Wider 165 Joins Wider Yachts Offerings

Come 2016, Italy’s Wider Yachts expects to launch its newest, and largest, megayacht, the Wider 165. Plate cutting for the all-aluminum yacht should start later this month or in early March.

The Wider 165 was commissioned by the co-owner of the Ancona-based shipyard where Wider Yachts builds its big projects. A personal submarine dictated the LOA; initially, he wanted a Wider 150. As the video here shows, that sub will be able to float straight into a side garage when it surfaces. There’s also a helipad aboard. For the most part, however, the Wider 165 bears the same design elements as the originally considered project. These include fold-down platforms for maximizing relaxation space and a drive-in tender bay. That bay turns into the “Wider Beach” when the tender isn’t aboard, featuring a pool.

There is, though, one significant difference between the Wider 150 and Wider 165. Wider Yachts is equipping the larger model with diesel-electric propulsion. While the smaller megayacht has this system, too, it changed for the 165. Specifically, Tilli Antonelli, the shipyard’s managing director, says the superyacht will be be more fuel-efficient at all times, not just on occasion.

Wider Yachts turned to U.S.-based Emerson, a company with extensive experience in commercial and military projects, for the system. Interestingly, the engine room will be in the bow. A lithium-polymer battery bank will be part of the equipment there. Four gensets will also be part of the system. On batteries alone, the Wider 165 should emit no emissions. Bringing the gensets online increases speeds to varying degrees while still keeping fuel consumption lower than traditional diesel engines. Azipods and a power-management system developed by Emerson and Wider Yachts round out the propulsion features. (That same power-management system also controls the air conditioning and other so-called “hotel loads.”)

The owner is still finalizing the interior. However, preliminary renderings reveal the Wider 165 will still essentially bring the outside in, via large windows and fold-down balconies.

Watch the Wider 165 video to get a better sense of what she’ll be like.