Yersin under way under a cloudy sky, seen from the port bow: dark grey steel hull with a row of portholes, white superstructure and a yellow band on the funnel
Yersin under way off a hilly coast, with the dark grey hull and yellow funnel band of her original livery.

Yersin

The French businessman François Fiat had her built by Piriou, a Concarneau yard known for fishing, research and naval vessels, and named her after the bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. She was delivered in 2015 with a diesel-electric plant, a Bureau Veritas ice class and a laboratory. She carried the first missions of Monaco Explorations and later cruised to Greenland and Labrador. She now sails as Albatros.

76.6 m
Length overall
15,000 nm
Range at 11 kn
50 days
Endurance
IC
Ice class

In short

Yersin was built by a French commercial shipyard rather than a superyacht yard, to a brief under which the owner gave up guest space for larger technical areas such as the engine room (Boat International, Piriou). Piriou gives her a range of 15,000 nm at 11 knots and 50 days of autonomy, and her hull carries the Bureau Veritas notation ICE CLASS IC, which the class rules define as light ice with icebreaker help when needed (Piriou, Bureau Veritas). From 2017 to mid-2018 she was the research platform of Monaco Explorations, with missions off Madeira, Cabo Verde, the West Indies and Malpelo (Monaco Explorations). In 2019 her owner took her to Greenland, Baffin Island and Labrador, partly through waters without usable charts (Boat International).

Videos

Two tours from YouTube.

2015 251 ft PIRIOU Motor Yacht YERSIN - Boat Review | YATCO Yachts for SaleYATCO Yachting · 6 Apr 2022Watch on YouTube
Explorer yacht, Yersin 76.6 mDanny WheelzWatch on YouTube

Photos

Aerial view of Yersin from ahead on a calm blue sea, showing the high bow, the radar domes on the mast and the red boot-top
From above and ahead
A grey tender running fast past Yersin's starboard side in choppy water
A tender under way alongside
Yersin's dark hull at dusk with lit decks above and green underwater lights in the sea alongside
Underwater lights at dusk
Yersin at dusk with all decks lit, reflected in the water
Lit up at dusk
Plain white multipurpose room with rows of tables and folding chairs and wall screens, set up as a classroom
A room set up as a classroom
Ship's hospital with a medical bed, an examination lamp, a desk with a laptop and white cabinets
The hospital
Yersin at sea off wooded hills, seen from the port quarter, with her name on the open transom and a crane on the aft deck
The aft deck and transom
Large stainless-steel galley with work tables, ovens and an extractor hood
The galley
Long dining or conference table set with notepads, with a Mediterranean map and the words Mare Nostrum and Yersin carved into the wooden wall
The long table under the Mare Nostrum map
Saloon with grey sofas, red armchairs and a bar, under a curved wooden ceiling with a large backlit panel
Saloon
Stateroom with a double bed, a wall screen, a desk under a round porthole and an en-suite door
A stateroom
Dark cinema room with rows of armchairs facing a large screen showing a diver
The cinema
Spa with a hot tub, a massage table and a lounger under a dark ceiling
Spa with hot tub
Hammam lined with dark mosaic tiles and a star-lit ceiling
The hammam

Further reading

Independent coverage we found. We link to it rather than rewrite it.

Specifications

Length overall
76.6 m 77.6 m in Fraser
Beam
13 m
Draught
4.4 m maximum 4.5 m in Fraser and YachtBuyer
Gross tonnage
2,198
Displacement
2,000 t 1,800 t in YachtBuyer
Builder
Piriou, Concarneau, France, a yard that builds fishing, oceanographic and naval vessels. The class register gives her yard number as C314 and lists C314 (2012) and Yersin (2014) as former names
Build timeline
Keel laid in March 2013; launched in January 2015; date of build 11 May 2015 in the class register, with delivery in June 2015 according to YachtBuyer. The Prince's Palace of Monaco said in 2017 that the project had taken 10 years of work
Design
Exterior and interior by Pierre Jacques Kubis with the owner, who worked as part of the design team and gave up guest space for larger technical areas
Name
Named after Alexandre Yersin, the 19th-century physician and bacteriologist who identified the bacillus of the plague. Renamed Albatros; the Bureau Veritas register lists her as ALBATROS, ex-YERSIN
Hull and superstructure
Steel full-displacement hull, aluminium superstructure; six decks served by a lift four decks in YachtBuyer
Ice class
Bureau Veritas ICE CLASS IC. Full class in the register: I ✠HULL ✠MACH, Yacht-motor-S, Unrestricted navigation, ✠AUT-UMS, CLEANSHIP, ICE CLASS IC; class certificate valid to 11 May 2030
What IC means
Under the Bureau Veritas rules, IC applies the Finnish-Swedish Ice Class Rules for ships able to navigate in light ice conditions, with icebreaker assistance when necessary; the Finnish-Swedish rules size an IC hull for level ice up to 0.4 m thick
Ice and climate
Described as ice-classed for ice up to 40 cm, Polar Code compliant and rated for temperatures from −20 °C to +50 °C; the Polar Code category is not stated
Classification
Bureau Veritas, register number 23166H
Propulsion
Diesel-electric: six Caterpillar generator sets (four C32 and two C18) that come online one by one as power is needed, two 1,500 kW azimuth thrusters and a 600 kW bow pump jet; four stabiliser fins
Speed
15 kn maximum; 11 kn cruising 15.6 kn maximum in Fraser
Range
15,000 nm at 11 kn according to the shipyard 12,000 nm in Boat International (2024), Fraser and YachtBuyer, which gives it at 11 kn
Fuel consumption
About 360 litres of diesel an hour at 11 kn and 180 litres an hour at 9 kn, about half of what conventional engines would burn, according to Boat International
Endurance
50 days of full autonomy; 10 days with zero discharge to sea
Fuel and water
401.68 m³ of fuel (400 m³ in the shipyard sheet); 80 m³ of fresh water and two watermakers of 20 m³ a day each 50,000 L of fresh water in YachtBuyer
Environmental systems
CLEANSHIP notation: exhaust particle filters that capture 99.8% of soot, biological treatment of grey and black water with UV, waste grinding and storage, and a silicone antifouling without biocides that allows access to protected marine reserves. Dynamic positioning reduces the need to anchor
Helicopter
No certified helideck is listed by the shipyard or the class register. YachtBuyer says the aft deck can double as a touch-and-go helipad
Seaplane
Space on the 140 m² multipurpose aft deck for a seaplane such as a Cessna 206 Amphibious
Submersible
No submarine in current listings. YachtBuyer notes room on the aft deck for a mini-submarine or a decompression chamber. For the Monaco Explorations campaign in 2017 the Prince's Palace said she carried a small submarine, and Yacht Class described an ROV for work below diving depth
Tenders
Shipyard sheet: an 11 m tender, a 7.3 m aluminium barge and two 7.5 m RIBs, plus quads, bikes, jet skis and a canoe. YachtBuyer lists two 7.5 m Zodiac Hurricane RIBs, an 11.3 m Wajer, a 7.3 m tender and two 4.8 m Aka Marine RIBs
Deck equipment
Aft crane rated 1.5 t at 8 m and 3 t at 5 m, fore crane 1 t at 6 m; a stern and two side hydraulic gangways
Science and diving
A laboratory and a multipurpose room used as a lab, classroom or media room; six laboratories were described for the Monaco Explorations campaign. Dive station with air and nitrox
Medical
A hospital
Support vessel
None reported
Guests and crew
18 guests in eight staterooms; 24 crew. The shipyard sheet gives 44 people on board in total, with 12 crew cabins and one for a pilot
On board
Owner's stateroom with a private deck forward; a 30 m² spa with hammam, hot tub and massage room; two gyms; a cinema; a pool deck with a teppanyaki galley and sushi bar; a library
Expeditions
From July 2017 to mid-2018 the research platform of Monaco Explorations, with missions off Madeira, Cabo Verde, the West Indies and Malpelo (Colombia) and a 20-day Sargassum survey on the crossing from Cabo Verde to Martinique. In summer and autumn 2019 a voyage to Iceland, west Greenland (Nuuk, Ilulissat, Eqi Glacier, Uummannaq), Baffin Island, Labrador, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, then Bermuda, with scientists from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle on board for part of it
Charter
No current charter listing found (October 2026); the Fraser listing is no longer available
Owner
Built for the French businessman François Fiat, who conceived her and was named as her owner by Boat International in 2020. Registered owner now Epikerd Global Corporation FZE (Bureau Veritas register, October 2026)
Sale history
Listed for sale by Edmiston in June 2024 at an asking price of €59 million, lying in Marseille. Boat International named her among yachts rumoured to have changed hands off-market in 2025, a sale it did not confirm
For sale
Not listed for sale (October 2026)
Flag
Panama, port of registry Duqm Oman in YachtBuyer and VesselFinder; Malta in Fraser

