on 29 Aug 2019
The 25m vessel is built to remain within the "small craft" category in order to maximise amount of space on board
New catamaran maker AmaSea Yachts is aiming to break boundaries and stereotypes of the yachting industry with its first catamaran. The 25-metre AmaSea 84 power cat is aiming to be one of the most innovative and efficient yachts in its class, while offering unparalleled space, level of comfort and customisation.
(Photo: AmaSea Yachts)
“The project is developed for life on board and long-range ocean cruising,” said CEO and Founder Jack Wijnants. “The yacht is designed [within] the limit of legal ‘small craft’ range […] providing accommodation spaces comparable with much larger superyachts.”
“Centuries ago, catamarans and multihulls were used by peoples of Oceania and Southeast Asia to discover new horizons, providing them naturally safe but home-style transport for long ocean passages,” recalls Albert Nazarov of Albatross Marine Design (AMD), the design studio behind the AmaSea 84.
“Combining such impressive heritage and new technologies [allows us to build] lighter boats. Only recently the advantages of multihull craft have been appreciated by [the] international yacht industry. Today, catamarans occupy a strong niche in the overall market. In some marinas in Australia and Asia, they already [acount for] 25 per cent of the fleet.”
(Photo: AmaSea Yachts)
The AmaSea 84 is designed to maximise the best qualities of multihulls. It is going to be an oceangoing vessel: an extremely soft ride, safe and stable, with higher freeboard and flotation and vast accommodations and social areas.
Two major factors define the architecture of catamarans. They are wide and ‘tall’, thus generally more spacious than a monohull of comparable size. Due to higher stability at the outset, catamarans can have higher/larger superstructures beginning at smaller lengths.
“There is a practical restriction [to catamaran beams being between] 10-12 metres for access to marinas and moorings,” commented Nazarov. “Such beam limitations impose general restrictions on catamaran sizes if applied to yachts. Therefore, with length exceeding 30 metres, catamaran advantages are diminished. That is why for the AmaSea 84 project we decided to stick to the maximum efficient waterline length of 23.9 metres, while overall length is 25 metres.”
(Photo: AmaSea Yachts)
Comparing to a monohull of the same length, the AmaSea 84 has a similar displacement but with two extra guest cabins (six instead of four) and the total area of decks is twice as large, at around 547 square metres.
“[The] catamaran concept offers unprecedented facilities and comfort [despite its] limited length,” explains Jack Wijnants. “AmaSea Yachts’ catamaran has flexible layouts, which can be tailor-made for a particular boat owner. This is possible due to ‘square’ shapes of catamaran volumes.”
Another concept is that the owner can bring his interior designer into the AmaSea project, allowing custom interior styling and a unique yacht.
(Photo: AmaSea Yachts)
Lower deck of the AmaSea 84 is used for crew and personnel, with essential facilities such as galley. The main deck carries a spacious saloon, office and guest cabins and cooking/serving facilities. The upper deck accommodates pilothouse, and one or two master cabins. Both upper deck and flybridge offer plenty of outdoor spaces smartly planned with sitting areas. The catamaran carries many toys on board, as there are two garages.
The AmaSea 84 designers made sure the new catamaran has maximum stability and optimised performance.
Desired speed and ‘slenderness’ of the hull are major factors that influence hull selection. Unlike monohull craft, catamarans possess enough stability due to separation of hulls and thus can feature very slender demi hulls with high length-to-displacement ratios.
(Photo: AmaSea Yachts)
The AmaSea 84’s hull has a ‘canoe’ underwater shape and stern platform. Such shape provides excellent protection of stern gear, along with proven hydrodynamic efficiency in a number of AMD’s designs.
“Stability is seen as [the] main advantage of catamaran platform[s]. Recreational catamarans below 24m in length are covered by ISO12217-1 standard, which provides specific criteria for wide craft,” narrates Albert Nazarov. “Though workable, design experiences show that these requirements impose some disadvantage of high required down flooding angles on catamaran craft. Using CFD methods, we made sure the AmaSea 84 performs well in the water and its maximum speed reaches 20 knots, which is impressive for a tri-deck yacht of that size using moderate engines.”
Catamarans with their complicated geometry and operational profiles are subject to considerable global and local structural loads, mainly on the bottom and tunnel area.
“As catamarans are sensitive to weight, the concern should be given to structural optimisation and weight saving,” said Nazarov. “The AmaSea 84 will be built in aluminium, which is very unusual for this type and class of vessels and gives immense advantage to our project.”
“[The] cost-effective AmaSea 84 catamaran with length just below 24m is ‘small recreational craft’ in terms of legislation with simplified registration and manning requirements,” summarises Jack Wijnants. “However, this offers superyacht facilities in terms of space and comfort. Such [a] boat would make a statement in any marina due to its visual impression of size.”
Jack Wijnants is planning to start building the first AmaSea 84 at AmaSea Yachts’ own shipyard early next year, with delivery scheduled in 2021. The first will take around 20 months to build, but subsequent hulls 12-16 months. The finishing will take place in the Netherlands to standards of quality Dutch yachts.