Heesen's 72m Ananda puts a hyperbaric chamber in the owner's brief
Heesen's first design under new owners leads with a spa, not speed
Heesen revealed Project Ananda, yard number YN 21872, on 1 June. The 72-metre steel yacht is the first design the Dutch builder has shown since Laurens Last acquired it in 2025, and it was drawn with Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design. Naval architecture is by Heesen, with tank testing completed at the University of Southampton. Heesen calls it a Smart Custom platform, with a keel laying set for November 2026 and delivery in 2030.
Heesen built its reputation on fast aluminium yachts. Ananda is steel, tops out at 16 knots and is organised around comfort and range rather than pace. That is the point of the reveal. A new owner is using the first project to reset what a Heesen is for, and the answer on the table is a slower, calmer, wellness-led boat that reads more like a Sinot brief than a Heesen one.
A 100-square-metre spa that runs to a hyperbaric chamber
The wellness area covers about 100 square metres across a spa and beach club. Heesen lists a sauna, steam room, ice bath, snow shower, a massage and treatment room, a separate medical treatment room and a hyperbaric chamber, with a bar alongside. A travertine pool connects to a Teppanyaki-style counter. An amidships shell door opens onto a docking platform served by a central glass elevator.
The hyperbaric chamber and the medical treatment room are the details that matter here. They move the spa from a set of amenities toward something closer to a clinic, and they push the brief past saunas and cold plunges into recovery and diagnostics. For owners who spend long stretches aboard, the pitch is that the yacht can now hold the kind of health infrastructure they would otherwise travel home for.
Two masters, hybrid range and the trade-off for buyers
Ananda spreads across five decks and sleeps 12 guests in six staterooms. It carries two master suites, a forward apartment-style owner's deck with a private office and a second master on the bridge deck, which Heesen frames for multi-generational use. Propulsion is hybrid, with twin MTU engines driving a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 12 knots and a top speed of 16 knots.
The second master is the commercial idea. It lets one boat serve a couple, a family with grandchildren, or an owner who charters, without rebuilding the layout each time. Buyers reading the spec get a clear trade. Speed and the aluminium hull go, and in their place come range, quiet running and a layout that can flex across owners. Whether that resells as well as Heesen's faster boats is the open question, and 2030 is a long way to hold a view on where the brief is heading.