Students at Solent's Warsash Maritime School excel in superyacht design

Every year, students studying the flagship superyacht design course work in small groups to develop a large motor vessel in response to an imagined but challenging client brief. As part of the project, the teams must consider the client’s requirements in relation to the layout, styling and compliance with statutory and structural regulations, alongside the embedded carbon and the operational emissions of the vessel.

(Images below are of: Technical drawings of the upper deck / main deck/ lower deck and drawing of the superyacht.

This year’s students, Edoardo Micheletti, Ludovica Pisante, Alvaro Sendros, and Duncan Peace, successfully showcased their vision for the TRITON - a 51-metre trimaran - at a recent event attended by industry experts: Michael Beattie, Superyacht UK Association Manager, and Douglas Hynd of RWD; lecturers; fellow students; and Warsash colleagues.

In sharing their vision for the multihull yacht which would operate in the Caribbean, the student team confidently illustrated how their concept would combine a unique and modern aesthetic with low lifecycle emissions, offering spacious accommodation arranged over three decks with large practical spaces for relaxing, entertainment and enjoying water sports. It would also, they argued, do so while saving more than 30% of the CO2 emissions such a luxurious yacht would typically emit. This is an ambitious claim but the team’s choice of a slender-hulled, low-resistance, aluminium trimaran structure, combined with HVO fuel (a biofuel made from used vegetable oil) just might be the future of luxury yacht design.

(Images below are of: Seating area on the main deck / Triton render with island)

Speaking following the event, Michael Beattie, Superyacht UK Association Manager, said:

“I could not believe the detail they managed to achieve in the short time they have been working on this. Their thought processes, in looking to overcome some of the challenges the industry faces around alternative fuels, sustainability and the full life cycle of a yacht, were great to see.”

Commenting as an experienced yacht interior designer and an alumnus of our previous course, MSc Superyacht Design, Douglas Hynd of RWD said:

“RWD has been successfully collaborating with [Solent’s] master’s design students for the last few years. The quality of the presentations has been getting better and better. This latest project presentation only goes to reinforce that. I would like to congratulate all of the team on a job very well done.”

Course leader for Yacht Engineering, Giles Barkley, summed up why the team’s work was so impressive adding:

“The students took on a really tough brief in not only designing a superyacht, but one with a significantly lower carbon footprint than usual. The group successfully designed from bottom up a trimaran solution which addresses the powering issue right from the initial hull design and continues through to using HVO as a green source of fuel.

Well done to the whole team design team; a tremendous effort.”

The team will now go on to detail the technical aspects of their design, proving its deliverability.

To find out more about Solent’s MSc Sustainable Marine Craft and Superyacht Design course visit: www.solent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/sustainable-marine-craft-and-superyacht-design-msc