The Dutch shipyard, Feadship presented, at the Monaco Yacht Show 2023, its latest concept design, Dunes, created in partnership with De Voogt architecture studio.

Dunes, an extraordinary 83 metres, embodies the spirit and objectives of Feadship: to build a Net-Zero superyacht, a yacht with significantly reduced energy consumption, and in the case of Dunes, by up to 95%. Since 2006 the Dutch shipyard has begun developing concept designs focused on sustainability, leaving them for the future generations entering the Feadship Group.

But how can Dunes become a zero impact vessel? Through a combination of a number of factors: tinted windows, reducing the need for cooling, new generation accumulators, with extra capacity, abolishing decks in teak, installation of new fuel cells and super efficient propulsion.

To discover a bit more about the futuristic design, Daily Nautica interviewed the designer Thijs Orth in Monaco.

“The design – says Thijs Orth – is for six guest cabins, in addition to a spa, beach club, private deck for the owner and a pool. In the planning phase, we came up with many new ‘what ifs?’, so we asked ourselves: what would happen if the engine room was no longer at the centre of the yacht? And if the guests could have direct access to the beach club? And if the fuel cells didn’t require storage tanks for hydrogen? These and other questions led us to new solutions for old problems, opening up the possibility for a completely new layout.”

THE DESIGN 

For aesthetic inspiration Studio De Voogt concentrated on undulating waves, not of water, but of sand. One of Dunes’ characteristics is its asymmetrical superstructure, just like that of sand dunes, depriving it of nearly all straight lines. The designers imagined that the open living spaces appear to be islands on the decks, and covered them in golden maple wood, a sustainable material. The classic teak deck, the wood of which has been banned for importation in Europe, was replaced with millions of fragments of glass or stone, sealed within a transparent resin.

COOLING TECHNOLOGY

A distinctive trait of this superyacht is its 10 metre mast which has a very important technical purpose. The mast is part of the Cool Core Concept created by Studio De Voogt. The mast is shaped like a triangle of convex and concave elements. When the wind crosses the mast, its shape generates an area of low pressure downwind, naturally attracting the cooler air that is then sucked in by the central staircase and distributed throughout the interior without the need for fans and ducts.

Feadship engineers have created a slim two propeller turbine which nearly disappears in the central mast’s structure. Used only when in roads, this turbine can produce around 25 Mwh of energy per year.