Athena is 90m LOA, built Royal Huisman 2004, a three-masted aluminium gaff schooner that held the title of largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world at her launch. As of May 2026 she is privately operated with intermittent charter availability. The asking rate when she does come up for a brokered week is in the range. Ten guests in 5 cabins. Pieter Beeldsnijder interior. Dykstra naval architecture.
This is the spec, the design context, the operating reality, the comparables, and what we would change before a charter conversation. Athena is the yacht to research if you are out whether you want a 90m sailing yacht at all. She is the previous generation of what Sea Eagle II is now, and the comparison is instructive.
Specs that matter
90m LOA, 12.2m beam, 6m draft (board up), 9.4m draft (board down). Around 2,300 GT. Aluminium hull and superstructure built at Royal Huisman's Vollenhove yard. Delivered 2004. Dykstra Naval Architects on naval architecture and rig. Pieter Beeldsnijder on the interior, in a brief that referenced classic-yacht interiors of the 1930s and 1950s. The yacht's design vocabulary is intentionally not modern, and that is important context for the charter party considering her.
Three masts in a gaff-schooner arrangement, with the mainmast at the centre. Around 2,500 square metres of sail. Gaff rigs at this scale are unusual because most modern sailing yachts above 50m use Bermudan rigs. The gaff configuration was a deliberate aesthetic and operational choice for Athena and it does affect handling, sail-change procedure, and the visual identity of the yacht.
Propulsion is two MTU diesels coupled to a single shaft and a feathering propeller. Top speed under engine is around 14 knots. Top speed under sail with the right breeze is in the high teens. Range under engine is. The yacht is MCA-coded and operates under.
Guest layout is 10 in 5 cabins, which is the part that matters for a charter comparison. A 90m yacht with 10 guests is a different service ratio than a 80m yacht with 12 guests. The cabins are larger, the public spaces are denser per guest, and the operational model is closer to a private-use yacht than a charter-optimised yacht. Crew complement is around for a yacht of this rig and scale.
Design context
Athena is the yacht James H. Clark commissioned in the early 2000s and the second of three sailing yachts he built with Royal Huisman, after Hyperion and before the 78m sailing yacht Hanuman line of projects. The brief was a classic schooner aesthetic at a modern scale and the result is the largest classic-style schooner ever built. The yacht is not a replica of any historical vessel; she is a contemporary build to a deliberately classical visual brief.
This matters because the design choices that read as classical (the gaff rig, the long sheerline, the interior wood and detailing) carry operational consequences. Gaff sails are physically larger for a given total area and the handling protocol is different. The deck layout is more open than a modern Bermudan-rig yacht of the same scale, which affects where guests can be while the yacht is sailing. The interior is denser in millwork and lighter on glass than a same-LOA new-build yacht in 2026, which affects natural light and the perceived volume of the public spaces.
A charter party that wants the experience of a great classic yacht at modern scale should look at Athena before any other yacht on the market. A charter party that wants a contemporary-feeling 90m space with floor-to-ceiling glass and a beach-club feel should look elsewhere. The same physical yacht serves the first brief and disappoints the second.
The 2026 status
As of May 2026 Athena is. She has cycled between private operation and brokered charter availability several times since launch. The pattern in recent years has been, with periods of broker-listed availability followed by extended private use. For a charter party interested in the yacht, the relevant question is whether your dates fall in a brokered window, which only the current central agent can answer.
The current central agent on the yacht is. Inquiries should route through that agent and not through retail brokers who claim relationships they do not have. Athena is not a yacht with multiple agents competing for the listing, and a quote from the wrong source is unlikely to be honoured.
Rate, APA, and what to negotiate
When Athena is available for charter, the asking rate is in the range for peak Mediterranean. APA is 30 percent. VAT applies in EU waters at the country rate. Crew gratuity is 5 to 15 percent at trip end. The rate is at the upper end of the 90m-LOA sailing-yacht curve because the guest count is small and the service ratio is high, not because the operating cost per week is dramatically different from a comparable schooner.
Negotiable on Athena: very little. The yacht is not in the rate-competitive part of the sailing-yacht market and her availability is the lever, not the price. If your dates fit the open window, you pay the asking rate. If your dates do not, you do not get the yacht.
Not negotiable: the 10-guest cap, the interior layout, the rig configuration. Athena is what she is. The owner has not allowed configuration changes to suit charter clients.