Where is she now

Live AIS position on:

MarineTrafficVesselFinder

IMO 9666651 · MMSI 461000245

Questions

What makes Yersin an explorer yacht?
She was built by a commercial yard with a Bureau Veritas ice class, a range of 15,000 nm at 11 knots and 50 days of autonomy (Piriou). She also has a laboratory, a dive station, a hospital and a 140 m² deck for boats or a seaplane (Piriou, Fraser).
What ice class does Yersin have?
ICE CLASS IC from Bureau Veritas (Bureau Veritas). The class rules define it as light ice conditions with icebreaker help when necessary (Bureau Veritas), and brokers describe her as able to handle ice up to 40 cm (Fraser).
Is Yersin now called Albatros?
Yes. The Bureau Veritas register lists her as ALBATROS, ex-YERSIN, under the Panama flag (Bureau Veritas), and YachtBuyer also gives Albatros as her current name (YachtBuyer).
Who owns Yersin?
She was built for the French businessman François Fiat, named as owner by Boat International in 2020 (Boat International). Boat International reported a rumoured off-market sale in 2025 (Boat International), and the class register now lists Epikerd Global Corporation FZE as the owner (Bureau Veritas).
Where has Yersin been?
In 2017–2018 she carried the Monaco Explorations missions to Madeira, Cabo Verde, the West Indies and Malpelo (Monaco Explorations). In 2019 she sailed to Greenland, Baffin Island and Labrador before returning to France by way of Bermuda (Boat International).
Is Yersin for sale or charter?
She was listed for sale at €59 million in 2024 (Boat International), but YachtBuyer shows her as not for sale and the Fraser listing has been withdrawn (YachtBuyer, Fraser). No current charter listing was found.

Compare with

Explorer yachts of a similar type and length in this guide.

La Datcha yacht

La Datcha

The first SeaXplorer 77: a heli-ski and dive platform with an ice-class hull and two helicopters

Legend yacht

Legend

77.4 m icebreaking tug of 1974, rebuilt as an explorer yacht in 2014–2016 and now Aqua Lares

Planet Nine yacht

Planet Nine

A heli-explorer with an ice-class hull, built in Italy around two helicopters and a long range

Sources (14)
  1. Piriou, MV Yersin Navire de Voyage 77 m, specification sheet 2015
  2. Bureau Veritas, BV Fleet register: ALBATROS ex-YERSIN (IMO 9666651, BV Reg 23166H)
  3. Bureau Veritas, NR467 Rules for the Classification of Steel Ships, Part A (July 2026), Ch 1 Sec 2 [6.13.1] Jul 2026
  4. Traficom, Ice Class Regulations 2021 (Finnish-Swedish Ice Class Rules), Table 4-1 1 Jul 2021
  5. Prince's Palace of Monaco, The Yersin Leaves Monaco for Three Years of Scientific Exploration Round the Globe 28 Jul 2017
  6. Monaco Explorations, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco Establishes Monaco Explorations (press release) Jun 2017
  7. Monaco Explorations, progress report to the UN SDG partnerships platform: Support scientific research at sea 14 Jun 2019
  8. Fraser, YERSIN (marked "This yacht is no longer available")
  9. Boat International, Mapping the Arctic adventures of scientific superyacht Yersin 7 Oct 2020
  10. Boat International, New broker announced for 77m Piriou expedition yacht Yersin 6 Jun 2024
  11. Boat International, In review: What were the biggest superyacht sales of 2025? 16 Dec 2025
  12. YachtBuyer, Albatros (ex-Yersin)
  13. Yacht Class n°10, Le Yersin Sep 2017
  14. VesselFinder, IMO 9666651