Some yachts are built to impress at the dock. The new Columbus Atlantique 38m, M/Y Principessa Capricciosa, is built for something else: the quiet hours between destinations, when the only agenda is what the sea decides to show you.
At 38 metres she's the smallest in Columbus Yachts' Atlantique series, and the fourth to launch, but there's nothing modest about the experience on board. This is a yacht designed around the idea that owners don't just travel by sea, they live by it, treating every voyage as an unfolding discovery rather than a destination to tick off.
She sits at 299 GT, just under the threshold that would push her into a different regulatory bracket, a technical detail that translates into something owners actually feel: a smaller crew footprint, lower running costs, and enough flexibility left over for the kind of customisation that turns a yacht into something entirely personal.
Principessa Capricciosa steps into the spotlight at the Cannes Yachting Festival 2026, then on to Monaco later in the year, two of the only rooms in the world where a boat like this gets the audience it deserves.
A hull built to disappear into the water
Aluminium, top to bottom, hull and superstructure both. The silhouette borrows something from classic sailing yachts, that long, low, purposeful line, but reworked for a different era. The stern sits just 50 centimetres above the waterline, close enough that the sea feels like a companion rather than a backdrop.
Below decks, up to 12 guests are accommodated across five cabins, each one a private world of its own.
Where the day actually happens
The aft cockpit is less a deck than a terrace suspended over the ocean. Two fold-down balconies open the space further still, and a deep sofa with oversized poufs faces the horizon, the kind of seat you sink into and don't get up from for hours. A mirrored cocktail bar catches the evening light, and Roda's Laze Collection furniture sets a tone that's relaxed rather than staged.
Step into the main saloon and the mood shifts to something warmer. Lacquered wood in cream and grey-beige tones, light marble inset into the walls, staggered cladding that plays with depth and shadow. European oak underfoot ties it back to something more grounded, more considered. White Minotti sofas, dark grey armchairs, a marble-topped coffee table on an aluminium frame, and a Loloey rug soft enough to forget you're at sea at all.
Cantalupi designed the lighting through the main and upper deck lobbies, the kind of detail most guests will never consciously notice, and the reason the whole space feels considered rather than assembled.
A suite built for someone who has earned the view
Forward on the main deck, the full-beam owner's suite unfolds in warm brown and cream, the palette of somewhere you'd actually want to wake up. A walk-in wardrobe with aluminium detailing leads through to a wellness area with its own treadmill, positioned beside a window that frames nothing but sea.
The bed is king-size, backed by a three-dimensional limestone headboard lit by Freccia Uno Avorio wall lights. The ensuite splits into two distinct zones around a marble-clad shower, and beyond it all, a private terrace with Roda armchairs looks out over water that changes colour by the hour. On the port side, leather-detailed cabinetry and a satin bronze Artemide table lamp round out a space built less like a cabin and more like a residence.
Four further guest cabins occupy the lower deck, two with double beds, two with twins that convert, each with a Pullman berth in reserve. No two share a colour palette. Marble runs through every bathroom, and lighting from FontanaArte and Bomma gives each cabin its own quiet identity.
Dinner with the doors open to the sea
Ten guests, one table, the kind of evening that starts as dinner and ends somewhere else entirely. The Ceccotti Collezioni table pairs a wengé-stained ash frame with a Calacatta marble top, surrounded by Paola Lenti's Ami chairs in two shades of blue. Fold-away glazing turns the whole space into an open-air terrace when the weather allows, which, on a yacht like this, is most of the time.
Up on the aft cockpit, Paola Lenti's Orlando sofas and Frame coffee tables set the scene for whatever the evening calls for, a quiet drink or a full gathering. A 75 inch television rises from the hardtop on an electric lift when it's wanted, and disappears when it isn't.
Forward, the wheelhouse and its dedicated radio room handle business the guests never see. Above, a swimming pool with an integrated sun pad claims the upper deck, and higher still, the sun deck offers a second helm station, for owners who'd rather feel the wind on their face than watch it through glass.
Sound, engineered like everything else
The audio system wasn't an afterthought bolted on at the end, it was part of the brief from day one. Bowers & Wilkins ceiling speakers, run through Sonos, follow guests through every interior space. In the main saloon, that ambition reaches its peak: Sonus faber speakers paired with McIntosh electronics, a combination serious listeners will recognise as close to the top of what's possible. Outside, JL Audio powers the open decks, while the aft cockpit adds Paradigm and JBL speakers tuned toward the stern and beach area, built for nights that start with music and end with the stars instead.
What it takes to run her
Six crew and a captain, housed in four cabins on the lower deck, keep the experience effortless for everyone above. A garage aft on the starboard side holds a 5 metre tender and a personal watercraft, with Seabobs tucked into a second compartment beneath the staircase down to the beach club.
Power comes from twin 2,000 hp MAN engines, driving a semi-planing hull to a top speed of 20 knots and a comfortable cruise at 17.6, enough performance to matter, without ever feeling like the point.
Hot Lab is behind both the exterior and interior design, with naval architecture developed in-house alongside Francesco Rogantin. The client came to the project through Assia and Salvatore Mele of Mele Yacht.
The house that built her
Columbus Yachts began in 2008, when the Palumbo family, already decades deep in merchant shipping, decided to bring that same engineering rigour to the world of leisure yachts. The brand found its global voice in 2011 with Prima, its first 54 metre superyacht.
Since then, Columbus has carved out a name in hybrid propulsion, most notably with the Sport Hybrid 40m, the first superyacht ever to receive RINA's "Hybrid Propulsion Y" notation. In 2019, the flagship arrived: the 80 metre Columbus Classic M/Y Dragon.
Today the yard builds across three lines, Atlantique, Crossover and Sport, from 37 to 67 metres, with fully custom builds available up to 100 metres in aluminium or steel. Columbus Yachts sits within the Palumbo Superyachts network, alongside ISA Yachts, Mondomarine and EXTRA Yachts, a group built on the same idea that runs through Principessa Capricciosa herself: that a yacht should feel less like it was built, and more like it was meant for you.