Crew and service
Crew complement is around. The captain is. Chief stew is. Chef is. The senior team on Athena has historically been long-tenured, which reflects the private-use operational model. A private-yacht crew that takes occasional charter is different from a full-time charter crew, and the difference shows in service style.
The service on Athena tends to read as more formal than on a full-time charter yacht. The crew is fewer in number per guest, the routine is less choreographed, and the chef has more time per service. We have heard the yacht described as having the feel of a private home at sea rather than a private hotel at sea. Whether that is what you want depends on the party.
Three things we would change
Three items.
First, the natural light in the lower-deck cabins. The classical interior brief uses smaller hull windows and denser millwork than a modern build, and the lower cabins read darker than the equivalent cabin on Sea Eagle II or Athena's contemporaries. A charter party that brings older guests or guests with mobility constraints should look at the cabin layout in person before booking.
Second, the at-anchor stabiliser performance.. A 2004 build at this scale has a different stabiliser generation than a 2020 build, and on a sailing yacht where the rig drives a different motion signature, this is a specific check, not a tick-box question.
Third, the toy and tender inventory. The aft beach club layout on Athena predates the current convention of a deep-load garage with multiple tenders and the full toy stack. The published toy list is the published toy list, and adding to it costs APA and crew time. For a family charter with active teenagers and an expectation of jet skis, wakeboards, foils, and a 10m chase tender, the standard inventory may not be enough. We have written separately on the included vs paid water-toy fleet.
What we have passed on
We have passed on the ownership-history retelling, which has been covered repeatedly in yachting press and adds nothing to the charter case. We have passed on the technical details of the gaff-rig handling protocol, which the captain manages and the charter party does not need to understand. We have passed on the build-cost speculation, which is not publicly confirmed.
Comparable sailing alternatives
If Athena is unavailable or her layout does not fit your brief, the comparables are these.
The first is Sea Eagle II, the 81m Royal Huisman three-masted aluminium schooner from 2020. Sea Eagle II is the current generation of the Royal Huisman large schooner. Smaller LOA, larger guest count (12 in 6), Bermudan-influenced rig configuration, and a regular open-charter calendar. The closest direct comparable.
The second is Maltese Falcon, the 88m Perini Navi DynaRig from 2006. Different rig technology, different experience aboard, and a more reliable open-charter calendar than Athena.
The third is M5, the 78m single-mast sloop with the Pendennis rebuild history. M5 is on the open market and is the answer for a sloop-rig charter at scale.
The fourth is Mirabella V as the historical entry; the yacht's lineage is now M5.
Verdict
Athena is a classic-aesthetic 90m schooner that should be considered by a charter party that specifically wants the classic-yacht-at-modern-scale brief. She is not a default recommendation because her availability is intermittent, her layout is smaller in guest count, and her operating culture is closer to private-yacht service than charter-fleet service. If you can get the dates and you want what she is, she is the only yacht in the world that delivers it. If you are weighing her against a more modern Royal Huisman, you want Sea Eagle II.
If your trip plan includes pre- and post-charter time in the Caribbean, the team at HotelsForKings has the Caribbean list for the islands you may not be aboard.
Last updated
May 2026. We update this page when the central agent, calendar, or operating status changes materially.
FAQ
Where is Athena in May 2026?. The historical pattern has been Mediterranean summer and Caribbean or US East Coast winter, but recent years have skewed more toward private use than open charter.
Who designed Athena? Dykstra Naval Architects on the naval architecture and rig design, Pieter Beeldsnijder on the interior, with a classical-aesthetic brief from owner Jim Clark. Royal Huisman built the yacht at Vollenhove and delivered her in 2004.
Why is Athena so rarely on charter? The owner uses the yacht and chartering is incidental. When the owner is not aboard, the yacht is occasionally offered through a central agent. This is a private-yacht-with-charter-option pattern, not a charter-fleet pattern.
Can Athena be Med-coded? She is MCA-coded for commercial charter when offered as a charter yacht. The coding requires a specific operational state and is maintained when the owner intends to offer the yacht commercially..
What is the difference between Athena and Hanuman? Hanuman is a smaller (47m) Royal Huisman J-class replica from a different programme. Athena is the larger, gaff-schooner Clark project. Both came from the same owner's broader portfolio in the 2000s but they are different yachts with different design briefs.