by Nick Hallett
Image copyright James Courtney
Image caption The James Courtney story, as told to Nick Hallett
The bespoke yacht industry is huge, and there are some pretty massive ones out there. And there are plenty of experts working in it. The guys at Wardlaw show off the more unusual designs.
I’ve been on a boat called a ‘Liquid Logistics’ – that’s one of those custom, tailored, superyachts that runs on liquid. Because it’s a mega-yacht, it is the most liquid of the superyachts. And the concept of it was: gee, why don’t we have a yacht that is super powerful, fast, super young, super short and super flat.
It’s a boat that will be named after a company because of its name – it’s the first-ever super tanker, the first-ever ultra-high speed supertanker.
They’ve hit every target. They have water, they have a full range, they have an engine that can go down more than 20,000ft – 20,000ft for the record books. It’ll go around 3h per hour, and you can look in your maths book and find out that was faster than any jet plane on the planet.
It is a huge vessel, maybe 15,000ft long, with a larger draft than any yacht in the world. Which means it will be lighter than a light plane and still able to go much faster than a small aircraft. This vessel is only 40 metres wide, which is considerably narrower than a bus. It can carry 200 people, although most people are going to sit up on one or two decks. That’s one of the benefits of this vessel: you can stop at almost any port on the planet and fill it up if you like.
You’ll notice this vessel is covered in luxury – nobody’s going to be able to survive in it for more than a couple of days, let alone a couple of weeks.
New Atlas explains the changing shape of superyachts, in detail
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption The Crewman shows some of the lighter boats
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption The crewman shows some of the lighter boats
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption The Crewman show a version of the space-aged boat with a concrete cockpit
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption A boat titled Staraway, designed for NASA staff
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption NASA lost its workhorse spacecraft programme Cassini
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption A Venetian-style boat designed for Sardinian tourists, the Venetian End
Image copyright Image Locale Image caption The Blackwing dines on caffeine, the blackwing on caffeine