Image: Royal Huisman / official
Royal Huisman has published new detail on the 65m AQUARIUS, explaining how returning owners and crew used six years of experience to shape Project 408.
Royal Huisman has released an extensive new account of the design and development of the 65-metre sailing yacht AQUARIUS, delivered in 2025 as Project 408 for returning owners. The yacht grew from six years of operating experience aboard the owners’ previous Royal Huisman, with a list of 728 ideas from the captain and crew helping the team increase volume by 45 percent while targeting improved comfort, serviceability and sailing performance.
The owners’ first AQUARIUS was delivered by Royal Huisman in 2018 and became the reference point for the second project. Rather than start again with a completely different concept, the new brief asked the same core team to preserve the qualities the family valued while adding more space and stronger sailing performance.
Royal Huisman says the owners wanted an additional ensuite guest cabin, another double crew cabin, a larger owner’s gym and media room, increased machinery and service space and more storage for longer passages. Meeting those requirements increased overall volume by about 45 percent.
Captain James Turner and the crew compiled 728 suggestions based on day-to-day experience aboard the first yacht. The list covered interior details, maintenance access, galley capacity, technical systems and storage rather than focusing only on visual design.
That operational feedback gave the design team a detailed record of what worked well and where small changes could improve life aboard. It also allowed the owners to refine an already proven family-cruising concept without losing the character that had made the earlier yacht successful.
The owners again worked with project manager Godfrey Cray, captain James Turner, Dykstra Naval Architects, Mark Whiteley Design and Royal Huisman. Reassembling the same group meant the new yacht could build directly on shared knowledge from the first construction and years of subsequent use.
The second AQUARIUS measures 65 metres and is configured as a performance ketch. Despite the increase in length, beam and volume, Royal Huisman says the design brief continued to emphasise responsiveness and regatta capability alongside family comfort and world-cruising endurance.
The challenge was not simply to create a larger successor. Royal Huisman says the owners wanted the new yacht to be faster and more responsive even as accommodation, machinery spaces and stores increased, requiring close coordination between naval architecture, weight control and systems design.
The result illustrates how repeat ownership can change the custom-build process. Instead of relying primarily on expectations before delivery, Project 408 was informed by thousands of hours of real use, giving the yard and designers unusually detailed evidence on which to base the second yacht.
Official sources: www.royalhuisman.com.
Explore
Go deeper into the yachts, companies, events and destinations directly connected to this article.
Continue reading
Five chefs from Michelin-starred Four Seasons restaurants will host 2027 Mediterranean and Caribbean voyages aboard Four Seasons I, with menus beyond Sedna.
i-Bos and EWG have formed an alliance linking CelloPlus crew-management and payroll workflows with international and multi-currency payment services.
Royal Huisman has revealed how six years of owner and crew experience produced 728 ideas and 45% more volume in the second 65m Aquarius.
Royal Huisman will return to Monaco Yacht Show 2026 at stand QE18, highlighting the 58.5m PHI and the yard’s custom superyacht engineering.
Superyacht Guide
Continue into the wider Superyacht Guide.
Business opportunities · Superyacht Guide
Companies serving the superyacht market can discuss clearly identified advertising, sponsorship and business-profile opportunities. Commercial activity remains separate from independent editorial coverage.