A few shorts weeks following her christening, VanTom is conducting her initial set of sea trials. First, though, she needed to leave Heesen, looking a little different than you might expect.
This first video reveals the difference. The 163-foot (49.8-meter) VanTom was out and about without her radar arch. It may seem strange for a megayacht to make her way out toward open waters without a key part of her physical structure. To be clear, VanTom didn’t go out into the North Sea looking like this. Like previous Heesens, the megayacht left the shipyard for outfitting in a secondary location.
Though Heesen hasn’t yet commented on the sea-trial results, the megayacht should see a top end of 23 knots with twin MTUs. The all-aluminum VanTom should additionally see her best cruise at 11 knots, which in turn should produce a 3,100-nautical-mile range.
Construction on VanTom started on spec in 2015, with her owners buying her about a year and a half later. They celebrated her christening in November 2017.
While these videos don’t show her interior, the owners are working with Francesco Paszkowski and Margherita Casprini. This is the first time the duo are designing a Heesen project. Dark and light tones contrast with each other, amid a low-key but still-elegant atmosphere.
Speaking of elegant, VanTom definitely looks that way in this footage, shot two days after the scenes above. While she may be tough to see at times, since it’s nighttime, she does show off her radar arch.
Ralph Dazert
There is a low bridge between the Heesen yard and the sea, so the yachts always travel from the yard in Oss to Hellevoetsluis (base port for the sea trials) without the radar mast.