The super rich may soon have a whole new way to show off thanks to Andy Waugh Yacht Design, a UK company that has created an absolute unit of a yacht that it calls Decadence. Inspired by the racecars of the 1920s, its shape actually offers functional advantages.
The racecar aesthetic is made possible by something called small-waterplane-area-twin-hull (or SWATH) design. Effectively, the layout puts two hulls under the water, like submarines, and attaches them to the boaty bit with stilts.
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The intention of the design is to minimize the amount of hull (the floaty bit) at the sea’s surface. This has the advantage of reducing the amount of the boat that is exposed to wave energy, making it more stable.
There are technical disadvantages to the design (among them, it’s not very good in shallow water), but for a luxury yacht whose main goal will be to act as a hyper-luxurious swimming platform for billionaires to show off with, it seems like a decent idea. The studio behind the design estimates that Decadence’s pitch and roll would be reduced by up to 70 percent, as compared to a conventional yacht, thanks to the SWATH design.
The other benefit, according to Andy Waugh Yacht Design, is that it offers “unique and exciting aesthetic possibilities yet to be fully realized in the luxury super yacht sector.” Indeed, this yacht is unusually racecar-like, and the company says that the design offer benefits inside, too. Because there are four external bits, the crew can sleep there, and the central area can be reserved exclusivley for the owner and their guests.
And you’ll likely need a lot of staff, because as the renderings show, it’s flipping massive. Measuring in at 262 ft (80 meters) long, it’s nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty, if you measure from the ground to the top of her head. Meanwhile, it is 98 feet (30 meters) wide.
Andy Waugh Yacht Design acknowledges that this may make it difficult to find a marina berth for the Decadence. However, it argues that the boat is so stable that it doesn’t need to be berthed, and you can simply use the two built-in 46-foot (14 meter) landing vessels to get back to shore.
Powering the yacht will be a “radical new propulsion system” that reduces energy use by 30 percent. The renderings also show it with inflatable wing sails, which may also help move it around. It remains unclear how much the Decadence will cost, but based on the specs, it’s probably a lot.