ZEE DRAAK

Ned 70 — Vripack — Balearic Islands Some yachts are drawn to a fashion; this one was drawn to an argument. In 2010 a Dutch owner with a long apprenticeship in solo sailing and racing — boats from 40 to 60 feet — went to Vripack with an unusual brief. He wanted a motor yacht, not a sailing yacht; he wanted to bring a growing family along; and he wanted a hull that could take the ground gracefully on a falling tide rather than fret about shallow water. What came out of that conversation was the Ned 70. She is built on low displacement/length principles, and you can read it in the silhouette: lean, low-profile, with a length-to-beam ratio well outside the conventions of her size. That slenderness is not styling. A narrow hull meets less resistance, so she burns less fuel; it also damps pitching, which is the motion guests actually notice. The result is a yacht that holds semi-displacement speeds without strain and stays composed when the sea gets short and steep. Shallow draft is the second half of the equation. It opens up anchorages and coastal approaches that deeper hulls have to admire from a distance — a genuine advantage around the Balearics, where the best water is often the thinnest. Careful material selection and lightweight construction methods underpin the whole package. As a measure of what that buys in practice: her owner cruises Amsterdam to Norway and back over a long weekend, which tells you more about her range and ease of handling than any performance table. Aboard, a professional crew handles the running of the yacht and the rhythm of the day, leaving guests to the islands themselves.