M/V Ulysses is 116.0m LOA, 18.3m beam, 6.0m draft, 6,200 GT, built Kleven Verft in Ulsteinvik, Norway, delivered 2016, with naval architecture and exterior design by Marin Teknikk and interior by Aritza Solana of Camper & Nicholsons Style. Top speed 18 knots, cruise 13, range approximately 9,000 nautical miles. She is the larger of two yachts named Ulysses commissioned by Graeme Hart, the New Zealand industrialist, the first being the 107m Ulysses delivered 2015. She has never been in the commercial charter fleet and is not on the charter market in May 2026.
If you came here looking for a charter rate, there is no charter rate. We will explain what she actually is and which explorer yachts you can charter instead.
What she actually is
Ulysses is a true expedition yacht in a way that 95% of the yachts marketed as expedition yachts are not. The hull is a working-vessel hull from a yard whose main business is offshore supply, fishing, and seismic-research vessels. Kleven's expertise is North Sea and North Atlantic ships, and Ulysses is built to that brief with a yacht interior and a yacht-grade superstructure stacked on top.
What that means in practice:
She has a Class 1 helideck (certified, not touch-and-go) on the foredeck capable of taking a Sikorsky S-76 or comparable. The hangar below the helideck holds a second helicopter. The aft deck carries a 22m tender, three secondary tenders, two submarines, and a full inventory of dive, ski, and snow-mobile equipment. She is fitted for polar operation with ice-strengthened plating, redundant heating, and helicopter de-icing.
The interior accommodates. Crew is approximately 30. She has an onboard hospital, a fully equipped dive operation room with a chamber on the larger of the Hart sister ships, and a science lab fitted-out for marine biology research.
She is not a luxury yacht with explorer styling. She is an expedition vessel with a luxury interior. The distinction matters.
Why she does not charter
Hart's pattern with both Ulysses yachts is private operation in remote cruising grounds. The yachts are used by the family and by guests of the family. The 107m version was sold and the name passed to the 116m. The 116m has been seen in Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Antarctica, the South Pacific, and the Sub-Antarctic islands. None of those itineraries are easy charter itineraries even when the yacht is on the market, which she is not.
For owners running a yacht of this class, the calculus on charter is different from the calculus on a 70m to 90m Mediterranean charter yacht. The yacht is expensive to run. She is built for owner-driven destinations. The crew is built around owner operation. The insurance and flag-state structure is private. Conversion to commercial charter is a 12 to 18 month process and is not worth doing for the kind of weekly rate even a yacht of this class can command.
What you can charter instead
If the brief is a true expedition explorer for an Arctic, Antarctic, or remote-Pacific itinerary, the charter options are short. The yachts that genuinely deliver the brief and are in the commercial charter fleet as of May 2026 include:
- Cloudbreak, 73m Abeking. Polar-rated, ski-charter equipped, helicopter operations. Charters for approximately €1.1M/week peak.
- Legend, 77m, ice-class converted, charters with a deep toy and tender inventory.
- Ragnar, 68m converted icebreaker. Charters from approximately €620K/week. The most working-ship feel in the charter fleet.
- Bold (85m SilverYachts), if available, for ocean-crossing range without the expedition styling.
None of these match the 116m of Ulysses on length. There is no 100m+ true expedition yacht in the commercial charter fleet in 2026. If your party requires 116m of length and expedition capability, the answer is either to commission a new build (4 to 6 year delivery) or to charter a yacht like Cloudbreak and accept the smaller scale.
What we would change about the conversation
The single most-repeated mistake we see in the explorer-charter conversation is the framing of the brief around length. Clients ask for a 100m or 120m expedition yacht because the length feels right. The length is the wrong constraint.
The right constraint is the destination capability set. A 73m Abeking with ice strengthening, two helicopters, and a working-tender package will deliver a far better Greenland or Antarctica week than a 100m motor yacht with a touch-and-go helipad and a luxury interior. The 73m is built for the destination. The 100m motor yacht is built for the Mediterranean.
Ulysses is the right length because she is built for that length to be useful. Range, hangar capacity, helideck weight capacity, working-tender storage, and crew accommodation are all driven by the destination capability, not the other way around. On a yacht built for the Mediterranean, the extra length is mostly extra saloon and extra cabins. On a yacht built for polar work, the extra length is range, capability, and operational redundancy.
The yard
Kleven Verft is in Ulsteinvik on the northwest Norwegian coast. The yard is primarily an offshore working-vessel builder. Yacht builds are occasional and are typically commissioned by owners who have very specific working-vessel requirements. The yard has gone through corporate restructuring. Anyone considering a new build at Kleven should diligence the yard's current capacity and order book carefully.
A handful of other yards build to a comparable expedition-yacht brief: Damen for the SeaXplorer line, Astilleros de Mallorca, Astilleros Armon, and Piriou for Yersin. None of them deliver at 116m. The 116m Ulysses is, for the moment, a class of one in the charter shopper's mental list.
Comparable Hart yachts and other context
Hart's Ulysses fleet history is worth understanding because it shapes the expectation. The first Ulysses, a 107m Kleven, was delivered 2015. The second, the 116m, was delivered 2016. The first was sold subsequently. The pattern of building two near-sister explorers in succession is unusual and suggests an owner with a very specific operational brief and the budget to over-build for it.
For context on what an owner-shop of this class actually costs: build cost on a yacht of this size and capability is in the $200M to $250M band, with annual running costs in the $15M to $25M band depending on use intensity and cruising ground. The cost of operating a true expedition yacht is meaningfully higher than the cost of operating an equivalent-length Mediterranean motor yacht, primarily because of crew size, helicopter operations, and remote-destination provisioning.
Verdict on the underlying yacht
Ulysses is the best-executed pure-expedition yacht in the global fleet over 100m as of May 2026. The hull, the yard, the helideck, the hangar, the tender deck, and the polar capability are all configured for the destinations she actually visits. The interior is restrained for the size class and does not get in the way of the expedition brief.
She is not chartering and is not expected to. For charter clients reading this because they want a similar week, the right answer is Cloudbreak at 73m or Legend at 77m. Both will deliver the destination capability. Neither will deliver 116m of length, and neither needs to.
FAQ
Is Ulysses for sale? Not as of May 2026. The 107m Ulysses was sold, the 116m has not been listed.
Can I charter Ulysses for one week? No. She is not in the commercial charter fleet. Approaches to the owner are not productive.
What flag does Ulysses fly?
How many helicopters does Ulysses carry? Up to two, with the main on the certified Class 1 foredeck pad and a second in the hangar. Both light-medium twin types are within the helideck rating.
What is the difference between Ulysses and Yersin? Both are expedition yachts. Yersin is a 77m Piriou with a Green Marine certification and a smaller crew. Ulysses is 116m, larger, faster, with longer range and bigger helicopter operations. Different scale, similar brief.
Does Ulysses have a submarine?. The Hart yachts have at various points carried Triton-class submarines. Verification with the operator is recommended before any claim is made.