One of the most incredible, and eagerly awaited superyachts of our time has just completed her first sea trials. Initially dubbed ‘Panamax‘ for her potential to be the largest and fastest yacht still capable of transiting the Panama Canal, she’s now been officially christened Hetairos. Designed by Dykstra & Partners and Reichel Pugh, the 66.7m ketch is, as you can see from the picture, truly striking. Beneath that retro, pilot cutter inspired exterior, complete with prodigious bowsprit, plum stem and a sweeping sheer (which helps soften her look), is a cutting edge build process by Baltic Yachts. In fact, over 200ft of pre-preg carbon construction makes Hetairos the largest all carbon composite yacht ever built. And every ounce of weight that could be saved during build has been, so on the water she weighs just 235T. Records could soon be falling…

A lifting T-keel reduces depth from 9m to just 3.5m and can further defy physics by its ability to be raised to 6m while sailing upwind! Retractable diesel hydraulic drives (with 360º rotatable props), 38T of movable liquid ballast and the world’s largest suit of North 3Di sails will help her achieve polar predictions of up to 17 knots upwind, complete with a flying sail wardrobe of Gennaker, Code 0, Code 1.5, mizzen staysail and mizzen jib.

For more info (and the list of technical build features is fairly mind boggling), see Yachting World’s August issue. Her owner plans to cruise and race Hetairos extensively, starting with the Med and Caribbean this year, so we hope to bring you some more news and sailing pictures from onboard this autumn.

Photo by Nicklas Storbjörk