But besides racing out to the fishing grounds at 30-plus knots and being able to back down on a fish as nimbly as a boat half her size, Special One was also built to serve as a comfortable superyacht for an ever-growing, multi-generational family. Assets such as a pneumatic lift serving three decks, an outdoor cinema and a high-spec sound system speak to her luxury credentials.

And grow it did. Special One is the largest true sportfishing superyacht of its kind. While there might be other superyachts capable of casting a line, none have the unmistakable sportfisher profile, high-performance capabilities and fishing equipment complement as Special One.

“Due to the magnitude of scale, with her true sportfish proportions she becomes iconic,” says Bart Bouwhuis, co-creative director at Vripack. The Dutch design firm performed a hat-trick by creating the exterior, interiors and naval architecture for the yacht.

Special One’s silhouette is designed to mimic exactly that of a smaller sportfisher, including the high bulwarks, wraparound forward windows and pyramid-like superstructure, with progressively smaller decks reaching skywards.

Vripack put its stamp on the classic sportfish looks by adding eye-catching details, such as the hull windows that resemble the shape of a Japanese knife pointing towards the stern. “And the louvres carefully integrated in the superstructure surfaces really give it a punch,” says Bouwhuis of the horizontal slats that add definition to the superstructure.

Of course, it wasn’t enough that Special One looked like a proper sportfisher – she needed to perform like one too. “While we visually wanted Special One to follow the lines of a sportfisher on a larger scale, it required exacting naval architecture to meet that challenge as well as related performance requirements,” says Pascarelli.

The owner’s brief included a target speed of 30 knots. Not only was this exceeded by two knots, but she can go from standstill to 30 knots in 60 seconds flat. “She handles like a speedboat – you get thrown back with the power,” says Captain Parker-Larkin. “We’ve done 30 knots in everything from flat calm to metre-high waves.” Not only is Special One fast, but she can turn on a dime, and gyrostabilisers add to her stability when running at speed.

Special One’s power comes from twin MAN 20V 175D-ML engines, a new series from the manufacturer, which deliver 5,982 horsepower each. “The engine room is about one and a half times longer than what is considered normal on a 500GT yacht,” says Bouwhuis. “All due to the space demand of the massive engines and systems required to achieve her performance.”

Creating Special One meant that sportfishing prowess, superyacht amenities and high-speed performance all had to be packed into a tight frame of 499GT. “Before approaching Royal Huisman, we had another yard say, ‘You can’t do it. Sorry, it’s crazy’ – they wouldn’t take it on unless they could re-engineer,” says Pascarelli.

Royal Huisman was fully responsible for the engineering on Special One, which enabled the yard to optimise the yacht’s unusual features before starting the actual build. This isn’t the first time that Royal Huisman, known for its sailing superyachts, has gone outside its comfort zone to build a motor yacht. In 2021, they delivered the 58.5-metre motor yacht Phi, which is the longest motor yacht below 500GT based on current classification rules.

“Special One reflects the commitment of the Royal Huisman team to never say ‘no’ to innovative and challenging motor yacht projects,” says Royal Huisman CEO Jan Timmerman. “When the owners of both [Phi and Special One] initially approached us, we said, ‘We’ve never done this before, but we’re certain we can’.”

It might seem surprising that a sportfisher like this would emerge from a sailing boatbuilder like Royal Huisman. But look closer, and you’ll see that it’s a perfect pairing. In actuality, it’s the Dutch builder’s experience in sailing yachts that gave it the know-how needed to build to the strict weight requirements required for a sportfisher of this size and optimise tight spaces in her low-volume interior.

“Our expertise in lightweight aluminium construction and complex systems integration, based on decades of building innovative sailing yachts, allowed us to meet the yacht’s high-performance and luxury requirements,” says Timmerman.

Special One is constructed in lightweight Alustar aluminium, which allowed for a 12 per cent weight saving compared to standard aluminium. Royal Huisman applied concurrent design and engineering, a methodology inspired by the European Space Agency, alongside stage gating to manage the challenges of weight control. Vripack also selected lightweight interior materials to keep the weight down.

Optimising the hull form helped to reduce resistance and reach performance goals. Special One has a semi-displacement (or super-displacement, as Vripack calls it) hull form with a single chine and anti-chine slap spray rail, sharp entry and huge flare at the bow paired with an elegant tumblehome at the stern.

The basic sportfisher hull shape was optimised to reduce resistance at both the cruising speed of 14 knots and the 30-knot-plus top speed without compromising either pace. “Features leading to this resistance reduction are smooth volume distribution over the whole length of the vessel, careful alignment of the chines and tunnel edges and a subtle S-shape in the aft ship buttocks,” says Bouwhuis.

Vripack also analysed the hull appendages, including the rudders, shaft brackets and bow thruster scallops to reduce resistance, and paid special attention to less obvious items such as the water intakes, exhausts, sounders, anodes and underwater welds, where filler was applied to create an extremely slippery hull. All this effort resulted in an impressive two knots extra speed over the predicted 30 knots and 10 per cent lower fuel consumption than predicted.

