Germany-based yacht designer Roland Friedberger is proud to present his latest project – SOLARIMPACT – an extraordinary 24m electric yacht that was built with the SWATH technology in mind – a Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull shape that’s very stable in swell and perfect even for people with motion sickness.
The SWATH technology was first presented back in 1938 and since then German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen built several pilot vessels with this kind of hull, including a superyacht called SILVER CLOUD, designed for American entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexander Dreyfoos.
But this styish SWATH yacht is completely different from any other yacht concepts we’ve seen yet. Its futuristic design is almost fully covered by a solar surface, with the electric technology coming from Kreisel, a company known for their special electric vehicles, while the development of the yacht is headed by the acclaimed German boatbuilder Schaaf Yachtbau.
SOLARIMPACT has a lightweight aluminum hull that’s covered by 280 square meters of solar cells by Sunpower, which store energy in 800 kWh batteries. In ideal conditions, under the sun’s warm rays, these solar cells could produce up to 300 kWh per day. In the fully eco mode the yacht’s range is a decent 170 miles at 5 knots, but this beauty is also powered by twin 500 kW engines that could take it to 20 knots.
The yacht will also feature two 65 kW generators as backup and with this hybrid drivetrain it has an impressive range of 2,500 nautical miles. Inside, the standard layout involves four double cabins, a spacious master suite and a crew cabin, but the shipyard could develop other configurations too. The interior space is a cool 250 square meters, so there’s enough room for almost anything you can think of.
This solar-powered SWATH yacht is still in the development stage, but you can probably get more info and pricing details straight from Schaaf Boats.
