First in steel and first of the new Custom line. Amer Yachts announces a milestone in the history of luxury yachting: the Amer 42 Explorer Even Further, the shipyard’s first steel vessel and the founding model of its new custom steel production line, is a 41.45-metre explorer yacht with aluminium superstructures, equipped with the Volvo Penta Professional Platform propulsion system, featuring two IPS40 drives and four D13 engines. During the first open-sea trials, the yacht achieved a record fuel consumption of just 60 litres of diesel per hour in ‘Eco Mode’, which uses two of the four engines connected to the drives.
“A journey that pays us back today”
Barbara Amerio, CEO of Amer Yachts S.p.A. “This exceptional result is the outcome of a long and relentless pursuit of improved performance and reduced fuel consumption and emissions. We started in the late 1980s and, well before these topics became widely discussed, chose a path that today rewards us for the great sacrifices and initial scepticism we encountered. It is an advantage we can offer to our clients and to charter units, which are particularly sensitive to rising fuel costs.”
A revolution in consumption
The result comes from an unprecedented design synergy. The steel hull – genuinely innovative in both form and construction – has been combined with aluminium superstructures to optimise weight and mass distribution. But the real breakthrough lies in the way Amer designed the yacht to adopt Volvo Penta’s propulsion system, consisting of two new IPS40 pods powered by four D13 engines compliant with IMO Tier III standards, with twin forward-facing counter-rotating propellers, delivering up to 30% fuel savings compared with traditional inboard shaft installations. The result is extraordinary: with a 56,300-liter fuel tank, the Amer 42, capable of carrying up to 19 guests and crew, has a range of 8,900 miles. Even Further could therefore reach Australia without refueling from the shipyard in Sanremo.
Volvo Penta – Amer Yachts: The Success of the Collaboration
Nicola Pomi, Vice President Yacht & Superyacht at Volvo Penta, adds: “The collaboration with Amer Yachts, the result of more than 12 years of joint research and experimentation, demonstrates how technological innovation can radically transform the future of navigation, even over long distances. The extraordinary results of the Amer 42 Explorer confirm the effectiveness of our Volvo Penta IPS Professional Platform, even on hulls of this displacement. This is not only about a drastic reduction in fuel consumption and emissions, but also about a revolution in the onboard experience: the reduction of noise and vibration ensures unmatched comfort, a value that becomes essential and deeply appreciated during the long ocean passages for which this explorer is intended. This project confirms the value of collaboration between shipyard and technology partner in redefining the future of yachting.”
Just one word
In the custom yachting sector, specifications declared during the design phase are often broad targets. Amer Yachts has chosen a different approach: every performance figure for Even Further – fuel consumption, speed and range – had been declared by Rodolfo Amerio even before the keel was laid. After delivery, those figures were not only confirmed, but exceeded. The drastic reduction of noise and vibration on board, a goal declared from the earliest stages of the project, has also translated into acoustic comfort that is both perceptible and measurable, even in the absence of codified quantitative parameters for this type of vessel. In a market where the promises made by shipyards are often more generous than the yachts they produce, this consistency between project and reality is not a detail: it is a guarantee. And for the clients of the new one-off projects currently under development, it represents the most solid foundation on which to base their choices.
The “Ice Class” certification
Even Further is designed by Luiz De Basto while the naval engineering is by Optima Design Italy. The philosophy is that of a yacht capable of concealing its vocation as a true long-range explorer – with Ice Class certification – behind the aesthetics of Mediterranean luxury: aft areas open to conviviality, a 17-metre flybridge – over 40% of the yacht’s overall length – and interiors with a bright, contemporary palette give the vessel the appearance of a traditional superyacht. But beneath the profile, the reality is quite different: a high bow, cranes with a lifting capacity of 8,000 kg each, a touch-and-go helipad on the foredeck, a wheelhouse with 270-degree visibility and a full-height, forward-raked windshield.
A yacht ready to go anywhere
These results are also made possible by the hull’s waterlines, the outcome of more than fifteen years of research and development carried out by the shipyard in collaboration with its naval engineering partners.There is, however, an element that precedes all this. When Amer decided to apply the IPS propulsion system to yachts of this size and displacement, the industry was sceptical: Volvo Penta pods were considered a solution suited to much smaller yachts. It was the shipyard’s founder, Fernando Amerio, and his son Rodolfo, who first believed in the potential of this technology applied to large hulls. More than twelve years ago, the shipyard began experimenting with its use, building a wealth of data, adaptations and know-how that no other shipyard in the world possesses in this segment. The results achieved by the Amer 42 Explorer Even Further –fuel consumption, speed, range, acoustic comfort and manoeuvrability – are the product of long, determined and visionary work. Amer Yachts continues to invest in the evolution of advanced technological solutions, with the aim of further improving the levels of efficiency, sustainability and performance that the Amer 42 Explorer “Even Further” has been able to achieve – and exceed.
Emilio Martinelli
