When Heesen Yachts announced its 6500 Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF) earlier this year, it provided only preliminary details about the hull design. You may recall that Van Oossanen & Associates, a frequent partner of Heesen’s, initially presented the FDHF concept at a marine-industry trade show in 2009, and Heesen was the first yacht builder to sign on to use it. It’s more slender than the typical round-bilge, hard-chine hull of most megayachts. Tank tests also prove it kicks up smaller wakes, has good seakeeping abilities, and requires less fuel consumption throughout the speed range.
Heesen is revealing more about the project, now called the Heesen 65-Meter FDHF, of which hull number one was recently signed, for delivery in 2013. First, it asked Perry Van Oossanen, a Van Oossanen & Associates naval architect, to explain how the team devised the hull concept: “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 indicates the need to focus hull design over the entire speed range rather than on maximum speed only. 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.”
Now, a different hull form calls for a somewhat different overall profile design. As I explained in the first story I wrote about the Heesen 65-Meter FDHF last spring, Omega Architects worked closely with Van Oossanen & Associates for half a year to ensure the technical and aesthetic needs would be met. The virtual-reality tour above shows the family resemblance to other Heesens, but with some twists. Frank Laupman, principal of Omega Architects, describes the superstructure as being helmet-shaped, with no side-deck overhangs and a slope aft. It’s freestanding, too, containing just the sundeck and bridge deck. How is this self-supporting setup possible? “We found a way to integrate the hull with the main-deck element of the superstructure, by eliminating its normal overhang of the aft deck,” Laupman says.
As for the accommodations, this 65-meter (213-foot) superyacht will house 12 guests and 12 crew plus the captain. Watch the video above, and take note of the glass-bottomed pool, filtering lots of natural light down to the bar in the beach club. Speaking of the beach club, it’s a two-level affair, with a sauna and hammam, plus a port-side fold-down balcony and a fold-down swim platform. No tenders will be stowed here; instead, they’ll deploy via gull-wing doors flanking the foredeck. The 11.4-meter (37-foot) beam is sure to be appreciated throughout the living areas, and whether guests are indoors or outside, they’ll get to enjoy the anticipated 24-knot cruising speed, thanks to twin MTU 20V40000 diesels. Anchorages should be serene, too, with zero-speed stabilization coming from five gyroscopes from Seakeeper — a company that has worked with Couach, Numarine, Azimut, and several production builders to date.
Enjoy the virtual tour.
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