‘People Don’t Always Know What They Want Until You Show Them.’

Feadship normally designs yachts that meet every customer’s desire. But, what if its designers and innovators created a yacht that blended the experience from working for owners with the boldest ideas? The result is a Feadship concept design that, despite the name, could be built today. It’s 81.75-metres long and it is called Pure.

The first Feadship Future Concept was unveiled in 2006 to inspire the next generation of yacht owners. Since then, Feadship has constantly pushed people to reconsider what’s possible in the superyacht world. For example, hybrid propulsion based on F-stream in 2007, led to radical fuel consumption reductions unveiled on Breathe in 2010. This was then uniquely proven in practice on the Feadship Savannah five years later. The Savannah was the world’s first luxury motoryacht with hybrid power.

With requests from clients asking for things like eco-friendly design, multi-functional spaces, outdoor entertainment, slender hulls, privacy, autonomous living, and all-glass superstructures. The newest design goes even further, as designer Jan Schaffers explains…

“At Feadship we are used to designing totally bespoke yachts for clients with every aspect driven by their individual desires. Pure synthesises all the know-how gained in recent times over the types of spaces and exteriors which owners ask for in the purest way possible, following the red thread of these wishes. Many of us are inherently reluctant to truly explore what our actual needs are, and Pure takes a deep dive down this path. To slightly paraphrase the famous Steve Jobs quote, ‘people don’t always know what they want until you show them.’

“Pure is not, however, a flight of our collective fantasy. From the awesome open-plan spaces to the future-compatible propulsion and lower deck command centre, the Studio De Voogt design team have worked closely with the Knowledge & Innovation department and engineering experts at Feadship as well as current and new suppliers to ensure each solution proposed is realistic and would actually work in practice now.”

Pure’s three-deck atrium creates unparalleled visual and social connections, which are very hard to find on a yacht. Everything from the yacht’s structure to fire & safety regulations has been meticulously planned. Even though it looks futuristic, the Feadship yards could start building it tomorrow.

The technical key to making the design work is the two central elements around which the rest of the yacht can be built. These structural components are also home to the main deck bar (port) and main staircase (starboard), serve as the fire and mandatory zones, incorporate the casings, and offer discrete crew routing. The development has even gone as far as to include contrasting textures for inside and outdoor facing surfaces.

With this essential foundation in place, the creators of Pure have certainly made the most of the myriad possibilities on offer. As anyone who has seen recent triumphs such as Pi, Zen and VIVA will testify, Feadship has chalked up some remarkable design achievements in deploying giant slabs of glass as part of the exterior structure. Pure now does the same with the interior, with glass becoming an interchangeable aspect of the space.

There’s an extraordinary elliptical glass atrium that connects all three decks. The giant glass facade cuts through and lets in a lot of light, making the whole yacht feel open. But, there are also places where you can have privacy, like the balconies with jacuzzis and seating.

“We set out to create a perfectly balanced interior with incredible spaces for everyone,” adds Schaffers. “Exceptional views are available from wherever you stand along with a sense of wonder about how the spaces are actually working that stimulates you to explore. We developed this design with a mix of joy and tenacity, determined to adjust every angle until it works to perfection. This is an environment which is equally suitable for hosting amazing parties or displaying exciting art collections. Pure is a place for all seasons and all people.”

Windows to the world

There are lots of things going on that people can’t see because the outside is so solid. From a distance, it looks minimalist and sculptural. The lines are simple to create a sense of calm. The windows are flush, which is a big selling point. Bram Jongepier, senior specialist at De Voogt, says this is something that sets Feadship apart from the competition.

“Many yards claim to offer flush windows but in fact have a small offset of four to five centimetres, leaving about one centimetre in tolerance. Starting with the build of Venus, launched in 2012, Feadship redefined the meaning of ‘flush’. Our windows have no offset to the surface, giving a tolerance of around the millimetre mark. And on Pure we’re moving the dial further by baking a pattern on the glass using a ceramic composition called frit. This is black on the inside like a tinted window – enabling those on board to see out – yet white on the outside so people cannot look inside. The colour scheme matches the overall sculptural shaping so the windows are virtually imperceptible from the outside unless you are very close up.”

A brief tour of Pure

Let’s look at what else might be found on Pure if she comes to pass. The design has five decks, with the tank deck counting as a fully functioning part. The main deck has multiple layers, including a shaft of light from the sun deck and cascading views over the beach club.

The sun deck has a large jacuzzi, an amidships bar zone, and a dining area aft with seating around the giant elliptical skylight. This visual connection with the interior also links directly to the owners’ deck below. The aft lounge is connected to the atrium in a way that lets the owners walk around and see everything. The expansive master stateroom is in prime position forward. Pure has no conventional wheelhouse. Another private jacuzzi is on the foredeck, offering a perfect haven for the owners.

The main deck foredeck has two giant tender garages. This is how you launch the craft. The rest of the main deck is open with dining and lounging areas.

If you go aft, you’ll see the light shining down on the swimming pool area below. You can go to the beach club via sweeping curved stairways. The entire area can be opened up when at anchor. There is also a retractable glass-bottomed Jacuzzi amidships. If you’re staying in the lower deck guest suites, you won’t have to walk far to enjoy this experience.

There’s something else on the lower deck that will probably surprise you. Pure doesn’t have a bridge deck. It’s controlled from a hidden Command Centre. Everything is displayed on screens. The information the yacht needs comes from sources like radar, AIS, maps, depth sounders, and cameras. This data is combined and presented using smart augmented reality visualisation.

The Feadship Foresight programme provides further assistance to the captain and crew. It helps with things like situational awareness, motion prediction, routing, on-board comfort, and finding the most fuel-efficient way to travel between locations. Foresight is connected to an online server. This server generates bespoke high-resolution forecasts of wind, sea and swell, including in relatively sheltered areas.

When visual lines of sight are essential for the crew of Pure, stairs lead directly up to wing controls on the owners’ deck, with another helm station on the sun deck being accessible via the amidships stairway. “We recognise that the Command Centre is a controversial proposal that may lead to resistance, but such solutions are already common on subs and naval vessels,” says Jongepier. “Superyachts revolve around their owners and many prefer to have a forward- facing stateroom with panoramic views in the place where a wheelhouse normally is. Placing the bridge higher up impacts the profile. The Command Centre is a viable solution and at Feadship we see this as a big topic for discussion within the industry.”

The propulsion system on Pure is designed to cover the likely fuel requirements over the next decade. The tank deck compartments can be adapted with options based on the expected transitions. The specialists who designed this looked at every aspect of the system and checked it for accuracy. They also used the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) tool to assess the overall efficiency, fuel consumption, shore power use and annual emissions impact.

In current yachtbuilding language, the term ‘hybrid propulsion’ most often refers to a combination of diesel direct and diesel electric propulsion. However, “pure” is an energy hybrid, with diesel electric propulsion receiving energy from batteries and liquid fuel. Three scenarios are being considered for a Feadship like the Pure: the initial delivery in 2024 and two upgrades in 2027 and 2030.