Beyond boundaries: Exploring the South Pole

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Welcome to Yacht Charter Market, the weekly newsletter dedicated to the world of yacht charter.

In today’s newsletter:

• Top story: Explore the South Pole onboard 70m Sherakhan

• YachtEye: Simplifying charter life in 2026

• Charter Updates: Fraser new CA for Tasty Waves | Soundwave for charter in the Bahamas | Alein joins the Ekka Yachts fleet | Geco, by Giorgio Armani joins IYC charter fleet | Experience Alaska onboard Blackwood | Magna Grecia available for summer cruising

• Superyacht Spotlight: The ideal evening stroll onboard Malia

TOP STORY

Beyond boundaries: Exploring the South Pole onboard Sherakhan

Launched in 1966 and gracefully gliding across the seven seas is Sherakhan, built by Scheepswerf A. Vuyk & Zonen. This 69.65-metre superyacht, with naval architecture and exterior design by KMC & KHMB Enkhuizen, and interior design penned by Jan Verkerk, is setting out for a very special excursion: Antarctica. Whilst there, the superyacht is teaming up with Story Creators, a Netherlands-based bespoke experience agency, to offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience to the globe’s most southern point. To understand what makes this journey so special, I sat down with Sherakhan’s Captain, Kevin van Luijn, and the founder and CEO of Story Creators, CJ Heijstek.

Stepping aboard Sherakhan

Before Sherakhan became a superyacht in 2005, she was a training vessel for the Dutch Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz at Terschelling. Since joining the global superyacht fleet, Sherakhan has undergone various refits in 2014, 2018 and 2022, refining her interior and exterior into the luxurious and sleek vessel she is today.

Sherakhan’s presence at sea is generous and purposeful. With a steel hull and commercial passenger vessel certification, she is built to handle distant waters: from calm tropical seas to the unpredictable Southern Ocean. Cruise speeds typically sit around 11 knots, with a maximum of 13 knots, supported by a capable engineering suite that ensures reliability during extended passages into polar latitudes.

The yacht’s exterior marries classic proportions with practical design: Vast deck spaces on multiple levels, broad fore and aft areas, and an accessible sun deck ensure that guests may engage with their surroundings whether under blue skies or beneath Antarctica’s sea of stars. The sun deck itself boasts features tailored to social life: sun loungers, hammocks and an 18-person glass-bottomed Jacuzzi sit at its core, offering relaxation alongside panoramic views.

Below deck, Sherakhan’s interiors strike an exceptional balance of grandeur and warmth. Upon entering the grand saloon, guests can immediately feel the yacht’s grandeur: a long, curved wooden table sitting in the midst of a seven-metre atrium, able to seat 26 guests, with a dramatic chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The open yet intimate dining space segues into a long corridor leading to the guest staterooms and makes the yacht seem longer than its nearly 70-metre length. 

The owner’s stateroom, stretching the full 12.05-metre beam, sits at the bow of the yacht, allowing guests to enjoy ocean views upon waking up. The suite also comes with an office space and private bathroom including a bath and his-and-hers sinks. The stateroom has a soft and calming design, with ample space to unwind at the end of a day of adventuring.

Guests can stay in any of the other twelve staterooms, spanning across three decks, with layouts that welcome multi-generational groups to shape their own sanctuary at sea: whether you’re bringing along the grandparents or grandkids. Each of the guest staterooms are named after a famous author, allowing guests to dream of stories by Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen, or Emile Zola.

Able to accommodate more guests than most superyachts, Sherakhan has an exceptional crew of up to 22 who are dedicated to creating an enjoyable, warm atmosphere onboard. With most of the crew being from the Netherlands, guests might luck out and even enjoy a classic Dutch delicacy, namely a bitterbal, whilst cruising in remote corners of the globe.

There are plenty of social spaces onboard and Sherakhan is properly outfitted to entertain: whether you want to turn the upper deck into a dancefloor, lounge about in the sun on any of her three decks, or step into her fully equipped spa, including massage rooms, a sauna and a bubble bath; there is something to do for everyone. For those who prefer to be active, the superyacht comes with a fully equipped gym and a large selection of toys, the likes of paddleboards, seabobs, Efoils, inflatables and kayaks.

