July 3, 2009

AEROYACHT 110 - The World most innovative super catamaran

Multihull passionate and expert Gregor Tarjan, founder of Aeroyacht International, and renowned designer Pete Melvin sat down together to think about what their dream luxury catamaran would be. They came out with many innovative solutions, some of them never seen on a multihull of that size.


In a previous post, I introduced a list of these innovations, like the Icon A5 amphibian plane “tender”, the reverse bows, the competition wing-rig, the semi-flybrigde... Let’s complete the list to show how well the Aeroyacht 110 concept was thought out.

A “Outside-In” design process. Most of the time yachts are designed the other way around. Large multihulls are loaded with equipment, staterooms and end up with two or three decks. Gregor says: "We first have conceptualized a pure sailing machine with a beautiful streamlined shape and then estimated the weight for a high-end, open plan luxury interior. Instead of fitting 6 small staterooms we prefer to offer our clients three large VIP suites in a fast sailing machine"

“Soft-chine” hulls. Multiple Chines hull can be seen on racing sailboats, fast motor yachts and tenders. They increase the yacht structure stiffness, stability, performance thanks to less wetted surface, and improve esthetics. On the top of that Morrelli and Melvin have applied all their knowledge in fast hulls and bows out of the water design. The entire forward section of the Aeroyacht 110 hulls are forced up and will come out of the water keeping resistance to a minimum and increasing surfing capabilities

Asymmetric dagger boards. They are seen on smaller size catamarans but never before on a 110 footer. Retractable dagger boards increase windward performance and safety at sea. In the downward position, they enable the Aeroyacht 110 to sail close to the wind. In the upward position, the boat experiences less resistance and really "flies". The asymmetric boards also prevent the Aeroyacht 110 from tripping over the waves since the yacht offer no resistance and can slide sideways. They are also a great feature to reduce the draft and access really beautiful and private anchorages.

Aeronautical engineering.
The design team in charge of the Aeroyacht 110 at Morrelli & Melvin is made up of aeronautical engineers and structural designers. They have made the most out of the same tools used to develop aircrafts structures like complex computers programs that model Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Elements Method (FEM). They succeeded in keeping the structure as light as possible, yet strong enough to face the roughest sailing conditions.

All this innovations were aimed at creating a super catamaran with a speed potential of over 32 knots and effortless cruising at 20 knots, in supreme yacht comfort and safety.

No comments: