Yacht watchers wax poetic about exterior styling and interior design. Rarely—okay, never—do they go gaga over bowsprits. We’d like to change that, because the bowsprit aboard the new Kismet is fantastic. And, when you learn the details behind how it was made, you’ll be even more impressed.
Kismet (below), measuring 312’3” (95.2 meters), was delivered by Lürssen last year. She arrived in Fort Lauderdale in recent weeks, and seemingly all anyone online can talk about is the fierce-looking jaguar on her bow. As the close-up at top reveals, taken when it was first being fitted, Kismet features a gleaming, growling jaguar with bright teal eyes, one of its front paws raised, and the other paw positioned on a football helmet. It’s well-known that Kismet belongs to the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars football team, so the design follows suit.
The company that created the jaguar for Kismet is Materialise. Based in Belgium, Materialise provides 3D printing, engineering, and software for the medical and engineering professions as well as for consumers. The jaguar was made in a single piece, as you can see in the video below. And what a piece it is: Kismet’s jaguar stands 6’6” high and is 13’5” feet long (2 meters and 4.1 meters, respectively). It’s further 2’6” (0.8 meters) wide and weighs a little more than 220 pounds (100 kilograms). Also of interest, more than 5,000 layers measuring 0.5 millimeters each make up the jaguar and helmet. Each layer is a liquid polymer that hardens when hit by a laser beam.
The metallic coating for the jaguar and helmet is mighty bright: 10,260 lumen, according to Materialise. In layman’s terms, that’s about four times brighter than a 150-watt lightbulb. It’s more than just aesthetically appealing, though. Since Kismet clearly will be out in the elements, Materialise made sure the coating would protect the craftsmanship.
We should have more photos of Kismet in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out the video, it’s pretty impressive.
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