Heesen’s 57-Metre Project Setteesettanta: Every Choice Was Theirs

First Impressions

• Project Setteesettanta (YN 20857) is a 57-metre, 920-gross-tonne full-custom all-aluminium superyacht built by Heesen Yachts in Oss, the Netherlands, for a returning owner family who shaped every element of the vessel around their lived experience of life at sea.
• First Heesen hull to position the bridge on the fourth deck, freeing the owners’ upper deck as a fully private living space with panoramic views.
• Stern features a four-metre infinity pool flanked by a symmetrical double staircase, above a 200-square-metre terrace that doubles as a fully operational helipad.
• Interior by Cristiano Gatto Design — the Italian designer’s twelfth Heesen collaboration — with marble selected personally in Verona and furniture built in Heesen’s own Winterswijk carpentry atelier.
• Delivery to owners scheduled for December 2026 following sea trials in the North Sea.

A Relationship Before a Specification

Project Setteesettanta did not begin with a design brief — it began with a return visit. Her owners had already commissioned a yacht with the Dutch yard, spent months watching the shipbuilders at work, and came back with the second commission carrying a set of requirements sharpened by real time aboard their first vessel. That context matters: every unconventional decision on YN 20857 traces directly to specific lessons the family had drawn from living at sea.

Heesen CEO Niels Vaessen put it with characteristic directness: “A returning client is the highest compliment a shipyard can receive. Experienced yacht owners arrive with real ambition and set genuine challenges for the yard and its people, and we welcome that, because it is exactly what moves us forward and sharpens our craft.” The project that followed was genuinely co-authored — owner as collaborator, yard as instrument.

Architecture in Metal and Water

The four-deck layout of Project Setteesettanta reads as a sequence of owner-led decisions, each one visible in the finished silhouette. Positioning the bridge on the fourth deck is the first — and, within Heesen’s fleet, the unprecedented — move. It grants the owner’s upper deck a status no wheelhouse arrangement could otherwise allow: a full-beam master stateroom with panoramic views, opening directly onto a private terrace reserved entirely for the owners, separated from guest and social areas below.

Exterior designer Frank Laupman at Omega Architects preserved the yacht’s clean lines through two further choices. The mast was kept deliberately light to avoid the visual weight a conventional structure would impose at this scale. Flat Starlink communication panels replace traditional satellite domes — one of the first applications of this technology in the Heesen fleet — keeping the superstructure geometry sharp and uncluttered.

At the stern, the architectural centrepiece: a four-metre infinity pool, one of the largest fitted to any yacht in the 50-60 metre class, framed by a symmetrical double staircase that descends formally to the swim platform at the water’s edge. The reference point is deliberate — a gesture borrowed from palace garden design and translated into naval architecture. Above the pool, the 200-square-metre terrace operates as both primary entertaining deck and fully certified helipad, giving the owners the option to arrive by helicopter without sacrificing outdoor living space.

Interior: Two Decades of Collaboration

Cristiano Gatto Design’s involvement in Project Setteesettanta goes beyond the interior brief. For this commission, Gatto also acted as the owners’ representative throughout construction — a dual role that gave him direct oversight of every design decision from initial concept through final installation. The result, in Gatto’s words, is a vessel in which “every element of her interior was conceived from scratch and refined down to the finest detail, with nothing left to chance.”

On the launch, Gatto said: “To see this project finally afloat is deeply moving. Drawings and renderings can guide the design process, but nothing compares to the moment when a project becomes reality. Seeing the spaces come to life exactly as envisioned is immensely rewarding, and I am deeply grateful to the owners for the trust they placed in us throughout this remarkable journey. She has truly been a labour of love.”

The material palette anchors the interior in a specific, traceable provenance. Marble was selected in person in Verona — a step Heesen has described as critical to the quality Gatto’s design requires. All furniture was produced by Heesen’s own luxury carpentry shop in Winterswijk, one of the very few superyacht yards worldwide that maintains an in-house fine-furniture atelier. That capability allowed interior millwork to be produced to the same tolerances as the yacht’s engineering.

Performance Built Around Access

The all-aluminium Fast Displacement Hull Form was tested at the Wolfson Unit in Southampton before construction began, and the results proved efficient enough to reduce engine requirements. Twin MTU 16V2000M72 engines — 1,440 kW each — deliver a maximum speed of 18 knots and a transatlantic range of 3,900 nautical miles at 12 knots, a pairing that places the yacht within reach of both Atlantic crossings and extended Mediterranean seasons.

The 2.3-metre shallow draft was a direct owner specification, designed to open anchorages and protected bays that deeper vessels of comparable size cannot access. Quantum F45 stabilisers and an electric/hydraulic hybrid power system extend that versatility further, allowing the yacht to move between open-ocean passages and shallow coastal waters without compromise. Lloyd’s Register classification confirms compliance with the most rigorous standards in the marine industry.

Delivery is scheduled for December 2026. For more on this build, visit Heesen Yachts directly.

Project Setteesettanta — Technical Specifications

Explore more from HEESEN YACHTS: Cartier La Panthère Perfume Trio: Three Scents, One Feline Symbol · Goyard’s Small Leather Goods and the Parisian Streets Behind Their Names.