Arkadia is the second hull in Heesen’s 50-metre steel series, delivered in 2021, and she
arrived as a charter yacht rather than being converted into one afterwards. That distinction
runs through the whole boat. The layout, the tender and toy provision, the crew arrangement
and the deck spaces were all resolved around ten guests having a good week, and after several
seasons in service the operation has been tuned rather than improvised.
Clifford Denn drew the exterior and kept it restrained: a long main deck, a level sheer, the
superstructure set well back, and none of the styling flourishes that date a profile within
five years. Underneath is a steel displacement hull with a 3,800-mile range and twin MTUs
that push her to 15 knots, cruising comfortably at 12. She is quiet at anchor, steady
underway, and unfussy in the kind of short Mediterranean chop that makes lighter boats hard
work.
The sun deck is where she makes her case. A circular spa pool sits in the middle of it, jets
running, with a screen rigged forward so a film can be watched from the water, and loungers
ringing the rim. Open to the sky on three sides, it is the space that gets used from breakfast
until well after dark. One deck down, a shaded aft deck of woven armchairs and curved settees
opens straight into the saloon when the doors run back, which effectively doubles the room at
anchor. She also carries a genuinely good gym — weights, cardio, a mirrored wall and sea
views — plus a second fitness station rigged on deck, and a toy store deep enough to hold
eFoils, SeaBobs and a full kitesurf quiver.
Reymond Langton’s interior is worked in cream, bleached timber and soft coral, and it is
restful in a way that photographs less dramatically than it lives. The main saloon is glazed
aft so the eye runs straight out to the exterior dining table; the formal dining room seats
ten beneath a painting of the yacht herself, behind geometric marquetry panelling. Up a deck,
a bronze-fronted bar with brass-legged stools anchors a quieter sky lounge, which is where
the evening usually ends up.
Five cabins sleep ten. The master takes the full beam of the main deck with windows down one
side, a seating area set into the light, and a dressing room and study attached — and it is
the only cabin on that deck, which makes it properly private. Below, three doubles and a
genuine twin are finished in the same bleached timber and cream leather at a smaller scale,
each with portholes set into the outboard wall and reading lights recessed into the joinery.
The twin is what makes the ten-guest configuration work for families, and it converts.
Nine crew look after ten guests. She runs the Bahamas and the Caribbean through the winter —
the shallow-water cruising there suits her tender programme — and both Mediterranean basins
through the summer, moving between the western islands and the eastern Aegean as the season
develops. For a charter party that wants a current, well-sorted 50-metre with a serious sun
deck and no rough edges, she is an easy recommendation.
