Ryūjin or Ryōjin (龍神 “dragon god”) This Japanese dragon symbolized the power of the ocean, had a large mouth, and was able to transform into a human shape. Ryūjin lived in Ryūgū-jō, his palace under the sea built out of red and white coral, from where he controlled the tides with magical tide jewels. Sea turtles, fish and jellyfish are often depicted as Ryūjin’s servants.

Clearly, being a god, he moves across the waves amazingly fast, amazingly smooth and amazingly effortless. The same would certainly be true for a super modern Dyna-rig superyacht, being able to cross oceans driven just by the waves under its keel and the wind in the sails. That’s why we thought the reference to the mythological dragon god would be quite appropriate.

The only two Dyna-rig yacht existing in the world so far, the 88m Maltese Falcon and 106m Black Pearl, both played an important role in the career of Christian Leyk. The former was just finished when Christian, after seeing her at the Monaco Yacht Show, send an email to its designer, Ken Freivokh. This led to him collaborating for 10 years with the British design studio (including the honour of designing the studio’s infamous Christmas cards every year), during which he had the pleasure to work on the design of the latter.

“It has been great fun and a real honour to work together with Ken and to be at the starting point of such an amazing project. Together with the super cool guys from Gerry Dykstra and lead by a truly visionary owner, Black Pearl certainly became a benchmark yacht.”

Will Ryujin become the third Dyna-rig yacht? Well, we believe there are a few other very talented designers and reputable yards working on this concept, so the race is on!