Sherakhan is a vessel built for both celebration and contemplation, and its classical design combined with purposeful modernisations makes her an ideal platform for extended exploration, including into one of the world’s most remote and dramatic frontiers: Antarctica.

Crafting Unforgettable Adventures

On this remote journey south, Sherakhan has partnered up with Story Creators, a travel agency that creates bespoke experiences across the globe. Founded and run by CJ Heijstek, he describes his company as a “memory-making agency. We start with a blank canvas and create an experience that is tailored entirely to the client.”

The goal of the expeditions is to create an experience that is deeply personalised, blending creativity, luxury and emotional resonance. It’s an approach that not just facilitates, but realises wishes and dreams whilst enjoying the freedom to discover the world in a way that feels profound and deeply personal. “We’re a travel agency that creates events and experiences to the most remote places, we go to places that hopefully nobody has ever been before”, shares CJ It’s also the reason you won’t see much of the actual adventures on social channels, “what we try to do is pretty unique and we want to keep it that way as much as possible, as well as value the client’s privacy, so we don’t share too much,” he adds.

What is most striking is CJ’s passion for what he does. Currently, he’s even working on designing personalised postcards for his clients: “I thought this would be quite neat to add,” he notes nonchalantly. Not everyone is willing to go the extra mile for their clients, yet for CJ crossing oceans seems like the bare minimum.

Recent adventures Story Creators has undertaken has led them to the top of Mount Kenya, an exclusive dinner in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, to racetracks and private-aviation itineraries, to tailored multi-day trips across quiet and remote lands, CJ and his team at Story Creators work hard to create something that goes beyond the expectations of their guests, working to create memories to cherish for a lifetime. 

Shared exploration

Antarctica has long held a mythic place in human imagination. It is a land of extremes, a wilderness untouched by the human hand, where silence and light meet in stark, breathtaking landscapes. Yet it is also a fragile environment, sensitive to shifting climates and the wider imprint of human activity. This Antarctic voyage aboard Sherakhan with Story Creators, and EYOS as expedition leaders, is therefore not offered lightly; it is framed as a conscious celebration of both the grandeur and vulnerability of the polar regions.

The relationship between Story Creators and Sherakhan emerged from a personal connection more than anything. “I have a very good relationship with the owner, and with Kevin… we have the same DNA, always looking to try something special and unique”, CJ notes. You can feel the camaraderie immediately: the ambiance onboard, between crew, the story creators and guests creates a feeling of coming home. It’s with this warmth and caring approach that the vessel makes its way to the south pole.

For Captain Kevin, the motivation to travel south is not only a business endeavour, but also very personal: “To sail there with 22 people, it’s really intimate, you don’t have that on a cruise- or passenger ship,” Kevin shares, “my dream is to spend the winters in Antarctica and show people the incredible beauty of it.”

For many guests, this journey represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to see emperor penguins on the ice, to hear the cracking hush of glaciers, and to reflect on our place within a planet of profound contrasts. In the context of storytelling, Antarctica offers a rare narrative canvas: its stark beauty carries stories of endurance, discovery and wonder. Story Creators harness this emotive potential, shaping each day into a sequence of exciting moments.

The voyage to Antarctica isn’t the first collaboration between the two parties, rather, it solidifies the bond that already existed. In 2025, the two teams joined forces to create an immersive experience for the Monaco Grand Prix; an experience that is in the works again for 2026. For Sherakhan, this journey south represents the kind of global cruising she was conceived to undertake. Her robust engineering and adept crew provide the confidence required for such a voyage, while her social and private spaces ensure that exploration and elegance coexist naturally throughout the itinerary.

While Antarctica is currently a well-sought after location, Story Creators aim to bring the experience down to earth; not just to float past icebergs and witness wildlife, but to truly anchor in the serenity that is the world’s most southern sea. For CJ’s Story Creators, luxury extends beyond comfort to encompass eye-opening, meaningful encounters and memories that endure long after the journey has ended.

This expedition encapsulates a broader shift in luxury travel: a movement away from passive leisure towards experiences that feel purposeful, personal and profound. In this union of vessel and vision, expedition and memory, Sherakhan to Antarctica with Story Creators invites a deeper engagement with the world’s last great wilderness.

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