Yesterday SuperYachtTimes.com visited the impressive facilities of Icon Yachts in Harlingen, Holland, where we were given a tour of hulls one and three by Wim Koersvelt. Hull one is nearing completion, and is in the final stage of construction. Hull number three is due for completion in 2010, and gave us the perfect opportunity to see the Icon-way of building superyachts.
Optimisation in the 60-75m Icon having been successfully achieved, now the Icon Yachts team is working on a larger platform that will allow owners wanting 85-110m custom yachts built efficiently. In the mean time Icon Yachts have developed a new 52 – 54 meter platform for yachts in this size. We will publish more about this particular platform next week.
Icon Yachts is releasing little on the layout of the large platforms yet except to say that a number of the big names in design are already showing interest and introducing the concept to existing clients that they have built boats with looking to trade up.
Last year, Icon announced that work started on the next “optimised standard platform”. The intention is to use this platform for yachts up to 3000 GT. This yacht would be Icon’s stepping stone into the 100 meter plus range of yachts.
The first studies are carried out for a full displacement hull with a waterline length of about 87 meters and a beam on the waterline of 16.5 meters with a block coefficient just under 0.50. The lines will allow designers to design any desired bow, stern and side detailing in sheer line.
While staying within a pre-determined range of hydrodynamic values, the hull may be lengthened up to about 100 meters waterline length, without losing the benefits of the Icon-way: pre-engineering, modular construction and standard systems and components that are identical to each vessel in this range.
This yacht will be built to SOLAS rules for ships carrying up to 36 passengers. For some years now, Icon has been following discussions about passenger ship safety and reflecting on how these thoughts and ideas would impact and indeed benefit large yachts. These discussions have now matured and implementation of revised SOLAS regulations by the International Maritime Organization is now imminent. Even though these new regulations are written for ships with thousands of persons on board, in Icon's view, they also apply to large yachts with up to 36 passengers.
Icon Yachts
+31(0)517 49 46 00
[email protected]
www.iconyachts.eu