A&R build first SWATH yacht

A new design of expedition vessel for worldwide cruising has been created by Abeking and Rasmussen (A&R). The German yard has received an order from a private yacht owner for this new design after he sold his conventional monohull yacht. New building number 6480 is being built as a SWATH catamaran (small waterline area twin hull), a vessel type which the yard has been building for some years now for commercial applications. However, the yard is now transferring their expertise in this type of construction and technology to private vessel construction.

The special design of SWATH reduces rolling and pitching motion, as well as vertical acceleration, A&R claim, by down to a fifth, or less, of that experienced by a normal monohull ship. It seems that around the 40 to 100 metre mark is the optimum size for a SWATH vessel and the new expedition yacht is 40.5 metres long.

All mechanical and engineering components can be accommodated in the lower hulls and this arrangement permits unrestricted and spacious design of the twin-hull deck areas without any restraints imposed by the ship?s technical installations and gives both the interior designer and the exterior designer a wider playing field in the styling of the platform. This design concept also claims that no seawater reaches the deck, and frees up a large proportion of the front bulkhead of the deckhouse.

The owner?s area can be designed with a generous forward view while the stability of the SWATH platform makes it possible for helicopters of 3 tonne class to land, which is normally only possible on ships over 100 metres long when in rough seas. A&R is convinced that this kind of high-tech design will influence mega yacht designs in the future and the yard will deliver the first seagoing SWATH yacht in 2008, by which time, A&R claims, 10 commercial SWATH ships will have been built at the shipyard.