“I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change a thing about Zeepaard as she has been optimised to the highest degree possible for her size.” – Sietse Koopmans
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ietse Koopmans is keen to stress at the outset that the only reason he is selling Zeepaard (which is Dutch for ‘seahorse’) is that he is now close to fulfilling a lifetime ambition to build a new superyacht to his own design. “I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change a thing about Zeepaard as she has been optimised to the highest degree possible for her size,” he reveals. “Although I had been sailing for 45 years when I retired, I knew I had to gain some serious experience of cruising the world before I could embark on creating my own superyacht. Zeepaard has proven the ideal boat on which to gain this knowledge and she performed beyond my highest expectations.”
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Good as new Launched in 2003 by the French yard JFA Chantier Naval, Zeepaard‘s commissioning owner was unfortunately unable to use his Vripack-designed superyacht anywhere near as much as planned due to health problems. “Zeepaard was in as-good-asnew condition when I bought her in 2009,” recalls Sietse. “I have had a passion for boats since the age of four as my father was a Rhine barge skipper. He too loved sailing in his spare time and owned a Vripack Doggersbank yacht himself which I spent a year on board. This gave me a close affinity with these types of explorer models, and I was hugely impressed with the way vessels like Turmoil and Dardanella combined incredible functionality with a real superyacht feel. Zeepaard continues this tradition in some style.”
Although the vessel was in an excellent state, Sietse made various adjustments before setting off on his world cruise. For example, the hull of Zeepaard was painted grey in order to ensure a low profile, less maintenance and lower energy consumption. “With the original dark blue colour we were using all five compressors at sea to keep the temperature down, while the grey only requires two in the same conditions,” he says. Another eco-friendly change saw the 276 halogens in the interior replaced with LED lights. The sound and vibration attenuation was also upgraded to the maximum level, despite the fact that the generators are already incredibly quiet. “There were about 300 items altogether in the refit, none of which were strictly necessary,” says Sietse with a smile. “But I am a perfectionist and wanted to leave nothing to chance.”