Known for expanding the boundaries of electric-powered ocean navigation, Silent Yachts is turning its outside-the-box thinking to vacation resort development. By using its solarized electric catamarans as floating vacation condos, it would create seaside (or sea-top) resorts that are light, flexible and ready to deploy quickly. Its new venture Silent Resorts aims to create fully autonomous, private-island resorts that have a fraction the footprint of typical vacation properties.
Silent's "land and sea" design strings together a series of its 18-m (59-ft) and 24-m (79-ft) electrified catamarans around a central dock. Centralized facilities like a reception area, restaurant, and recreational areas such as pools, spas and gyms are also part of the vision.
Each Silent catamaran will be outfitted like a luxury villa, complete with four suites with private bathrooms, a chef's kitchen, a terrace and a sundeck, and more. Of course, each yacht remains a fully functional seafaring vessel, so guests can take off into the surrounding waters any time they want, and Silent plans to support overnight and multi-day itineraries.
Those who might not be as comfortable spending downtime atop the water will have the option of canvas and timber waterfront suites integrated into each resort.
Silent suggests its yachts can plug in and use their battery packs and solar arrays to power external buildings as well as themselves, but we'd imagine visitors might prefer conserving that power for the next day's adventure at sea. Silent also plans to build on-land resort infrastructure with its own solar power, particularly for larger resort locations.
The €4.9-million (approx. US$5.8-million) Silent 80 that will be used as resort lodging is the flagship of the Silent fleet, offering a variety of configurations with dual electric motor drives ranging between 200 and 500 kW, lithium battery packs sized between 150 and 532 kWh, and single or dual generators to power the motors after battery depletion. A 26-kilowatts peak (kWp) solar panel array covers the roofs of the multi-hull, turning plentiful sunlight into stored battery power. A kite sail is available as a complementary propulsion solution.
In addition to offering a unique, sustainable form of adventure travel for tourists, Silent Resorts intends its designs to be a lighter, more flexible means of resort operation for investors. Resort owners will not need to purchase large parcels of land because of the light, water-based nature of the Silent Resort design.
"No costly remote site construction, lengthy approvals, complex engineering, or land-based invasive infrastructure development needed anymore," explains Silent Yachts founder and CEO Michael Köhler. "Resort owners will love the reduced capital investment, and the ongoing operational costs will be a fraction of a traditional property. All resort assets are 'personal property,' eliminating the need for expensive and complex foreign lands ownership and tax structures."
Silent says that a turnkey resort can be created anywhere in the world in a mere 18 months using its pre-engineered solutions. It also says it's in talks with investors about a private island resort in the Caribbean that could become among the first Silent resort locations.
Source: Silent Yachts
