ARES Yachts has unveiled SIMENA, a 62-metre sailing yacht from Türkiye that looks exactly like the sort of thing an old shipping magnate would buy after deciding he’d had enough of helicopters, tax meetings and modern architecture. Which is encouraging, because too many superyachts now resemble high-end hotels with swimming pools attached to the roof.
SIMENA, thankfully, has a proper bow. A clipper bow. The sort of bow that suggests movement and weather and the possibility of crossing an ocean while wearing a jumper with unnecessary brass buttons. You look at it and immediately imagine ropes creaking somewhere, even though modern yachts rarely creak because everything is hydraulic now.
ARES built the yacht entirely in Türkiye alongside Taka Yacht Design, which is actually rather impressive when you think about it. Türkiye has quietly become extremely competent at boatbuilding over the years. Nobody really noticed because everyone was distracted by Italian shipyards making floating palaces for billionaires who own too many loafers.
This yacht though.. is very different.
SIMENA is now the largest sailing yacht ever built in Türkiye and you can easily see that everybody involved genuinely cared about making a dreamy sailing yacht rather than merely constructing a luxury object that happens to float. There’s a distinction. A subtle one, admittedly, but important.
ARES itself comes from the world of fast patrol boats, which means the company understands how to build things that survive unpleasant seas at unreasonable speeds. That background probably explains why SIMENA apparently behaved so well during sea trials off Antalya. She reached 16 knots under sail in 20 knots of wind, which for a 62-metre yacht is properly brisk.
The sail plan is enormous. There’s a 470-square-metre mainsail, a vast genoa, several additional sails for different conditions and a mainmast rising 59 metres into the air. Fifty-nine metres. At that height you’re no longer adjusting sails so much as checking weather systems.
And somewhere up there, inevitably, a man named Luca or Mehmet will eventually have to climb around with a toolkit because one tiny fitting has started making a faint clicking noise.
I’ve always liked ketch rigs, partly because they look correct. Modern yacht design often obsesses over sharp angles and aggressive styling cues as though the vessel intends to fight another vessel in a nightclub car park. SIMENA avoids all that silliness. She has graceful lines and a traditional profile that would still look handsome fifty years from now, which is more than can be said for many modern hypercars or indeed most kitchen appliances.
There’s also a fold-out sea balcony built directly into the hull for guests arriving from the custom limo tender. Naturally there is. Wealthy people no longer simply board boats. They must arrive.
Still, I rather like this detail because it creates the illusion that one might spend the afternoon diving into clear Mediterranean water before drying off in the sun with a drink and a mildly disappointing paperback novel purchased at an airport.
The aft deck contains a circular Jacuzzi surrounded by sunpads, because apparently humanity has decided ordinary water is no longer sufficient. There’s also a dining area for 14 guests with polished mahogany tables, a grill, a wet bar and enough lounging space to support the sort of lunch that quietly absorbs an entire day.
Boats do this to people. Time becomes vague aboard them. You sit down for a sandwich at one o’clock and suddenly somebody is lighting candles while discussing whether they can see Sicily in the distance.
The flybridge sounds rather good too. Panoramic views, oversized sunpads and low-profile seating tucked neatly into the superstructure. Importantly, it avoids looking like the rooftop terrace of a fashionable hotel in Dubai. That temptation must have existed at some point during the design process.
Throughout the yacht there’s mahogany, stainless steel and brass used with surprising taste.
Inside, the London-based studio Design Unlimited created a classy interior with dark oak panelling, cream furnishings and custom brass detailing. From the photographs, it appears warm and civilised rather than aggressively luxurious. You can imagine reading quietly in there while rain taps against the hull somewhere outside.
The owner’s suite occupies the forward section of the yacht and includes a king-sized bed, lounge area, walk-in wardrobe and a semi-open bathroom finished in natural stone and brass.
Superyachts often become absurd global shopping lists. Italian marble, Scandinavian oak, British leather, French crystal, Japanese toilets capable of analysing your emotional state. SIMENA feels more cohesive than that.
There are four additional guest cabins plus another flexible cabin for guests or crew. Which usually means one friend who claimed they’d “only stay a couple of nights” before gradually becoming part of the vessel’s ecosystem.
Then there’s the hybrid propulsion system, which I find genuinely interesting. An electric motor allows near-silent cruising at lower speeds, and the yacht can even generate renewable electricity while under sail. That’s clever in the proper engineering sense of the word, not the modern marketing sense where your refrigerator connects to the internet for reasons nobody fully understands.
The transoceanic range exceeds 6,000 nautical miles too, so this isn’t merely a decorative Mediterranean toy designed for photographing near Saint-Tropez. That means you could cross serious stretches of ocean aboard SIMENA.
