Turning a working boat into the comfort of the 46-metre Scintilla Maris

Twenty years of trawling the North Sea for flatfish is proof enough of this, and it’s succinctly encapsulated in her former fishing name, Vertrouwen, meaning “trust”. “This was one of the largest boats built at Maaskant in 1989 as part of a series of eight,” the owner tells me as we seek shade under the boat’s freshly extended Portuguese bridge. “When she came up for sale during a decommissioning round, I quickly reached an agreement to buy her.”

The way he talks, it sounds as if it were just yesterday that he shook hands on the deal. But it was in fact way back in 2006, firing the starting gun on a 17-year marathon which he is more than a little sad to have concluded. For much of that time, he was researching solutions, with the bulk of the yard work concentrated into just the last three years. “Now the journey is at an end,” he says. “This is a bittersweet moment for me.”

I call it a refit, but “rebirth” might be the better word, for the boat was sand-blasted right back to the bare hull and rebuilt from the inside out. The biggest challenges for the commercial yard were to design the engine room so that all the equipment was easy to access, and to reach the necessary standard for a yacht interior finish. “We have an ecosystem around the shipyard with subcontractors and suppliers who have the knowledge to set high standards and we have achieved this together,” says project manager Joris Saat. “Through direct contact with them we reached the standard agreed upon by the client.”

Rarely can a client have been so involved in a project. He had already been through the process with a smaller boat – a 25-metre tug he rebuilt largely with his own hands – so he had a clear sense of what was possible. “I’ve also spent a lot of time aboard big ‘white yachts’ and as a consumer, I have developed some very specific wishes,” he explains. “So, I did the design work and specification myself. The yard was always willing to chat when I came in with stacks of papers. They had the patience.”

It was a process that bore fruit, generating a bunch of unusual solutions, such as the midships platforms for accessing the water. “The problem with the beach club is that, however nice you make it, it is psychologically wrong,” declares the owner. “Having it at the back end isn’t right!”

Then there’s that cowling at the bow. On a high-seas trawler, this metal “pram hood” protects those working to store the fish from the pounding waves and wind-driven spray. But the owner wanted to open this space up, so the cowl had to be trimmed. “I spent two days marking out the cut line with black tape,” he says. “Each time I would climb back onto the dock to see how it looked.”

Scintilla Maris has retained the massive steel structures of her fishing masts, which supported the great hinged booms from which she dragged her nets. Intrepid souls can still climb the masts using the functional cage ladder welded to the starboard side. I’m interested to know whether the owner has been up there. “Oh yes,” he says. “You can get four chairs in the crow’s nest. It’s a lovely spot with wonderful views.”

On the raised foredeck below, there’s ample room for a big table and chairs or lounging furniture. And below that, in what was once a fish handling area, there is now an outdoor kitchen and bar that is the centre of the party on the day of my visit. It is covered and therefore protected, but left open on the aft side so that it doesn’t add to the gross tonnage.

But to imagine that this yacht is destined for a sunny life of casual Mediterranean socialising would be to make a grave mistake. Scintilla Maris is to test her go-anywhere hull, turning north for high latitudes. In fact, she has joined the EYOS Expeditions charter fleet, and will be available in Svalbard, Greenland and coastal Norway starting this spring.

Her explorer credentials become very clear as the owner draws my attention to the boxy relief running round the bulwark of the bridge deck in the form of three bands. “Those three ribs carry cooling water from two of the generators,” he explains. “That will stop any ice from forming and provide some warmth for those out on the bridge. It is the advantage of working with something that already exists – you can be a bit more creative.”

One of the bigger structural jobs involved extending the upper part of the superstructure around three metres aft, to fill more of the bridge deck. The owner shows me the faint knuckle in the side that betrays the join. At the same time, the aft deck below has been opened up for seating by replacing the bulwarks with a railing that makes the area brighter and breezier. Taken together, all these changes net out to reduce the original 570GT volume marginally below the magic 500GT mark. There’s still the small matter of the new sundeck above the wheelhouse, but this is all outdoor space and has no impact on the gross tonnage.

But there is another element to this rebirth, which only becomes clear if you explore below, poking into the large machinery room aft. In here are the muscular frames of three 585kW generators built on the Volvo D16 block. Where the ship’s original 4,400hp Deutz engine would have sat, there is now a small, efficient electric motor, packing 1,300kW of power. A 1MW battery bank will go in soon, and the owner is thinking about solar panels too. Sustainability is what this upgrade is all about – and the owner has strong views about it. “I think every owner should take a greater sense of responsibility,” he says. “If you’re one of the few that gets to own a great bit of equipment, you should make it as efficient as possible.”

Efficiency also means range, of course, which is core to the mission of Scintilla Maris. Her 154,000-litre fuel tankage gives her an extraordinary 9,000 nautical miles at a steady cruising speed of 9 knots. The boat can maintain this using just a single generator, giving lots of headroom for the owner’s planned expedition through the Northwest Passage.

In line with the authentic workboat looks, Vripack has avoided any flashy detailing. Matt white walls and wooden floors are lit by a smattering of indirect lighting and offset by some splashes of leafy green and terracotta upholstery. It radiates quiet quality.

The result is an interior that costs perhaps a tenth of a full-fat superyacht interior

The master cabin lies amidships, beneath two large glass hatches originally served for swinging the fish boxes up out of cold storage and onto the quay. “We focused on a vertical sightline rather than a horizontal one, which is of course a great opportunity – it’s special,” says Vripack co-creative director Marnix Hoekstra. “We wanted to emphasise the light going up because the port holes are high up, so it’s not easy to look outside when you’re in the owner’s stateroom.”

Vripack drew inspiration from the many commercial yacht interiors it has produced over the years, opting for simplicity and extreme durability, according to Hoekstra. “It’s not even commercial proof, but diver proof, which is the next level,” he says. “It’s a combination of high-end, high-pressure laminates [HPL] all with beautiful, rounded corners, which we specifically moulded. Inside we used outdoor furniture fabrics, which are much more durable. The Iroko decks continue inside with the PVC flooring. You don’t have to take off your shoes on this boat!”

The result is an interior that cost perhaps a tenth of a full-fat superyacht interior, Hoekstra adds. It respects the DNA of the trawler style, the owner’s requirement for comfort and Damen’s in-house capabilities. It may have taken nearly two decades to complete, but the soul of the boat and of her owner have been enhanced by the experience. And that, in a nutshell, is the key to the undoubted success of the Scintilla Maris project.

First published in the February 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.