Hanuman

Hi

I'm hoping for some feedback on my project Hanuman, realised in cooperation with Dominik Lux.

It's a 72 meter eco-friendly superyacht,whose main features are :

-Two 1500 Kw engines working on LPG
-A 160 m2 kite which can be folded back into the bow when not used.
-150 m2 of solar panels
-Luxury accomodation for 12 guests
-Accomodation for 15 crew

Please check my gallery for pictures and GA.
Complete report available on request.

Any comments or thoughts welcome !

Thank you

Maxime Le Mounier

 

Four votes evenly split....seems she's a tossup......

First of all I don't think "Eco-friendly" and "Superyacht" belong anywhere in the same sentence.....I can't believe that thinking designers wouldn't see the disparity? No one needs a Superyacht...it is a toy intended to boost the ego....that is the only reason for it's existence. If it was used to produce food or energy it might be eco-friendly.....if it was a benign use of re-cycled materials it might be eco-friendly...but it's not.....it is a tribute to conspicuous consumption. Calling it eco-friendly is either fooling yourself....or trying to fool your client.....neither is good practice.

On the design itself...the styling seems disjointed, the rugged looking bow trying to fade into sleek sweeping arches doesn't fly.....windows are also disjointed...seemingly random.

 

there are a few things i like on this tread
Tad's response that i fully agree on
the poll, didnt vote tho couse i'm undicided
job seeker instead of old salt or what have we

 

Thank you for your honest answers ! Tad is probably right with the "eco-friendly" term . One of the contest criterion was " a low carbon foot print", i guess it's a better way to say it.

I wouldn't expect an unconventionnal design like this one to appeal to every body's tastes !At least some of you like it!

 

Maxime, ca va?
Look, I have been knocking around this industry for years
I try one thing, i think It'll sell. , then I discover yes people love but they can not afford, so I try another
You can not possibly sell a superyacht(hate those things) design, because first you must build a lifetimes reputation
Design for a niche,
A good market is the DIY builder in steel or alloy sailing yachts to 45 feet, or low powered long range eco friendy power, like 45 feet 120 shp
but you have spirit and talent and youth
As for this design, non , nyet, nein, its not so appealing, to put it kindly And why the prop drive? nothing is as simple or as cost effective as the motor, gear shaft in line drive

 

Hi,
ca va , merci !

I 'm not actually trying to sell anything here but my self ! We designed this to compete in the Young Designer Award 2010 organised by the RINA ,which rules were :

THE AWARD
The Young Designer of the Year Award 2010 will be presented to the young designer who produces the best concept design for a superyacht which meets the following owner’s specification:

• It should be different from any other yacht
• It should be capable of operating in both the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and carrying 12 passengers and appropriate crew
• It should comply with all appropriate international safety regulations
• It should have the lowest possible carbon footprint
• It should have all the recreational facilities which an owner and guests might expect on such a vessel
• It will be made available for charter

At this stage, the owner has not specified an upper cost.

I'm just hoping to show my skills while respecting the design brief !

Also , it's your right not to like these superyachts, but having worked for a while in this industry, I can tell you there is more than one of these babies under way!It represents work for 200 people for a couple of years,which can't be bad! It's not only a question of ego but also of investement and of getting our industry going.
I just can't disagree with this.
Thank you for support

 

yes well said and yes there are many being built
Ok now I do understand
go to www.seek.com
post resume

 

Thanks for the tip! Australia sounds like an awesome destination , I wish there was someone there to employ me!

 

Are you a Naval Architect, or just like designing boats ?

 

I am a Naval architect , although beginner.I graduated from Southampton Solent University with a Bachelor of "Yacht and Power Craft Design" in 2008.
I have a 6 month experience at the Design department of Amels Shipyard in Holland and a few shipyard experiences.

I enjoy designing boats indeed ! I spent my childhood away from France and I am willing to relocate.

Please find my resume in the attachement or on my website :
www.maxime-le-mounier.sitew.com

I am at your disposition for any further information.

