The host.
Bill Springer. Forbes Senior Contributor.
30 years behind the velvet rope.
Expedition Partner
Beyond the Waterline · Episode 01 · A cinematic series
Deeper.
Cousteau had Calypso. This era is building 5 ships.
Hosted by Bill Springer · A Stein Studios Production
The Idea
A cinematic series.
The people exploring the ocean, filmed from the fleet built to do it.
The subject.
A working research fleet and the people aboard.
Dagon. Hydra. Leviathan.
The form.
20-minute episodes. Festival grade.
The witness, not the performer.
The Fleet
Dagon. Bakunawa. Hydra.
And 2 newbuilds on order for 2028 and 2030.
RV Dagon
68m. Built to hunt submarines.
Quiet enough to speak with her submersible at full ocean depth.
DSV Bakunawa
2 seats. Certified to 11,000 m.
Record crewed dives in all 5 oceans.
RV Hydra
56m. Ice-strengthened.
Formerly the research vessel Alucia.
On order
100m, keel laid June 2026.
162m for 130 scientists, delivery 2030.
64,754
km2 of seafloor mapped in one expedition
8,336 m
Deepest fish ever filmed, on the expedition Inkfish helped fund
First
Live goblin shark ever observed, 700 m below its known range
2026
A new species named malohi: Tongan for mighty
The Series
3 episodes.
One fleet.
Filmed wherever the fleet's own routing goes next. The captain calls the day.
Episode 01 · In development
The Deep
The science team at work.
The lander cycle. 5 to 7 days aboard.
Episode 02 · Scoped
The Builders
The yard and the flagship.
3,000 names engraved in her staircase glass.
Episode 03 · Open
The Culture
Single cabins for 130 scientists. Open data.
The crew that makes it run.
Episode 01 · The Deep
20 minutes.
3 acts.
5 to 7 days aboard, embedded with the science team.
Act 01
Who runs a fleet like this?
Act 02
What does a working day at sea look like?
Act 03
Why build it at all?
The fleet's routing decides the where · The captain calls the day-by-day
The Humanity
The cook. The pilot.
The scientist on her first expedition.
The visiting scientist.
4 weeks aboard. Went home with the dataset
and her name on the papers.
The record.
April 2024. 8,000 m.
The first all-woman deep submersible dive.
The single cabins.
130 scientists, most in single cabins,
on the 162m now in build.
The names in the glass.
Nearly 3,000 builders engraved
in the flagship's staircase.
Why Now
5 ships by 2030.
The fleet made its public debut at Monaco this week.
Monaco, this week.
The 111m Leviathan is the largest yacht at MYS 2026.
Her companion Draak is 3rd.
The template exists.
An independent film with real access, released free.
It has been done in this founder's world before.
The access.
30 years of trust. Bill holds the door
no one else in media can open.
The Host
Bill Springer.
Forbes Senior Contributor. 30 years on the water.
Bill Springer is the Anthony Bourdain of the mysterious and impossibly expensive world of superyachts and their secretive owners.
For 30 years as a respected yachting journalist, no one in the media has earned the trust — or the exclusive, behind-the-velvet-rope access — he has to the world's largest superyachts, and the owners and crew who use them.
But he's just a regular guy whose stories capture the soul of the superyacht world in warm, emotional, human, funny, and inspirational ways everyone can relate and aspire to.
He's everyman — a luxury everyman.
ForbesSailCruising WorldOcean HomeYachting
804
Published articles
6.5M
Forbes readers · and counting
Stein Studios
150+ expeditions.
All seven continents.
Stein Studios · 50+ Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. The witness, not the performer.
Selected productions
- · M/Y Solace · Caribbean
- · M/Y Octopus · Antarctica
- · M/Y Legend · Antarctica
- · M/Y Legend · Northwest Passage
- · Archimedes · Northwest Passage
- · S/Y Lamima · Indonesia
- · Hanse Explorer · French Polynesia
- · Nansen Explorer · Greenland
-
× 14
Antarctica
-
× 4
Northwest Passage
-
× 20
Svalbard
The Trade
We have the host. We have the producer.
We are asking Inkfish for the door.
We ask for
- 10 to 12 berths.
- 5 to 7 days aboard.
- The fleet's own routing. No detours.
- No cash from the owner, ever.
Inkfish receives
- The 20-minute pilot, festival grade.
- Every deliverable in high resolution.
- The record of this era of the fleet, told by the journalist the industry trusts.
$250,000 to $300,000 per episode, underwritten by Stein Studios and expedition partners. In active distribution conversation with Forbes: 6.5M readers on Bill's byline.
View the Series Vision →
Beyond the Waterline · the full series deck
The Invitation
Let's tell this
story together.
Bill Springer
Host · Forbes Senior Contributor
billy@swizzlesports.com
Stein Retzlaff
Producer · Stein Studios
steinretzlaff@gmail.com
Expedition Partner