The rebirth of the former navy vessel-turned-explorer into the 60.8-metre Omnia

Omnia had begun life as the all-steel Fomalhaut, one of a trio of pilot vessels that emerged from the Makkum yard of Dutch builder Amels in 1974. The Royal Netherlands Navy commissioned her to transfer pilots to and from incoming ships in tandem with fast launches and helicopters. Her steel hull was built tough and stable and she offered space aplenty, both above and below decks, with a 20-person mess room, seven two-berth cabins and a restroom aft, with more single and twin berth cabins forward.

“It was more of a rebuild than a refit. I know I’ll spend a lot of time on Omnia, so I wanted to do it properly. I wanted her to feel like a house on the water”

Fomalhaut served the Royal Netherlands Navy well for the best part of 25 years before being retired, after which new owners sent her to Vosper Thornycroft for an initial explorer conversion that included the addition of a helicopter deck, hangar and stabilizers. She became Akula under owner Jonathan Faiman, co-founder of the Ocado online grocery delivery business. During his ownership, a refit upgraded the interior, overhauled the three 570-horsepower Deutz engines and fitted new generators. Faiman and his family used Akula extensively for serious exploring. A qualified helicopter pilot, he carried a single-engine AS350 Squirrel on board to use for everything from re-supplying the ship to facilitating adventures in hard-to-reach places during the family’s frequent visits to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

Changes made to the boat, which had to be towed to Greece for the refit, were extensive to say the least, from the exterior look to the interior redesign, which incorporates a new layout and an elevator. Omnia also is back in class and complies with RINA rules for unrestricted navigation. “We did everything by the book. We had a surveyor, and we did everything as it was supposed to be done,” Papadopoulos says. “The first job was to sandblast the hull and superstructure, fill any defects, and then prime it for paint. The final sanding stages were done almost entirely by hand.” While that was going on, he created extensive 3D scans, and with Horsfield worked out the best way to lighten the interior and make the interior and exterior less “commercial” and more “luxury”.

“The main hull was hardly changed, apart from slightly increasing the height of the bulwarks, cutting them and adding around 50 new windows,” Papadopoulos says, a bit tongue in cheek. But to create a voluminous sundeck area, the refit did away with the helipad, stern garage and the small forest of pillars that supported them. The upper deck was rebuilt in aluminium and the original funnel arrangement in steel was remodelled in aluminium (saving more than 4,850 pounds in weight).

Indeed, while Omnia’s exterior does an excellent job of disguising her commercial roots, the interior, created in collaboration with Greek interior design firm Karageorgiou, makes it difficult to believe she has ever been anything other than a luxurious superyacht. Those dark corridors are now almost non-existent, with the narrowest passageways measuring at least three feet in width and the remainder between six feet to nearly 10 feet.

All are sumptuously carpeted in a pattern that replicates the decking. Every interior door and item of furniture was custom made and the walls’ wood paneling is perfectly matched throughout with a superb standard of fit and finish. Particularly impressive is the marble-floored elevator, which runs in a shaft ingeniously cut from what previously was a water storage tank.

While Akula could accommodate 10 guests in five cabins, Omnia boasts seven cabins, and can take 16 guests and house 20 crew (according to Papadopoulos, she requires a minimum of nine to sail without passengers, and a minimum of 16 to provide a high standard of service). Fittingly, the owner’s suite spreads across almost the entire width of the main deck and offers a commanding view towards the prow through more than a dozen windows.

There’s ample space for a king-size bed and a large horseshoe-shaped sofa, while a wide vestibule area leads to a full-sized, fully equipped bathroom. Other luxuries found elsewhere include a massage room and a cigar humidor, with every guest-accessible space being decorated with pieces from the owner’s extensive contemporary art collection.

Indeed, it’s only when going below deck that one is reminded of Omnia’s commercial history – not least on seeing the incredibly well-equipped workshop with its myriad spare parts, workbenches, tools, compressors and fabrication equipment.

This is an expedition yacht in the true sense of the word, a fact backed up by the presence of three massive Deutz diesel engines. One will provide eight knots of speed with a fuel consumption of 27 gallons an hour, only two are required for a 10- to 11-knot cruise and three will yield 13 knots. The yacht’s fuel capacity is sufficient to provide a range of 6,300 nautical miles. But for all her luxury, enhanced looks, capability and comfort, what is perhaps most impressive about Omnia is that she has been brought into the 21st century and should be just as capable of plying the oceans for another 50 years as she was when she was launched in the 1970s.

“I think the ‘recycling’ aspect really matters,” Horsfield says. “I’m sure the owner could have gone off and bought himself a new yacht but, rather than do that, he was willing to put the time, effort and money into getting exactly what he wanted out of Omnia and start a new chapter in her life. I think it’s a brilliant thing to have done.”

First published in the December 2023 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.