on 25 Aug 2023
Support yacht Charley 2 is a significantly larger variant of its predecessor
Australian custom superyacht builder Echo Yachts has launched its latest newbuild project, the 56m adventure and support catamaran Charley 2.
At 56m long and with a 1,041GT volume, Charley 2 is now the largest catamaran motoryacht ever built in Australia, and is the second-largest Echo Yachts superyacht built at the Echo Marine Group shipyard near Fremantle in Western Australia.
The aluminium-hulled Charley 2 is a significantly larger variant of its predecessor M/Y Charley, which was delivered in 2017 with a LOA of 50m and a 701GT volume.
Naval architecture for Charley 2 is by Australian firm One2Three Naval Architects, with engineering, electrical and fitout design from the in-house team at Echo Marine Group.
Echo says Charley 2‘s larger layout provides spacious interior accommodation, outdoor entertaining areas and significant water-toy carrying capacity.
The yard adds that Charley 2‘s aluminium hull is custom-designed to improve hydrodynamic efficiency and enable the use of much smaller engines to propel what is a significantly larger yacht compared to its predecessor.
Charley 2 has a 12m custom-built catamaran tender on a launch and retrieval platform at the stern of the vessel. The yacht is also equipped with a large helicopter pad, dive store, decompression chamber and specialist sonar equipment on the 12m tender for wreck finding and diving adventures.
The design and construction of Charley 2 was completed within three years, with the project kicking off in 2020.
“It is a very special day for the teams at Echo Yachts and One2Three Naval Architects seeing the fruits of our combined efforts in the launch of Charley 2,” says Mark Stothard, director of Echo Marine Group. “She sits perfectly on the design waterline and is one of the most complete vessels I have seen at launch. A few weeks of commissioning and trials, and then she will be off on her first adventure.”
Sea trials are to commence at the beginning of September 2023, with delivery several weeks later.
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