Another tactic was elimination of a central skeg. “This not only reduces resistance but gives this yacht unique turning behaviour where you can effortlessly give full rudder at full speed, without the vessel heeling more than 3.5 degrees,” says Bouwhuis. “Extensive simulations were performed to guarantee excellent course keeping, in the absence of the centre skeg.”

Royal Huisman rose to the occasion and built a full-size mock-up of the yacht’s foredeck space, including the large hatch with integrated cinema screen, bespoke DJ decks and Focal and Naim speakers. The owner and his family had a chance to experience the space first-hand and fine-tune any details.

This party-centric foredeck was an idea that evolved through the design process, Bouwhuis explains. A long, open foredeck is standard on a sportfisher, but Vripack saw that the space could be something more.

This set-up is just a small percentage of Special One’s high-spec sound system, which numbers more than 150 custom Focal speakers. “It’s one of the densest sound envelopes on any boat that Focal has done,” says Captain Parker-Larkin. “The sound is crystal clear and perfect with no distortion.” It’s also just one example of an outdoor entertainment area designed to include everyone, whether they are there to fish or not.

A mezzanine deck that overlooks the fishing cockpit has become standard on sportfishers, like the owner’s Viking. In true “sportfisher on steroids” fashion, Special One offers not just one but multiple aft decks overlooking the fishing cockpit where guests can sit and be a part of the excitement as a catch is reeled in. “It was imperative to carve out areas that enable guests who are not fishing to still be very much within the action with a front-row seat just steps away from the cockpit,” says Pascarelli.

“Special One reflects the commitment of the Royal Huisman team to never say no to innovative, challenging projects. When the owner approached us, we said, ‘We’ve never done this before, but we’re certain we can’”

The first of these is found in the main deck aft, where there’s not only a large table for gathering but also a pair of aft-facing sofas that overlook the cockpit below; enclosed by glass beneath the handrail to avoid disrupting the view, it’s dubbed the “sky box”. The aft sections of the four decks above this all make excellent viewing platforms as well. With helm controls, the tuna tower’s true purpose is to aid in fishing by providing a high vantage point to scan the water, but it also welcomes guests who aren’t afraid of heights.

Down in the cockpit, you can really appreciate Special One’s super-sized proportions, like the 45-centimetre-wide cap rail and the massive baitwells and live wells. The crowning jewel of the 28-square-metre fishing cockpit is a state-of-the-art fighting chair. The build team worked with Guigo Marine and Bush & Noble to inform on technical fishing elements, such as the fighting chair and a commercial-grade offshore fish finder.

The view of the fish finder can be broadcast onto the television on the main deck aft, so everyone is in the know. Outriggers controlled in the flybridge pop out when it’s time for fishing. Special One runs with nine crew, and fishing pros, ranging from tournament anglers to those with local knowledge, are brought on board during the owner’s fishing expeditions in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, between which Special One plans to split her time.

It’s more than her sportfisher looks and acumen that make Special One so, well, special. She has a wealth of firsts on board, ranging from the first-ever pneumatic lift to be installed in a yacht, which creates an air vacuum to lift and lower the vestibule.

Special One also has an innovative engine room heat management system, which Vripack conceived to meet the yacht’s demanding cooling requirements for Gulf spec of 45 degrees Celsius and 60 per cent humidity. Beyond the high outdoor temperatures, at full load the V20 engines alone radiate 160kW of heat each that needs to be controlled.

Vripack invented a system that takes the required 18,000 cubic metres per hour combustion air from outside directly into each main engine. “The engine room ventilation is through separate ducts with fan coils cooling the inside of the engine room,” says Bouwhuis. “Any alternative solution would have resulted in massive loss of interior space due to the required additional air trunks and ducting.”

Inside, Special One’s interior is welcoming and easy-going, per the owner’s brief, which asked for styling that was sporty-meets-yachting-luxury. “There’s no bling, no overt glamour and no overkill on the detailing,” says Bouwhuis. The joinery is relatively clean, with few fiddles, and there’s a nice contrast between the lighter-toned surfaces of paint and fabric and the rich open-grain walnut joinery.

The guest spaces are perfectly formed to maximise the space allotted in the limited interior volume. The main saloon has the typical lounge and dining area, just on a smaller scale. The upper saloon above is a den of relaxation, with ample seating and an L-shaped bar.

Artworks chosen to adorn the interior give a nod to the sea, such as Lalique fighting fish sculptures in the main saloon and the underwater paintings from Béatrice Prost on the forward bulkhead in the dining room.

“Special One is a fusion of extreme sportfishing capability and superyacht luxury,” says Timmerman. “Its ability to perform like a tournament sportfisher, reaching 30-plus knots with alertness, while providing the comfort of six luxury decks and world-class amenities is unparalleled. She is the perfect expression of pushing boundaries.”

Special One handles like a speedboat, parties like a rock star and fishes with the best of them, all within luxurious confines – this is a very special yacht indeed.

First published in the January 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.