PROJECT MASTER 70M review
Mega yacht · 70 m · Harlingen
expert score
Verdict
Espen Oino outside, Winch Design inside, a rescue-vessel hull underneath and a hybrid Tier III drivetrain - the most pedigreed conversion project afloat.
Pros
- +Espen Oino exterior with Winch Design interiors on one conversion - rare pedigree
- +Diesel-electric hybrid: five 500 kW Tier III gensets and two Voith Schneider eVSP propellers
- +9,000 nm range at 10 knots from a proven Rolls-Royce/Ulstein rescue-vessel platform
- +991 m2 of guest area plus a 40 m2 expedition zone with an onboard laboratory
- +Interior layers designed by Winch around an ocean-depth narrative, using eco-certified materials
Cons
- −Still a project - delivery risk is real until she is in the water
- −10-knot cruise is leisurely even by explorer standards
- −Rescue-boat platform means volume, not slender yacht lines
On paper, Project MASTER is the best-connected conversion in the world right now. The exterior is by Espen Oino, the most influential explorer-yacht designer working. The interior is by Winch Design. The naval architecture is ICON/Conoship, the yard is ICON's covered dock in Harlingen, and the platform underneath is MV HAVILA TIGRIS - a Rolls-Royce/Ulstein-designed emergency response and rescue vessel built by Kleven Verft in Norway in 2001, which later served Atlantic Offshore's Aberdeen fleet as MV OCEAN NESS. Ships with that CV do not sink easily, figuratively or otherwise.
The conversion brief is ambitious. A new extended stern section takes her to 70 m and roughly 2,801 GT, incorporating an aft swim platform and two 1,100 kW electric Voith Schneider propellers. Power comes from five 500 kW IMO Tier III generators feeding a diesel-electric hybrid system with lithium batteries - chosen for quiet dynamic positioning and emissions compliance rather than headline speed. Fourteen knots flat out, ten at cruise, and a 9,000 nm range that puts both polar circles inside one fuel load.
Winch Design's interior concept works down through the ocean's layers: sandy, light-washed tones on the Owner's Deck, cooler and richer hues on the Wellness Deck below, and dark, textured intimacy on the Main Deck. The studio's sustainable-materials specialist vetted the palette - a detail that matches the boat's stated purpose. Because MASTER is not just a family explorer: she carries a 40 m2 expedition area with a laboratory, sonar equipment for seabed mapping, and accommodation planned for hosted scientists, backed by ICON's SeaKeepers and Cookson Adventures partnerships.
Twelve guests get 991 m2 of luxury area, run by a crew of up to 25. The tender list includes an EC145 helicopter, two 11.5 m tenders and a research submersible.
The honest caveat is in the name: Project. First unveiled at Monaco in 2021, she remains a conversion in progress, and until sea trials nobody can score her seakeeping in anger. But the platform is proven, the yard has done this twice before at this scale - RAGNAR and LEGEND both went from workboat to icon in Harlingen - and no other project pairs Oino and Winch on a rescue-vessel hull. If she delivers on the drawings, MASTER will be the explorer benchmark of her class.
Key specs
- Builder
- ICON Yachts
- Length
- 70 m
- Guests
- 12
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