Holiday Destinations

Silent Yachts pushes ahead with solar-powered floating villa concept

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Plans call for the use of Silent 60 and 80 yachts in the resorts
Silent Yachts
Silent Yachts gets tourists even closer to the water
Silent Yachts
Silent Yachts imagines turning private island waterfronts into flexible "land and sea" resorts
Silent Yachts
Silent Resorts brings together multiple yacht-based villas with a central dock and beach-based amenities
Silent Yachts
Silent Resorts guests can enjoy sun and sea while docked or venture farther out
Silent Yachts
Each yacht will include four private suites
Silent Yachts
Silent Resorts brings together relaxation and recreation like few other vacation properties out there
Silent Yachts
Silent Resorts floating villa resort
Silent Yachts
Plans call for the use of Silent 60 and 80 yachts in the resorts
Silent Yachts
Silent Resorts floating villa resort
Silent Yachts
Silent plans to integrate solar power into land-based infrastructure as needed
Silent Yachts
Silent will include land-based amenities and lodging, too
Silent Yachts
Silent 80
Silent Yachts
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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.

Silent will include land-based amenities and lodging, too
Silent Yachts

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 Resorts guests can enjoy sun and sea while docked or venture farther out
Silent Yachts

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.

Silent 80
Silent Yachts

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 Yachts imagines turning private island waterfronts into flexible "land and sea" resorts
Silent Yachts

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

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4 comments
Daishi
There may be complex tax structure around foreign land ownership that I don't know very much about but in most cases owning a Yacht isn't really a cost saving measure over owning a small beach house. Solar panels on the roof wouldn't be enough to power the Yacht if it's driven often but if it mostly stays parked (which seems to be the plan) it does offer a quieter alternative to power than running the motor for it. Solar is nice for RV's and campers for the same reason, anything that helps you fire up the generator less often is a good thing.
paul314
At $5M a yacht, I don't really see the reduced capital expenditure. But there may be some interesting possibilities with repositioning, where a set of minimal shore installations supports fancy houseboats that follow the best vacation weather north or south during the course of a year, and maybe find protected harbors during extreme weather. (It might also be possible to set up pop-up ecotourism sites that go away before doing too much damage.)
Demosthenes
This catamaran is definitely not designed by the requirements of a solar yacht. The hulls are too wide and the boat too heavy. Actually it's just a normal cruising catamaran with a few solar panels on the roof. But at least with good mainstream marketing.
jerryd
Way too big, costly to only live, sleep 8. Maybe on a monohull but cats are huge inside with 36' ones cruising 8-10. These should be at most 50' long, 30' wide on 2 levels which is 2.5k sq'.
An 80' would have 7ksq', a mansion size.