The quest towards building and operating the worlds first hybrid superyacht continues apace with the Dutch superyacht builder Feadship claiming to have launched the worlds first such yacht.
Their claims were immediately refuted by another Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman who have launched not just one but two hybrid yachts.
Ethereal is 58m launched in 2008 and the 46 metre Elfje launched last year have both been successfully operating in hybrid mode for quite some time.
The Feadship contender for the title is the 83.50-metre Savannah, and features a blend of single diesel engine, gensets, batteries, propeller and azimuting thruster
Offering fuel economies of thirty per cent, the pioneering electro-mechanical propulsion platform marries a dynamic hull shape with a very fine entry, uses one efficient medium-speed Wärtsilä main engine instead of two higher-rev diesel motors, a single central propeller shaft installation on the centreline and three genset.
Inspired by the their concept Breathe, unveiled at the Monaco Yacht Show in 2010 two years after the launching of Ethereal, the new Savannah is the embodiment of a cost-effective and cleaner mode of propulsion that can be achieved within an entirely bespoke superyacht.
Aboard Savannah redundancy is ensured by fitting a large contra-rotating and azimuthing stern thruster just aft of the main propeller. The design of the aft ship allows for a propeller that is forty per cent larger than the norm. Combined with the power supplied by the thruster, the load on the propeller is only half that of a conventional twin screw yacht. This again results in a higher efficiency and fewer vibrations. In addition, the large sternthruster also ensures excellent manoeuvrability in marinas.