Maxime Le Mounier

 

I like your design because it addresses the competition design brief. To be successful as a designer, we must respond to what the customer wants and in this case, your customer is the competition.

I may have missed it, but what is the build material? I think aluminium is going to see a further resurgence in this market segment because of its ability to be recycled will help in any 'green audit'. We can be as cynical as we like about the obvious contradictions of a 'low carbon footprint' superyacht, but the buyers in this market do want to have their conscious appeased. A lot of the measures will be a 'green veneer' (like the Toyota Prius) but at the superyacht seminar in Aukland, there were several presentations that really attempted to square this rather awkward circle.

Bon Chance!

 

The boat will have a Steel hull and an Aluminium Superstructure , both can be recycled and are easily workable and available.
We submitted a 40 pages report along with the pictures , I can send it if you require it , but I can't repeat every thing here !

Thank you , It 's nice to have a positive comment !

 

Hello Maxime,

I am not a fan of superyachts either, and agree 100% with Tad's considerations. The very fact that all that ship (and 4000 HP power) is just for 12 guests (plus crew) gives very little credit to the "eco-friendly" claim.

I feel quite embrarassed to judge your work, because I believe that criticizing other people's work is an easy job, while creating something new is a difficult task. And then, who am I to judge another person and his works? You have put a considerable amount of time into this work and it deserves maximum respect, no matter how much one might like or dislike it. There's also that old proverb saying "De gustibus non est disputandum" - so what I like or dislike will probably not coincide with some other guy's taste.
Hence, consider all of my observations as just my personal point of view. Not necessarily the correct one, but just mine.

1) I see in your site that you claim having 150 sq.meters of photovoltaic panels, but I don't see them in your renderings. In some pics there appear to be a dark surface at the forecastle, which then disappears in other photos. If those were indeed PV panels, I would consider putting them in that area of the hull a risky business - first because they might be subject to some heavy pounding from the seas, and second because the forecastle area will be used and abused a lot during mooring maneuvers.

2) An "eco-friendly" claimed vessel needs to be such cradle-to-grave, not just during the navigation. You will need to optimize the materials usage and ship construction process, thinking about concepts like "embodied energy" and "embodied water". In that sense aluminum as eco-friendly material is pretty disputable. Actually, according to many sources, it appears to be energetically the worst choice (unless recycled - but can you control the origin of aluminum plates in the shipyard?), followed by polymer-based materials. Steel is somewhere in the high-middle zone, wood is the best. I have enclosed here a pdf file which gives a brief explanation of these concepts, see at the end of this post.
Now, it is clearly difficult to do away with aluminum in modern boatbuilding so you will probably end up with using it anyways. It simply gives even less significance to the "eco-friendly" label which, as happens 90% of times, will turn out to be yet another marketing hype, unfortunately...

3) Freeboard at the stern looks too low to me to be considered safe, but there are no dimensions so it's just guessing. Anyways, if you raise it a bit you will have a less pronounced jump towards the forecastle part, which (imho) would be more aesthetically pleasing.

4) I personaly don't like the importance you have given to those big curved lateral green structures, and the way it joins with the forecastle wall.

5) I personally also dislike the random-like arrangement of windows in the forward part of the hull.

6) The coloring scheme you have adopted... That grey hull recals some late-19th century warships, but is not very eye-pleasing, imho, particularily when combined with those green outline-bands which give too much importance to those arc beams. I am more traditional type and would go for white, navy blue or their combination.

7) Did you try to make a case-study of a more classical radar mast instead of that crossing-arcs structure on top. The solution I see on pics somehow just doesn't fit well with the rest of the superstructure curves... I believe that a classic radar mast might look better-suited to this retro-looking type of ship.

The last four points combined together give (to my eyes) a not very elegant-looking yacht at this point of development, sorry for frankness. But it is nothing that cannot be fixed, ok?

