WestportWiki / Wikimedia Commons. Unmodified photograph of ZEN in Port de Palma, 20 August 2022.
Yacht dossier | The purpose of a verified profile
The Nautical Chapter's Yacht Dossiers separate what a yard or operator actually documents from claims that circulate across third-party directories. This first profile examines ZEN, Feadship hull 816, delivered in 2021. The aim is not to create an illusion of access to private records. It is to assemble a useful technical portrait from attributable public evidence, identify where the numbers disagree, and explain which specifications matter to a prospective owner or an interested reader. The primary specification source is Feadship's own fleet catalogue. A dated, independently licensed photograph documents the vessel in Palma in August 2022. Neither source is a sea trial carried out by The Nautical Chapter. All figures below should be read in that context.
Identity and principal dimensions
Name: ZEN. Yard: Feadship, Netherlands. Yard hull number: 816. Year: 2021. Naval architecture: Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects. Exterior design: Studio De Voogt. Interior design: Nauta Design, with FM Architettura also credited in Feadship's editorial description. Construction is described by the yard as a steel hull and aluminium superstructure. The Feadship specification table lists length overall as 88.63 metres, beam 13.50 metres and draught 3.95 metres. The same official page's introductory copy, however, calls ZEN an 88.38-metre yacht. The difference is 0.25 metres. Rather than silently choose a convenient figure, this dossier records the yard's table value of 88.63m and explicitly notes its conflicting prose figure of 88.38m. Neither appears to be accompanied there by a measurement-method explanation. Other directories also use 88.38m.
Propulsion and installed generating machinery
Feadship specifies two MTU 16V 4000 M63L main engines, each rated at 2,240 kW at 1,800 rpm. Taken together, the two stated ratings total 4,480 kW; that arithmetic is a sum of nominal engine outputs, not a shaft-power measurement under operating conditions. The same catalogue lists two MTU 8V 2000 M41A generating sets, but does not publish an electrical output figure in the fleet entry. An engine model is only the start of an engineering assessment. Gear ratios, propeller geometry, electrical loads, hotel demand, cooling design, vibration isolation and the vessel's loading condition all matter. A specification sheet cannot substitute for documented operating records or a supervised technical inspection.
Range: what the 5,500-nautical-mile figure tells us
The yard lists a range of 5,500 nautical miles at 12 knots. That is an important claimed capability because it combines a distance with the speed at which the claim is made. At a mathematically constant 12 knots, 5,500 nautical miles would require approximately 458 hours, or a little more than 19 days, of uninterrupted travel. This is simply distance divided by speed; it is not a voyage plan and does not account for fuel reserves, waves, waiting time, maintenance, routing or speed changes. Feadship's stated fuel capacity is 256,400 litres. Dividing that total capacity by the published range may look like a route to a fuel-burn number, but it is not a defensible measurement. The yard page does not specify usable fuel, reserves, generator loads, hull condition, weather, hotel consumption or the exact acceptance-test methodology. The result would be a theoretical ratio, not independently verified litres per hour. We therefore label ZEN's actual fuel consumption at cruising speed: NOT PUBLICLY VERIFIED in the sources consulted.
Life aboard: space, autonomy and operation
Feadship credits accommodation for sixteen guests, including the owners, and 25 crew. The published fresh-water capacity is 46,800 litres. Those figures sketch the scale of the yacht, but a real autonomy assessment needs much more: fresh-water production, waste treatment, galley provisioning, crew duty arrangements, electrical demand and the environmental requirements of the intended cruising area. A yacht may be engineered for long passages and still operate mostly between well-served Mediterranean destinations. Conversely, a range specification does not guarantee the availability of every system during an extended remote itinerary. This is why TNC does not treat the advertised range as a substitute for operational endurance.
The figures that other sources describe differently
Independent yacht databases are useful cross-checks but are not automatically consistent. YachtBuyer gives ZEN a length of 88.38 metres, a draft of 4.1 metres and a different fuel-capacity figure from Feadship's published table. Brokerage and charter information can also advertise a guest count based on the charter operating regime, rather than the vessel's headline accommodation figure. These are not necessarily mistakes: equipment, measurement standards, capacity definitions and regulatory limits may differ. Nonetheless, where the discrepancy cannot be resolved from documents, it should remain visible rather than being merged into a seemingly definitive specification. For this dossier, the principal technical figures below follow the builder's own fleet page, with its internal length inconsistency disclosed. Readers comparing a brokerage sheet with a builder's specification should ask which document, date and measurement basis each number describes.
Specification card | builder-published data
VESSEL: ZEN • FEADSHIP • 2021 • HULL 816. LENGTH: 88.63m in Feadship's specification table; 88.38m in Feadship's own narrative. BEAM: 13.50m (yard table). DRAUGHT: 3.95m (yard table). HULL / SUPERSTRUCTURE: steel / aluminium (builder description). PROPULSION: 2 × MTU 16V 4000 M63L; 2,240 kW each at 1,800 rpm. GENERATORS: 2 × MTU 8V 2000 M41A, electrical rating not listed on fleet page. FUEL CAPACITY: 256,400 litres (builder-published). FRESH WATER: 46,800 litres (builder-published). RANGE: 5,500 nautical miles at 12 knots (builder-published claim, not TNC test). CRUISING-SPEED FUEL CONSUMPTION: no independently verified figure in the sources consulted. ACCOMMODATION: 16 guests and 25 crew, according to Feadship's descriptive text.
What an owner or broker should request next
A serious diligence package would go well beyond this profile. For range and consumption, ask for fuel logs at clearly specified speeds, electrical loads, displacement, sea states and fuel reserve policies. For condition, request up-to-date class and survey records, maintenance histories, propulsion and generator hours, vibration/noise acceptance data where available, and the status of major machinery and safety equipment. For charter or commercial operations, verify the specific flag, certificate, passenger limits and permitted cruising areas directly with the responsible operator and authorities. None of those records has been reviewed by The Nautical Chapter for this article. No statement here should be taken as an appraisal, a condition survey or a current brokerage availability claim.
Editorial verdict | Why ZEN is a useful opening case
ZEN is an instructive first dossier because even a prominent Dutch builder's public catalogue illustrates how easy it is for conflicting headline dimensions to spread. The most valuable aspect of an intelligence library is not a larger collection of numbers; it is the discipline of attaching evidence and uncertainty to each one. The yacht itself brings together long-range aspirations, substantial machinery and considered design. The next editorial step is to investigate the relationship between published range, real operating conditions and guest comfort across several vessels—with comparable and properly sourced data rather than manufactured precision. This record is based on public sources reviewed in October 2026 and should be rechecked before any transactional decision.