Every month, superyacht owners reveal where they are in the world and share their future plans. This month, BOAT catches up with Tobias Reichmuth as he island-hops through the Caribbean on board his 45.4-metre Santiebul expedition yacht Prometej, ahead of an ambitious Arctic crossing later this year.
Tobias Reichmuth
Yacht: Prometej
Length: 45.42m
Year: 1957
Location: Anguilla
You’ve done a lot of miles lately! How’s the yacht running?
Better than we expected. We’re using about 25 per cent less fuel than we anticipated. We did a lot of testing before we bought the boat in the Med and were burning around 130 litres an hour at 10 knots, but since buying the boat, servicing the engines and changing the turbos, we’re now down to 100 litres an hour at the same speed.
This is your first big yacht. What’s the learning curve been like?
There’s really been two parts of the trip so far. We left Croatia on 18 March, so a little behind schedule, and the first part was all about problem-solving, with a high degree of involvement from me and my partner, Alexandra. It was quite stressful. We left with a boat that was fit-for-purpose safety-wise, but the paint was not quite finished, the furniture was not secured properly, the internet wasn’t working as it should have because the Starlink antenna was in the wrong place, and the air conditioning was in and out.
We also had to replace our captain. Every day I was waking up thinking, “OK, what’s today’s problem going to be?” But we’ve shaken out all those problems, and since then we’ve been running very well. Like you said, a steep learning curve!
Were you concerned about the Atlantic passage?
I wasn’t afraid at all. Prometej has been on the water close to 70 years and I assume she’s seen a lot worse than what the Atlantic threw at us. All the technical systems we had tested and were confident in. We had a weather consultant too, who kept us away from any worrying weather systems.
We did have a small engine issue, which meant we had to slow down to five knots, and at that speed the stabilisers are much less effective, which we definitely felt! But the crew sorted it quickly. Prometej is a ship, which means things are fixed with a hammer instead of a software upgrade. There’s some comfort in that.
What’s the plan now?
We’re island-hopping up the Caribbean chain and will travel up the East Coast of the US and plan to be in Greenland in August, when we’ll have a roughly six-week window to do the Northwest Passage. That’s our only fixed date. We’re largely meandering otherwise. If we like an island, we’ll stay; if we don’t, we’ll leave. We’ve got guests coming and going too, which often means we have to be near various airports at certain points.
Does the boat need more work?
We need to stop in the US to replace the galley floor and some piping needs to be changed out. We’ll also bring on a hardcore Zodiac tender, which we’ll need for the ice. We couldn’t find a new one in time, so found a guy selling one up in Canada!
First published in the July 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.