Feadship Yachts, the prestigious Netherlands-based yacht builder launched their latest superyacht project, called Savannah. The 83.5m (273’) vessel is the world’s first true hybrid megayacht and is certainly one of the most innovative beasts on the water. Savannah is also the largest yacht to be painted with a metallic paint system (Sea Foam metallic green). At first glance, she looks like a typical gigantic luxury yacht, with five stories, a swimming pool and massive decks. But, what makes her so special is that what’s under the hull.
Savannah features a pioneering blend of a single Wärtsilä main engine, three generators, some one million Watts of Li-ion batteries, a single central propeller shaft installation on the centreline and an in-line azimuting thruster. Combined with the yacht’s super streamlined hull shape, this means Savannah enjoys fuel economies of thirty per cent and incredible flexibility in operations and loading of the power plant.
The way one gigantic propeller is installed in front with another electrically powered prop in its slipstream has never been applied on a yacht. Another major innovation is the batteries, which provide extra speed at the top end, allow proper loading of the generators at any speed and facilitate super-quiet cruising at slow speeds without any engines turning. “The possibility to choose between diesel, diesel-electric or fully electric is truly exceptional,” says Savannah’s captain Ted McCumber.
“Only Feadship engineering and the rich experience of this yard could have successfully concluded a project of such scope and vision.”
Savannah’s revolutionary power systems, along with her ultra-thin bow and highly advanced propeller design, will give her owner’s one of the most efficient superyachts ever built.
