Big Fish

Big Fish looks like nothing else at anchor. McMullen & Wing built her in New Zealand in 2010, with Gregory Marshall responsible for both the angular exterior and the interior, and she went on to collect four design awards, among them prizes for naval architecture and innovation. Since then she has tested the idea in the real world: a full lap of the planet, with paddling between Antarctic ice floes at one end of it and surfing behind the tender off Tahiti's islands at the other.

What makes her unusual on charter is the diving. She runs a PADI-certified dive centre able to take every guest down at once, with a decompression chamber on board, proper underwater camera gear and a 7.9-metre custom tender, Triple Ripple, that has about 200 miles of range on its own. Two drones film from above, and a video wall three decks tall replays the day after dinner. In the Maldives and the Seychelles that set-up turns reef, wreck and shark dives into the backbone of the week rather than an occasional outing.

Indoors the palette is quiet and the furnishings understated. Instead of teak, the outside floors are granite set in epoxy resin, hard enough for high heels. Fold-down terraces open the main deck to the sea, a cushioned crow's nest sits high above everything, the gym is forward on the main deck and the sun deck has a Jacuzzi, a bar, a barbecue and a table for twelve. From the owner's cabin the view wraps almost all the way round, and a small terrace belongs to it alone.

She is ideal for divers, underwater photographers and curious families who want to learn. Ten guests and ten crew make the service very attentive. She is less suited to anyone who does not like getting wet: a lot of what she offers happens below the surface. Note too that she cannot be chartered by US residents while she is in American waters.