Forget converting deep sea tugs into superyachts here is an exciting project for would be converters. The US Navy has a stealth ship for sale
Developed by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency for the Navy in 1984 and kept secret until 1993, the experimental stealth ship is up for auction block with bids exceeding $99,000 already on the web site for the boat.
Sea Shadow said to be the inspiration for the stealth ship in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies is 500 tons and cost over $195 million to develop.
She was designed to test out what the Navy called “advanced hull forms and structures, automation for reduced manning, sea keeping and ship signature control.”
Sea Shadow has a SWATH hull design. Below the water are submerged twin hulls, each with a propeller, aft stabilizer, and inboard hydrofoil. The portion of the ship above water is connected to the hulls via the two angled struts.
The shape of the superstructure has sometimes been compared to the casemate of the ironclad ram CSS Virginia of the American Civil War.
It was never intended to be mission capable and was never commissioned, although it is listed in the Naval Vessel Register.
Sea Shadow was revealed to the public in 1993, and was housed at the San Diego Naval Station until September 2006, when it was relocated to the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in Benicia, CA.