When someone buys a pair of really comfortable shoes, it’s not uncommon to hear the sensation referred to as walking on air. So imagine the comfort of cruising aboard a yacht named Silver Cloud–especially one with the unusual, and unusually brilliant, design showcased here.
The 134-foot megayacht, which recently launched at Abeking & Rasmussen, embraces a SWATH hull form. SWATH, or Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull, is a design well proven in military and commercial applications. In fact, Abeking & Rasmussen had one under construction, destined for the North Sea as a pilot vessel, when I visited last summer and has additionally delivered dozens of them over the past few years. As the name states, a SWATH features two hulls, cylindrical and even torpedo-like in shape, which allows them to cut through the water with minimum resistance. The “Small Waterplane Area” comes into play where two narrow vertical struts connect the hulls to the cross deck, the latter being well above the waterline. The benefit of this versus a traditional monohull and even a catamaran is a reduction in heaving and pitching when the hulls encounter waves–thereby improving both efficiency and, particularly important, passenger comfort.
And improved comfort is exactly what the yachtsman who commissioned Silver Cloud had in mind when he chose the design. As Till von Krause, Abeking & Rasmussen’s sales manager, explained to me last year, the owner’s wife is plagued by seasickness. When the owner discovered SWATHs combated that problem, he inquired if the yard could build one as a yacht, to replace his 143-foot Feadship. Obviously the answer was yes, and steel cutting for the hull began in late 2006.
Still can’t believe the design provides superior comfort? Visit the yacht’s Web site, where, among other things, you’ll see a video that’ll change your mind. In it, a 164-foot traditional monohull ship cruises side by side with a SWATH measuring “only” 82 feet–and as the larger vessel pitches and plows bow-first into some big waves, the SWATH just keeps cruising, seemingly without a care in the world.
photo: courtesy Superyacht Times
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