From the chill January quayside of the Rotterdam harbour where 67-metre Sparta is undergoing her last checks, there is litte hint of what lies in store. In the light of a watery dawn, Heesen’s largest steel yacht is keeping its secrets to itself. The Venetian red stripes that flash across her topsides just look black, and I will have to wait until the sun rises much higher before I can appreciate the fetching “swoosh” that knits the decks together and the purposeful reverse bow.
We enter via a crew area painted in businesslike beige. Only then, with our shoes safely removed and coats stowed, do we push through a heavy service door onto the main lobby - and into a wonderland of decorative design. This is a boat that’s all about unabashed beauty and artisanship. The name Sparta, with its implications of asceticism and a disdain for the artistic, is a misnomer that has utterly wrong-footed me from the dockside.
The magic of Winch Design’s interior begins to unfurl as soon as we come upon the main staircase, which almost pulses with organic life. Winding through three decks, it is panelled from top to bottom with a carved oak frieze from Hull Studio (). The motif changes from ripples in a sandy seabed on
