Superyacht ARIENCE Spotted in Pula

Pula is not the first Croatian port that comes up in conversation about 60-metre motor yachts. Rovinj takes most of the attention in Istria, Hvar and Split take the rest further south. Yet this summer one of the most recognisable charter yachts in the Mediterranean fleet appeared in the bay below the Roman amphitheatre, riding quietly at anchor while her tenders worked back and forth to the Riva.

About the Yacht

Superyacht ARIENCE is a 60.9 metre motor yacht built by Abeking & Rasmussen in Germany, delivered in 2012 and launched under the name Excellence V. Her exterior and her interior both come from Reymond Langton Design, which is less common than it sounds; yachts at this size usually split those two commissions between separate studios.

She accommodates 12 guests in seven cabins, with a crew of 17 looking after them. Two MTU diesels give her a cruising speed of 13 knots and a fraction over 15 when a schedule needs pushing. Steel hull, aluminium superstructure, teak decks, gross tonnage of 1,632.

That tonnage figure is the interesting one. At 1,632 gross tons she carries the interior volume of a yacht closer to 75 metres, which explains why she reads as considerably larger than her length suggests when something of similar size anchors nearby. She was drawn that way on purpose.

Abeking & Rasmussen built her for the charter market with a brief to deliver the amenities of a 78-metre yacht inside a hull short enough to still work in smaller harbours. Pula, with its deep, sheltered bay, is precisely the kind of place where logic pays off.

From the water, her profile is unmistakable. The superstructure sits tall for a yacht of this length, stacked across a full owner’s deck and finished with wide side decks that run clean from bow to stern.

Multiple outdoor lounges break up the exterior, so guests are never competing for the same shaded corner, and the sundeck carries a Jacuzzi positioned to look out over whatever anchorage she happens to be in.

Standing on the Riva looking across at her, the sheer number of usable outdoor spaces is what registers first. Inside, Reymond Langton went for texture rather than restraint. Leather covers the walls in places.

Tabletops in crocodile, velvet chairs, marble underfoot. It is a warmer and heavier register than the pale minimalism most new builds default to now, and it has aged better than expected for a 2012 delivery.

The detail that guests remember, though, is the central glass elevator, which serves all five decks with a dramatic staircase wrapped around it. Moving from the sundeck Jacuzzi down to the cinema on the lower deck requires no stairs at all.

Special Yacht Amenities

The amenity list is where her volume really shows itself. There is a dedicated cinema below decks, properly built in a salon corner. There is a gym set at the waterline, so a morning session happens with the sea a few metres away.

The spa beside it comes with a drop-down deck, a massage table, a stone warmer and a towel warmer, which is the sort of specification usually reserved for yachts thirty per cent longer. After all that sits an generous beach club opening onto the swimming platform.

Her toy locker is deep. Three Yamaha wave runners, underwater scooters, an electric hydrofoil surfboard, an aqua glide trampoline and park system, water skis, wakeboards, kneeboards, kayaks, paddle boards, a windsurfer. Two Novurania chase tenders handle transfers and towing duties.

Her crew operates as an approved RYA water sports centre, so guests trying a Seabob or a hydrofoil for the first time are being taught rather than simply handed the throttle.

Why Superyachts Stop in Pula

Pula works for a yacht like ARIENCE for reasons that have nothing to do with fashion. The bay is deep, generously sheltered, and large enough for a 60-metre vessel to swing at anchor without negotiating for space. Marina Veruda sits just around the headland for berthing, and the Brijuni archipelago is barely an hour north, with anchorages that stay quiet even in August.

Then there is the backdrop. Very few harbours in the Mediterranean let a superyacht sit in frame with a first-century Roman amphitheatre on the hillside behind her. Monaco cannot offer it. Porto Cervo cannot offer it.

For anyone photographing yachts, or simply watching them, this is a rarer shot than the numbers on the transom suggest, and it is part of why yacht charter Pula routes are quietly gaining ground.

Yacht Charter Pula and the Northern Adriatic

Superyacht ARIENCE is not part of the SuperYachts Croatia fleet, so her presence in Istria is worth reading as a signal rather than an invitation. What it signals is that the northern Adriatic is now firmly on the itinerary of yachts that could be anywhere.

From Pula, the coast opens south through Rovinj, the Kornati islands, Zadar, and eventually Split, and the same waters are available to guests chartering with SuperYachts Croatia aboard vessels sized anywhere from 25 to 60 metres.