius is the proof that it need not, a yacht photographed for her beauty and remembered for her results. In the brokerage conversation that dual identity is valuable, she appeals to romantics and racers at once, and yachts with both constituencies hold their value.

For an owner considering a commission in the 50 to 60 metre sailing band, Aquarius is the reference for what Dykstra, Whiteley and Vollenhove produce together, a boat that crosses oceans with children aboard in April and beats professionals around the cans in March. Few yachts of any size have ever done both so convincingly.

Pour qui: The owner who wants timeless looks with a racing record to match, a family passage-maker that competes at the Bucket and wins.