I truly hope I have not said too much. The basic idea behind the type of hull you have choosen is not bad, considering the subject of the Award competition rules. It has a potential market too, as Feadship's "Predator" or Philippe Starck's "A" have shown. But your design needs to be refined before declaring the end of the project, imho. You can improve it, don't give up. Follow your dreams.

All the best


P.S.:

I really hope and wish you will get many of them, but even negative comments are ultimately positive - when they can be used for creating a better design.

 

Hello Daiquiri ,

Thank you for this detailled answer ! I 'll try to justify our choices point by point.

1) The solar panels are indeed on the forecastle , and also on the side of the owner deck ( between windows).The decision to add them was a late one, when we came to consider the problem of the electricity, that's why they don't appear in all the renderings.They are of a particular type that can be walked on, although your probably right about their life expectancy because of the contact of the sea water but we designed the boat so the access to the forecastle is restricted to a minimum(Kite system automated, anchorage capstans below deck...).Unless the boat is along side a dock , there is no reason to go on the foredeck.As for the life expectancy,well,the design brief says "no upper cost" ...
The solar panel lay out is actually 1 out of 3 proposed which is also why it doesn't appear on all the renders, I 'll leave the choice to a virtual and probably never going to show up owner

2) Nothing to say here, I just hope we could control the origin of the aluminium !

3)We obviously didn't have a budget for tank testing , but we fixed the L/B/T ratios from parametric data of existing yachts.The power estimation was realised using the Holtrop method which applies to superyachts.We chose to go for a relatively low speed ( 14.4 knts max speed and 13 cruising) to limit both HPs and consumption.

4)I should probably have posted the technical drawings we did, but the stern is 3.0 meters above LWL which seems OK to me.your aesthetic consideration is probaly right though.

5)well , question of point of view , as you said, but we tried to make a curvy design so it would ressemble to any other.

6) The windows aren't random !!!! Their shape can be modified but their positions and size are fixed by the GA and the necessity for large views from the cabins.

7)Nothing that can't be changed indeed.We simply tried to have a sober coloring scheme that would enhance the global wish to limit the impact on the environement ( or what ever you want to call it , I can see it's a sensitive subject)

8)Retro ??? I guess we missed the aim here ! It 's supposed not to look like any other yacht , so a classic radar mast was out of question.The arch is the idea we had to tackle the issue of the radars,without using an existing arrangement.

We indeed had a close look a "Predator" but the bow we chose is closer from the Ulstein X-bow.The fore castle is 8 m above LWL,and the bow has this V shape that will provide more and more volume as the bow dives.The sea keeping effects are to be verifed in a tank.I am not particularly found of the very straight lines of Predator, which is why we emphasised on the curved super structure.

Unfortunatly, the dead line of the contest was January 31st , we didn't want to show our work before handing in , but I 'll probably change a few things now that I had some feedback.The RINA ,who organised the contest is not giving us much news and we have to wait until may to get the results.We don't even know how the other entries are.Any of you guys heard of any other entry to the contest ?

Thank you for your time and answer ! The final report is too big to be posted on this forum,there is a lot more details than I gave here or on my website.I'll try to post the CL so you can see for your self that there isn't many reasons to go on the foredeck.We actually had so many deck areas that we didn't know what to put on the foredeck,i.e. we chose a bit too quickly to go for solar panels.We actually realised that the 15O m2 would only provide a small amount of the required electricity ( 1 or 2 hours a day if a remember correctly) so their presence is not essential , we also proposed to have LPG generators.

Thanks again,

Maxime
(P.S. : it's a pretty long answer, please don't mind the orthograph)

 

Hi Maxime,

Very interesting design.

Where are the LPG cylinders located? What do you estimate the range of the boat will be using only the engines, or did I miss that?

Should the pod drives be located as far outboard as they are shown?

Where will engine room combustion and cooling air come from?

As someone who works in the industry I agree with your point on superyachts. Frankly, no one "needs" a yacht whether it be an 8 ft punt or a 400 ft megayacht. It behooves all NAs and designers to work towards ecologically sound solutions to environmental problems in our field.

I wish you well in the competition.

Joe