NAVIS Apr/May'25

Innovation, Elegance, and the Rising Tide of the UAE Yachting Scene

The 2025 Dubai International Boat Show (DIBS) marked a major leap for the Middle East’s premier maritime event. Held at the dynamic Dubai Harbour, the 31st edition drew more than 1,000 exhibiting brands and an estimated 33,000 visitors from over 60 countries. It was a show defined by scale, innovation, and a distinctly cosmopolitan luxury ethos, hallmarks that have come to define Dubai as a rising superpower in the global yachting sector.

From the moment guests arrived, navigating the high-traffic energy that spilled out from the harbor into the city’s elegant avenues, DIBS 2025 transcended its role as a trade exhibition, becoming a reflection of Dubai’s evolving identity as a luxury yachting capital. The show opened under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, second deputy ruler of Dubai, who reaffirmed the Emirate’s commitment to becoming a global hub for the maritime industry.

According to etymology sources, the word “special” translates from the Latin “specialis,” to mean individual or particular. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, the meaning evolved to “selected for an important task” and “having a distinctive character.” An in-depth look at Royal Huisman’s 52-meter sportfishing yacht illustrates why Special One’s name is so very apropos.

Special One is well-appointed as the world’s largest, true sportfishing yacht. Outfitted with all the important gear, hardware, and fittings, this magnificent yacht boasts a unique fighting chair, a bait and tackle room, live bait freezers, and every other amenity a big game fisherman could wish for. While it was not the owner’s intent to top such a list, Special One evolved to exceed the previous record holder by eight meters.

Special One also definitively qualifies as a superyacht, carrying ten guests in five ultra-luxurious staterooms finished with walnut joinery, exotic stone, and bespoke furnishings. Her layout is superb, with multiple social spaces opening out to al fresco dining and lounging areas. The mezzanine theatre above the fishing cockpit offers a most luxurious perch for viewing an exhilarating sports performance. A relaxed, uncluttered look throughout the yacht maintains a casual elegance that guests find comfortable, refined, and casual. Sportfishing yacht, superyacht, or simply tranquil retreat, Special One is a work of art that delivers excellence beyond expectation.

As the sun pushed over the horizon in July of 2023, Baltic Yachts delivered an elegant sailing yacht to an experienced sailing family eager to meet their newest member. The 33.5-meter sloop-rigged sailing yacht, christened Zemi, paid homage to the Greater Antilles Arawak tribal culture’s ancestral spirit, housing supernatural powers within a stone idol or sculpture.

Designed and built to take the family to both high and low latitudes around the world, Zemi greeted the day with a streamlined profile from the desk of Malcolm McKeon. Dressed in a gleaming bronze metallic finish in beautiful complement to the powerful Southern Spars rigging and artistically flowing teak deck extending over the lip of the transom, Zemi’s arrival was warmly and enthusiastically welcomed.

The family, hailing from Sweden, wasted no time in getting on board, cruising Norway, Iceland, and Scotland before heading to the Canary Islands and St. Barths for the Bucket Regatta. Placing third in Class Les Elegantes, Zemi performed admirably, celebrated well, then turned to make way through the Panama Canal toward a Pacific crossing, ready to cruise the world.

A prevailing over-the-top status clings to Dubai, a destination we like to think of as “home” at least annually for the Dubai International Boat Show. With its bright lights, luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture, including impossibly high towers accompanied by incredibly fast elevators, the city is famous for its thriving energy and nightlife, captivating all the senses and inspiring awe unlike any other city on earth. Admittedly, our perception was slightly skewed as, just prior to our arrival, we had been basking in unabashed splendor and serenity on a sandy atoll in the Maldives, where everything is intimate, small-scale, and private.

In Dubai, everything is grand, opulent, and overwhelming. Positioned majestically on the outer Crescent Road along Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, Atlantis The Royal Dubai is an ultra-luxury experiential resort representing not merely an accommodation option in the city, but a definitive statement in contemporary hospitality design. So definitive, in fact, that it has achieved a rare goal: the pure distillation of Dubai’s many qualities. Our four-night stay left us simultaneously overwhelmed by its scope and wealth of features, as well as captivated by its meticulous attention to detail.

