Almost a year after its design was first announced, the world is still waiting for an appearance of London-based architect Jonathan Schwinge’s Tetrahedron Superyacht. Billed as aviation on the sea, the radical concept flips traditional yacht design on its head with a complete rethink while retaining all of the luxuries one would expect on such a multi-million-dollar machine.
Levitating luxury
The innovative concept vessel ‘levitates’ thanks to a vertical strut attached to a submerged torpedo-shaped hull. According to the rendering, it boasts spacious sun decks, an outdoor dining area and water toys for guests. The design controls roll forces, pitch and heave, so the yacht can travel smoothly through rough water. With a pyramid-shaped superstructure that appears to fly low over the water, this innovative luxury superyacht looks like it belongs in outer space instead of the ocean.
Stuck at concept stage or a giant hoax?
(Credit/Schwinge)
Superyacht specs
Made from carbon fibre and duplex stainless steel, Tetrahedron Superyacht can accommodate six passengers and four crew members in a 70.8-foot-long pyramid that has four faces and six leading edges. It has a ‘flying speed’ of 38 knots (43.7 miles per hour) above the water line and a take-off speed of 15 knots (17.2mph), with a range of 3,000 nautical miles.
At low speed the yacht sits gently on three underbelly hulls and at high speed the pyramid rises from the water as the hydrofoils rotate on the submerged HYSWAS (hydrofoil small waterplane area ship) hull. This type of hull was previously developed by a number of companies, notably the Maritime Applied Physics Corporation in the United States.
The cost of the project has not been revealed.
The design is instigated by the rethinking of the form, superstructure and propulsion of the modern superyacht into a radically simple enclosure and an elevated mode of travel above the water line.
—Jonathan Schwinge, architect and designer
The architect made waves when the design first came out, but there’s been radio silence since. The website featuring the Tetrahedron Superyacht is temporary and Schwinge doesn’t seem to have done anything innovative since. Was this superyacht just a big super hoax, or will this levitating vessel make a splash one of these days?
That floating boat doesn’t float your boat? It’s not the first architect-designed concept yacht to catch our eye:
Edited By: Adriane Rysz