Ancona, 22 July 2026. Principessa Capricciosa is the fourth hull in Columbus Yachts‘ Atlantique line to touch the water and the first to stop short of forty metres. After the two 43-metre yachts Night Fury II and Frette and the 47-metre Acqua Chiara, the family drawn by Hot Lab for the Ancona yard takes on its most demanding territory: the one in which every metre given up has to be paid back with an idea.
The threshold as a design brief
The figure that defines the Atlantique 38 is not its length overall — 38 metres exactly — but its tonnage: 299 GT. The yacht was conceived to sit, by the narrowest of margins, below the 300 GT mark, and in the superyacht world that is never a purely administrative choice. The threshold separates two different operating regimes in terms of equipment, certification and crewing, and opting for it means accepting a fixed ceiling on volume in exchange for a vessel that is appreciably lighter to run and to staff.
It reverses the usual logic of the segment, where volume is the variable everyone chases. Here volume is the declared constraint, and the design works within it: the yard argues that compactness is precisely what widens the scope for personalisation, because a layout that is rational in its bones leaves the choices of finish and outfitting free. The real measure of the project, in other words, lies in what the yard decided not to ask of the boat.
A sailing stern, in aluminium
Formally, the 38-metre remains faithful to the line’s code. The exterior surfaces are taut but free of hard edges, with an acknowledged debt to both Italian grand tourers and the silhouette of classic sailing yachts, and with the element that has identified the family since the first Atlantique: the recessed stern, brought down to just fifty centimetres above the water, where two fold-down balconies extend the deck area until it reads as a terrace at sea level.
The break with precedent lies below the waterline. Where the 43- and 47-metre yachts pair a steel hull with an aluminium superstructure, Principessa Capricciosa is built entirely in light alloy, hull and superstructure alike, with a semi-planing hull form entrusted to NAMES by Francesco Rogantin working alongside the yard’s technical office — whereas the naval engineering of the larger units had gone through Hydro Tec and Columbus Yachts itself.
The consequences are legible in the performance figures. Two MAN V12-2000 engines of 1,471 kW each at 2,300 rpm drive a full-load displacement of 224.5 tonnes to a top speed of 20 knots, with a stated cruising speed of 17.6 knots and a range of 1,900 nautical miles at 12 knots on a fuel capacity of 33,916 litres. Those numbers make the smallest Atlantique also the fastest in the line: the 43-metre, on Caterpillar power, tops out at 15.5 knots. The reduction in scale has produced a different character here, not a scaled-down version of one. Classification is by RINA, with a maximum beam of 8 metres and a full-load draught of 1.98 metres.
Material and light on the main deck
The aft cockpit is furnished with the Laze collection by Roda and arranged around a sofa facing the horizon, flanked by two ottomans and a bespoke cocktail bar with a mirrored finish. Inside the saloon, Hot Lab‘s interior scheme rests on a restrained study of materials: lacquered wood panelling in cream and grey-beige tones, pale marble inlays, a staggered pattern in the wall coverings that lends the space depth, and flooring in natural European oak planks. The living area combines Minotti sofas and ottomans in white fabric, two dark grey armchairs, a coffee table with an aluminium frame and marble top, and the Yokohama rug by Loloey in soft light greys.
Lighting is a chapter of its own: the main deck and upper deck lobbies were designed to measure by Cantalupi, in a scheme that accompanies the architectural volumes rather than merely serving them.
Forward on the main deck lies the owner’s suite, turned towards a warm palette in which browns converse with cream. The entrance leads to a walk-in wardrobe with sliding doors profiled in aluminium strips and, opposite, a wellness area with a treadmill and generous glazing onto the sea. The sleeping area is dominated by a bespoke headboard in three-dimensionally worked limestone, framed by Freccia Uno Avorio wall lights from Moss Series; the bathroom is organised as two distinct spaces around a central marble-clad shower. A private terrace with two bespoke Roda armchairs completes the suite, while the unit built into the port side houses a vanity with leather detailing and a Laguna lamp by Artemide in satin bronze.
The lower deck holds four double cabins with en-suite bathrooms — two with double beds, two with convertible twins and a third Pullman berth — bringing the guest accommodation to five cabins for up to twelve people. Each has its own palette and finishes, with Bilia table lamps by FontanaArte and Blimp glass wall lights by Bomma. The four crew cabins, for six crew plus the captain, are also on the lower deck, connected to a professional galley that serves the service area directly.
The upper deck and life outdoors
Aft on the upper deck, the dining area seats up to ten around a Ceccotti Collezioni table with a wengé ash frame and a Calacatta marble top, with Ami chairs by Paola Lenti in two shades of blue. The wide folding side windows, together with the central closure, allow the space to be opened up completely: this is where the continuity between inside and outside claimed by the project becomes most literal. The adjoining cockpit carries Orlando modular sofas, Ami armchairs and Frame coffee tables, all by Paola Lenti, with a 75-inch television integrated into the hard top and moved electrically. Further forward, the wheelhouse is flanked by a separate radio room with its own console, while a pool with an integrated sunpad and a structural sofa close out the deck. The sun deck, connected internally to the upper deck, adds a second sunbathing area and an external helm station.
To starboard aft, the garage houses a 5-metre tender and a jet ski; a second compartment beneath the stairs linking the beach area to the lounge is given over to Seabob stowage.
Acoustics as an owner’s brief
The most unusual element aboard Principessa Capricciosa, however, is neither a volume nor a material but a system. The owner placed sound reproduction among the project’s opening requirements, and the yacht was developed accordingly: Bowers & Wilkins ceiling speakers throughout the interiors, managed through the Sonos ecosystem, and in the main saloon a hi-fi configuration pairing Sonus faber loudspeakers with McIntosh electronics. Outside, a high-output system built around JL Audio components is distributed across every deck, with dedicated acoustic design in the aft cockpit using Paradigm and JBL speakers aimed towards the beach area.
It is a detail that carries more weight than its technical nature suggests, because it describes the method by which Columbus Yachts builds: not a package of options added at the outfitting stage, but an owner’s request absorbed from the earliest drawings, with consequences for ceiling voids, cabling and volumes. Personalisation, in the yard’s account of itself, begins before the interiors are drawn rather than after.
The line continues
The client was introduced by Assia and Salvatore Mele of Mele Yacht. With this hull the Atlantique range — announced across a span running from 37 to 65 metres — completes its reach downwards and confirms the direction Hot Lab has given the Ancona yard: a recognisable language applied consistently across very different sizes.
Principessa Capricciosa will make her official debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival, from 8 to 13 September, before moving on to the Monaco Yacht Show from 23 to 26 September. It will be the moment to gauge how the market responds to a proposition that, in a segment accustomed to measuring itself in volume, has chosen to measure itself in balance.