Sailing Into a Dream You’ll Never Want to Wake From

Author’s Note

Life, in its fleeting brevity, grants us only a handful of moments that are truly extraordinary the kind that awaken every sense that imprint themselves onto the soul like salt upon the skin. These moments do not arrive with fanfare, they appear unannounced, slipping into the quiet spaces of our days, often disguised as something ordinary.

This one began with a call.

Steve’s voice carried the certainty of a man who knew things others did not. One of the most knowledgeable figures in the yachting world and the Global Marketing Director at IYC, Steve was someone I trusted, a man whose advice always led to something extraordinary. “Pablo, you need to visit M/Y Galileo.”

I started to protest. I knew Galileo, had followed her since the moment she first touched the water, but Steve was insistent. His words, though simple, carried the weight of something inevitable.

“Trust me,” he said. “Just go.”

And so, without knowing it, I had already agreed. The next thing he told me was almost an afterthought, a small detail spoken lightly, though it would come to mean everything.

“Pack well. You’ll have to travel a bit.”

And just like that, one of the greatest journeys of my life had begun.

A Sanctuary of Barefoot Luxury in the Maldives.

Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, adrift in the blue vastness of the Baa Atoll, lies a whisper of land, Kunfunadhoo Island. It is a place where time has no dominion, the jungle hums its ancient songs, and the footprints in the sand disappear with the tide as if to remind us that nothing, not even our presence, is permanent. This is Soneva Fushi, though to call it a resort would be to diminish it. It is something else entirely, a mirage of luxury, castaway simplicity, and a reverence for the natural world.

Arrivals to this floating Eden are made by seaplane, a journey that feels less like transit and more like an initiation. The lounge in Malé serves as the first portal, where waiting is softened by the quiet indulgences of spiced watermelon juice, handmade chocolates, and the gentle, almost ceremonial process of easing into island life. By the time the seaplane takes off, tracing lazy arcs over atolls in impossible hues of turquoise, the world beyond ceases to matter. The first sight of the island, a dense tangle of green fringed by a strip of blinding white sand, is an apparition, too perfect to be real. 

There is no check-in desk, only the warm press of sand beneath bare feet and the feeling that one has finally arrived in paradise.

A Journey Across Italy in the Heart of Tokyo

Metropolitan Tokyo is, of course, gastronomic heaven, home to more MICHELIN-starred restaurants than anywhere else on the planet. On our recent return, we had the pleasure of experiencing just one of these, a piccola enclave of Italian design and gastronomy in the heart of Japan’s capital on the forty-second floor of the sleek Tokyo Midtown Yaesu tower. At the top of the building’s 45 stories is the Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo and its signature dining outlet, IL RISTORANTE - NIKO ROMITO, which garnered a Michelin star for two consecutive years mere months after its 2023 opening. Il Ristorante follows its sister establishments in destinations as diverse as Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, Milan, and Rome, serving contemporary interpretations of authentic Italian cuisine. Simple dishes crafted from the freshest ingredients, flavorful reminders of why Italian cooking is beloved worldwide.

Stillness in Motion: The Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II and the Art of Intentional Disappearance

There are few automotive nameplates that have redefined their segment more quietly than the Rolls-Royce Ghost. Since its debut in 2009, the Ghost has become not only the most commercially successful model in the brand’s Goodwood-era portfolio, but a mirror reflecting the changing face of luxury. Conceived as a more approachable alternative to the Phantom, the first-generation Ghost was a response to a new clientele, entrepreneurs and tastemakers who desired the Rolls-Royce experience in a form more versatile, more discreet, and more driver-oriented.

That first Ghost reframed what it meant to be a modern Rolls-Royce. Its proportions were restrained, its surfaces pared back, its mission clear: to offer a distilled expression of the marque, one rooted in substance over spectacle. Crucially, it welcomed owners who wanted to drive, not just be driven. It was, in many ways, the original invitation to personalize a Rolls-Royce through Bespoke commissioning, ushering in a new era of quiet individuality.