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A billionaire venture capitalist, a Canadian naval architect, and a British superyacht designer – this was the cast of players behind Neonemo, an avantgarde yacht concept dating back to 2008 that in terms of aesthetics and technical design is still ahead of its time.It was early summer 2008 and Canadian naval architect Pat Bray was on his way to the airport when he received an unexpected phone call from Ken Freivokh. The UK-based designer explained he was working on a new project with Tom Perkins, the owner of <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Yacht/385" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Maltese Falcon88.0m (288'9&quot;)Perini Navi2006">Maltese Falcon</a>, who wanted to meet him. A meeting eventually took place aboard the classic motoryacht Atlantide, also owned by Perkins, in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour. &nbsp;<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382838/image/large-950ef4f3df09792fe2a5ced8b71c9cac.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382838">“It turned out Perkins wanted to build an exploration yacht to carry his two-person submarine,” recalls Bray. “Over the next month or so and several discussions later, the various responsibilities were agreed upon and Perkins signed a design agreement with us in July 2008. Basically, we would handle the naval architecture and Ken the exterior and interior design. I remember he liked the idea that the time difference between Ken and I meant that someone would always be working on his project!”The sub in question was a winged Deep Flight Super Falcon manufactured by California-based Hawkes Ocean Technologies. Perkins bought the very first 6.7-metre Super Falcon model that could dive to a depth of 120 metres and remain underwater for about four hours on a single battery charge. &nbsp;The following September another meeting took place, this time aboard <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Yacht/385" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Maltese Falcon88.0m (288'9&quot;)Perini Navi2006">Maltese Falcon</a> in San Francisco. The idea was that Bray could meet the crew, including the then captain Justin Christou, to get a better idea of Perkin’s preferences and how he would use the vessel. <img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382837/image/large-2516572fa8b2d35851028cf7a02a07f0.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382837">From these meetings several key criteria for an all-aluminium vessel emerged, including massive storage space for the sub and auxiliary craft; a floating roto-dock system; a heavy-duty deck crane able to swivel though 360 degrees; a machine workshop; fixtures for a possible towing kite; controllable pitch propellers; 10 knots cruising and 16 knots top speed, as well as advanced appendages for fuel saving. The preference was to build in North America and Perkins was in talks with fellow billionaire and superyacht owner Dennis Washington, whose family holding included the commercial Seaspan shipyard in Vancouver. &nbsp;“For a while Tom kept the sub on the deck the <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Yacht/385" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Maltese Falcon88.0m (288'9&quot;)Perini Navi2006">Maltese Falcon</a>, which was never designed for the purpose, so the whole concept was meant to give him the freedom to explore the world in a way that was both functional and comfortable, with the submersible taking centre stage,” says Ken Freivokh. “The design challenge was balancing function with style, ensuring that the yacht could carry all of Tom’s equipment for his adventures, while also providing the comfort and performance expected of a luxury yacht.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382843/image/large-1275f0655c57992e060960839f1427a1.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382843">NeonemoBased on space planning and payloads, a vessel with an overall length of 42 metres emerged and was dubbed Neonemo. Freivokh’s exterior lines were rugged and stylish, but not overly polished and had a subtle retro twist. Penned at a time when the ‘crossover’ trend was still to emerge, they still look fresh today.&nbsp;The layout offered accommodation for 10 guests in four lower deck cabins and an owner’s suite on bridge deck. The main deck comprised the saloon, galley and crew quarters forward with direct access to the crew mess, laundry and store rooms on the deck below. An observation deck&nbsp;was included for extended visibility when navigating unknown waters. But the raison d'être for a vessel designed for adventure was the expansive main deck aft with its two hydraulic hatches that covered a large garage below for housing the submersible and a large tender that could also serve as surface support during sub ops.<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382842/image/large-476fccedeccf5844f4789f7e9388aa35.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382842">Meanwhile, Bray was working on the hull form. At the time he was researching the benefits of fixed midship and stern bulbs to reduce resistance. Like a bulbous bow, these hull appendages or blisters modify the overall wave train through their own small wave and pressure patterns, and it is this interaction that can reduce the overall resistance. The consequent reductions in power and fuel consumption allow for further reduction in vessel weight. Furthermore, by influencing the wake field around the propeller, stern bulbs can improve propeller efficiency and reduce vibrations.“Being the kind of person he was, Perkins was intrigued by the science and the plan was to tank test the hull we’d developed for him,” says Bray. “Sadly, before that could happen the project was cancelled when he was diagnosed with cancer – he felt he couldn’t afford the time it would take to design and build a yacht from scratch.”Instead, Perkins converted a 37-metre Japanese fisheries vessel his carry his submersible. He embarked on several South Pacific expeditions with Dr No before selling the yacht shortly before his death in 2016.<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382839/image/large-e65b60f842f857749f04fd305d3c7d1c.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382839">Argo 48MBut the Neonemo story – and Bray’s research – did not stop there. At the <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Event/6" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Monaco Yacht Show - 2016">2016 Monaco Yacht Show</a>, <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/1080" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Rossinavi (Company)">Rossinavi</a> and <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/148" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Ken Freivokh Design (Company)">Freivokh</a> presented the Argo 48M explorer concept. Apart from being six metres longer, the renders revealed a carbon copy of Neonemo, right down to the Deep Flight Super Falcon sub sitting on deck. In addition to the original shaft-line propulsion, a diesel-electric version was also proposed.&nbsp;“After Tom Perkins passed away, we thought the concept project should not be buried in the drawers of the design office,” said <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/5048" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Scandinavian Marine (Company)">Scandinavian Marine</a>, project developer for the Argo 48M at the time. “We agreed with Ken that a reassessment of TP’s mission by growing the original project size to a 499 GT volume should better allow the realisation of some of the latest energy-friendly technologies, while keeping the operational cost of this yacht under a well-balanced canopy.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382841/image/large-5f4fe8b5bae4b744a64aa442ac4c7b0f.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382841">Weirdly, no mention was made of Bray’s “energy-friendly” hull bulbs, which he had developed further through a series of research programs. The first was an in-water scale model of a 45-metre hull at the ITU Ata Nutku Ship Model Testing Laboratory in Istanbul. After the tests, Associate Professor Emin Korkut, Superintendent of the University Faculty of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, congratulated Bray on the results: “I should tell you that your hull form has been one of the best forms tested recently in our towing tank,” he wrote.This was followed up with a computational fluid dynamics program, and a third more extensive CFD program at the National Research Council of Canada’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research Centre (OCRE). The un-appendaged hull in these CFD analyses revealed 23–26 percent more resistance over a range of 12–20 knots.“That’s a difference of over 1,100 horsepower at 20 knots,” Bray points out. “This is really significant and translates into considerable fuel savings, as well as a much lower carbon footprint, flatter wave train, and lower underwater noise signature. For electric propulsion, it also means smaller electric motors and less draw on the battery system.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382840/image/large-aee8db30b30398a060bf5691e5457508.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382840">Bahamas ExplorerLast year, Bray unveiled the Bahamas Explorer, a 34.3-metre concept designed for long-range expeditions that draws on his years of research and development into fuel-saving appendages. By including a bow bulb, midship bulb, and stern bulb, the Bahamas Explorer could reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent, meaning smaller fuel tanks and engines to achieve its top speed of 18 knots and 6,000 nautical mile range at 12 knots.In the conclusion to his latest research, Bray wrote: “We feel there are numerous ship applications – including yachts – for these appendages in reducing consumption of fossil fuels and the impact of vessel wake on shorelines, as well as reducing the quantities of raw materials required to construct these more efficient and therefore lighter weight vessels.”&nbsp;Although the results of Bray’s studies have been published, it remains a mystery why no shipyard to date has picked up on his findings, which promise significant advantages using inexpensive, low-tech, low-maintenance solutions. Similarly, and sadly, one of the coolest concepts of its kind remains “buried in the drawers” of Freivokh’s design office. <img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/382844/image/large-51e6b80166b52b83f180f4744709f01b.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/382844">This article was first published in <a href="https://www.superyachttimes.com/magazine/how-to-build-it-issue-9-download" target="_blank">issue 9 of How To Build It</a>. You can read all the articles from this edition <a href="https://www.superyachttimes.com/magazine/how-to-build-it-issue-9-download" target="_blank">here</a>, and stay up-to-date with all previous editions <a href="https://www.superyachttimes.com/magazine" target="_blank">here</a>.

An avantgarde yacht concept: How 2008 Neonemo was ahead of it's time

An avantgarde yacht concept: How the 2008 Neonemo design was ahead of it's time.