ZEEMAR is built of wood. Not trimmed in it – built of it, hull and superstructure both, launched in 2016 by Aydos Yat in Turkey to a design by Alparslan Tekogul. In a market where almost every 30-metre yacht is moulded from glass fibre or welded from aluminium, that is close to the last of a tradition, and it is not nostalgia. Timber is quiet. It damps engine noise and vibration in a way composite does not, and on a displacement hull running at ten knots the difference is audible.
The second number that separates her is 245 gross tons on a 30.5-metre platform. That is a great deal of volume for the length – more than most yachts several metres longer carry – and it explains why she feels wrong-footed in photographs. Guests consistently read her as a larger boat, and once aboard the impression holds.
The master takes the full beam of the main deck and comes with two bathrooms, which at this size is close to unheard of. Walnut runs in herringbone across the bulkheads, the bed sits centred with a reading chair to one side, and the window runs the width of the room. Four further cabins below give ten guests five rooms in total, a mix of doubles and twins, all in the same warm walnut with their own en suites.
Above the main salon sits a single large sky lounge – be clear that it is one room, photographed from both ends: a white sectional around black marble tables at the forward end, glazed sliding doors onto the deck at the aft. Two living rooms rather than three, which on a 30-metre yacht is still one more than most manage.
The outside is where her volume really tells. The main deck aft carries a long dining table for the whole party against a run of cushioned bench seating. Above it the bridge deck opens into a second shaded lounge. The sun deck on top runs a full bar with stools, loungers along one side and a sheltered seating area behind, high enough to see across an anchorage. Stabilisers work both under way and at rest, which on a displacement hull at anchor is the difference between a comfortable night and a broken one.
She is unusually well set up for guests who want to do things rather than watch them. ZEEMAR is a registered RYA Training Centre, which means her crew can certify guests on jet skis rather than simply hand them the keys – a genuine distinction for families with teenagers. An eight-metre chase boat comes with her, alongside a Seadoo Spark, two Seabobs, two Vapor mini-Seabobs, two underwater scooters, two foilboards, two paddleboards, an inflatable banana and sofa, and full scuba and wetsuit provision.
Her season is the western Mediterranean – Italy, France and Spain – and a crew of seven runs her, one more than yachts of her length usually carry. Refits in 2022 and again in 2026 have kept the systems current.
For a family that wants volume, quiet, a proper main-deck master and a crew that can teach the children to drive a jet ski legally, at eighty thousand a week, ZEEMAR is an unusual and well-judged boat.
