At a special party inside superyacht building shed number six at the Heesen yard in Oss, crowds of journalists, yard workers and top industry figures gathered to watch a ceremonial welding of a memorial plate to the structure of the yards first 65 metre superyacht project.
This revolutionary concept uses the Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF), the result of studies and tank tests carried out over 20 years by the Dutch Naval Architects Van Oossanen and Associates.
Perry Van Oossanen told us that the idea behind the FDHF design comes about from the knowledge that the typical load profile of a motor yacht often consists of long range cruising at low speeds and only short periods of time at higher and maximum speeds.
“This.” he says, “indicates the need to focus hull design over the entire speed range rather than on maximum speed only. We have made sure that the FDHF incorporates design features that have a large effect on hydrodynamic resistance over the whole speed range, such as the area of the immersed transom, bulbous bow, trim control and spray rails.”
Officiating at the ceremony, Fabio Ermetto, Sales and Marketing Director at Heesen Yachts says: “We are well known in the superyacht business for being a shipyard that likes challenges. We are proud to be the first shipyard to build a yacht featuring this innovative hull configuration using aluminium for both hull and superstructure. The Fast Displacement hull configuration is the perfect platform for creating a new luxury yacht in which increased performance and reduced environmental impact begin with a radically different hull design.”
Built for unnamed Russian owners for who this will be their third Heesen, the exterior lines have been drawn by Frank Laupman from Omega Architects. At the ceremony Dickie Bannenberg and Simon Rowell of the design firm Bannenberg & Rowell stepped forward and identified them selves as the chosen interior designers for the as yet unnamed yacht. This new project becomes the fourth such inside the current Heesen building programme.