Being part of the Damen Shipyard Group has its advantages for Amels. It can tap into the research and development knowledge developed from delivering 4,000 vessels (about 168 last year alone). Additionally, Amels can actually borrow its boats. Or more accurately, market them for sale. Such is the case with the vessels featuring its axe bow.
During a press tour this week (organized by HISWA, the Dutch yacht-building federation), Amels revealed that the owner of a 100-meter-plus megayacht ordered not one, but two of Damen’s Sea Axe Fast Crew Supplier vessels. Both will serve as yacht supply/shadow vessels.
Developed for the offshore oil industry, the Sea Axe features an axe bow. It’s a knife-sharp design other commercial and military vessels leverage. It’s a design echoed, although with some differences, by recent superyacht launches. Aviva is a good example, though her bow is an aesthetic, not functional, element. Crew-supply boats run literally thousands of hours each year in all sorts of conditions. Therefore, the axe bow allows vessels to operate in bad sea states without having to reduce speed. It avoids exaggerated vertical movements, as would be the case with a traditional bow design. In fact, Amels showed our group of journalists a video of tank tests in which the axe bow performed the best by far in heavy seas.
So what’s a superyacht owner want with two crew vessels? He wants them outfitted to handle toys and extra crew, among other things. Amels determined that other owners might be interested, too. After consulting several captains in its fleet, the shipyard decided to market the concept as the Fast Yacht Supplier (above).
The information here is really just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Amels is presently preparing renderings that show an abundance of toys on deck, so once they’re ready, I’ll post them, along with more details.
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