Welcome to the special “20th Anniversary” section of Top Yacht Design. Here, day by day, we present the best stories, yachts, and personalities we’ve covered over the past 20 years of Top Yacht Design, from 2006 to today.
Taken from Top Yacht Design no. 36/2023, pp. 116-124.
Project Dunes
This new 83m concept from Feadship, penned by the Studio De Voogt, is a futuristic, sustainable manifesto for the yachting world.
A masterpiece of organic architecture there’s no other way to describe Dunes, adship’s De Voogt-designed 12th concept, presented at the 2023 Monaco Yacht. Organic architecture fosters harmony between man and nature, creating a whole new system that strikes a delicate balance between built and natural environments. Dunes is 83 metres of beautifully flowing curves inspired by the ever-changing, endlessly moving dunes carved by the desert wind. Like the spaces aboard, those spaces are both adaptable and multifunctional. Her glorious lines clothe an asymmetric superstructure with barely a single straight line in sight with endless full-height glazing However, glass can cause overheating in warmer climates so De Voogt has designed protective overhangs that run along the entire profile of superstructure’s decks to limit the glazing’s exposure to the sun. In fact, it’s estimated that they cut heat build-up by up to 60%.
Instead of classic teak, a far more sustainable new material made from millions of tiny glass and stone chips sealed in a transparent aliphatic polyurethane resin is used for the decks. The designers also envisioned al fresco lounges appearing as islands on the decks and rendered them clad in beautiful, golden, maple wood – a sustainable teak replacement. The long aft overhangs are supported by a stunning, single maple-clad column. The Pavilion Deck in particular is built from treated timber, a CO2-negative building material with excellent natural insulating ability. While Dunes is a spectacular design, her most interesting features are hidden beneath that beautiful skin. She marks a huge stride towards Feadship’s goal of building zero emissions superyachts, by reducing energy demands with high efficiency, low emissions technologies. This is a hugely complex achievement that involves everything from storage batteries to a new type of fuel cell and a radical propulsion system. Laboratory tests reveal that these combined factors will reduce Dunes’ negative environmental impact by up to 95% compared to a yacht that complies with current minimum environmental requirements.
De Voogt have also pulled off the admirable feat of seamlessly marrying design and sustainability. The central mast, for instance, looks decorative but actually plays a vital role in keeping the interior cool. It is essentially a triangle of convex and concave foils, and sits on a large bearing ring that allows it to align with the direction of the wind. As the breeze strikes the mast, its shape generates a low-pressure zone on the leeside, naturally drawing the slightly over-pressurized cooled air up from lower decks, creating energy-free ventilation. A wind turbine with a slender, two blade vane that nearly disappears in the mast structure can also yield about 25 MWh per year.
Propulsion-wise, the future-forward Dunes will also sport the high efficiency ABB Dynafin which uses revolving, vertical blades to mimic the thrust of a whale’s tail, delivering one of the most efficient forms of thrust ever. The first prototype should be ready in 2025. The Dynafin will be powered by electric energy generated by electricity generated from equally revolutionary solid oxide fuel cells that use green methanol as a reaction agent. Methanol can be converted in a single step to hydrogen and doesn’t require cryogenic storage. Feadship sees green methanol (which is not produced from fossil fuels) as the best fuel choice due to its relatively high energy density and ease of storage. Between her sustainable design, organic lines and one of the world’s most advanced propulsion systems, Dunes is very definitely the poster child for the future of yachting. Now all she needs is a farsighted owner to make her a reality.
by Giuliana Fratnik
