Tom Schröder on Arctic plans for His New 44m Explorer

By Stewart Campbell

Owner: Tom SchrÖder

Yacht: Lt. Pete Maverick Mitchell
Length: 44.33m
Year: 2024
Location: Finland

What’s Finland like to cruise?
Unbelievable – there’s something like 170,000 islands! I’m not sure who counted them all, but that’s what we’ve been told. But it’s not as many as Sweden, which has something like 270,000. It’s very cool how many there are. They’re everywhere, these tiny little rocky, forested islands. Importantly, there are some very nice golf courses too!

And before that, you cruised into the heart of London...
That was very special, having Tower Bridge open for us. I’m not sure the motorists caught on either side were terribly happy about it, but we loved it. That has been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

How long have you been on board?
We’ve been cruising five months so far. We were down in the Red Sea at the start of the year, which was a mind-blowing experience. I had no expectations, but we were all very impressed. You can visit these historic towns in the desert, and the diving and sand islands are spectacular.

We went to a few hotels, including Shebara Resort, which has these UFO-like pods hanging over the water, and a place called Desert Rock, where the rooms have been dug into some amazing red cliffs. We visited the AlUla cultural site, too.

Where are you headed after Finland?
We’ll go round southern Sweden and Norway and up to Svalbard and the North Pole. After that, we’ll cross to Iceland and Greenland. In all, we’ll spend about two and a half months in the Arctic. The family is loving it so far.

Congratulations, too, on your World Superyacht Award!
Thank you. We were very pleased to receive such a prestigious acknowledgement that we have built something truly special and capable of the adventures we’re planning.