| Lürssen | 180.00M | "AZZAM" ex Project 'Azzam' |2013 |

Why is this?

This is just a linked YT video of the commercial publisher DIFO mentioned above. You do not have to watch this website. YF is far better informed, faster and has much more accurate knowledge. YF is a great community , isnt it?

27.3 knots, that's faster than eclipse so that they may finish the trials for the moment.

If this was diesel only and even it was GPS SOG, as reported by AIS and there was some current in the back, hads off to the naval architects and the builder.

I hope this yacht will not disappear into the Red Sea after delivery, like some other large Middle East owned yachts and we will have a lot of media coverage on her. This yacht IMHO is a highlight in shipbuilding.

according to mt/ais vmax by now is 29.9 knots. i am a bit of impressed.

Yes, at 19:43 local time, they reached 29,9 Kts GPS SOG. Really impressive. If you look at the AIS track log, the test crew is having some fun out there (just joking, I know, seatrails are hard work and the schedule is always tight). And the weather was not nice in that area. Heavy thunderstorms and rain. A local town at the coast, 20 NM to the south, had severe damage due to flooding, lightning and falling trees.

If they reached 30 knots with those weather conditions, under normal crusing conditions this yacht is a bullet. Very impressive for the largest yacht in the world. And yes, it will disapear in the seychelles, although "disapear" is hardly a term that can be used for such a high profile giant.

taking a closer look at the ais log it becomes obvious, that 30 kn is a speed 'they' want to make us believe. it looks as if the ais tracking signal has been turned off sometimes - maybe they went top speed in these moments.
after all these efforts and money spent 30 kn would be not enough. i would guess there is far more to come yet. and i wonder if the chosen trial area has a sufficient depth of sea for the use of 4 big jets. i don't know it for sure and i did not look it up but i'd estimate 20 to 25 m there. and it is within the 'nationalpark wattenmeer'. a no good place for sucking in the sea bottom.

She's still a little boring to look at, and looks a bit off in the front 3/4 shots...

Still, great to see her out for seatrials!

Far

31.5 knots - so where's the next filling station?

Azzam is back at the yard from her first seatrails. You can tell by the pictures, that all engines, including the GT have been extensively used. I think, the above statement is correct, that they will not show us her complete speed capability on AIS. The yard is just showing, the boat is capable of complying with her specification. I am pretty sure, my estimates with Azzam being capable of doing 25 Kts on diesel power only and 30+ Kts at WOT with all four WJ is fairly close.

Yesterday, Azzam accelerated several times after a sharp turn from a little over 20 Kts to 30 Kts in less than 2 NM. This is an indication of a huge amount of access power. That also means, that her top speed must be above 33 up to 35 Kts. We will see.

And if you look at her pictures on the outer Weser River, where she was doing 14+ Kts, the bow wave and her wake are remarkably low. That is really a high speed boat. I am looking forward to the first HR picture of her going 30+ Kts. This picture will go to the wall in my office!

This is not only the largest yacht in the world, but also the largest speedboat in the world.

I noticed that too. And after these short sprints the AIS signal has been turned off more often than not. And I'd suppose these were the stages El Capitano slapped the levers on the table.

Hi there J,

Don't compare it to cargo ships, but to high speed ferries. Maneuverability, access to shallower waters, shallower draft. Just watch some videos of passenger ferries doing touch and go action in the med.

Cheers,

Back at night

AZZAM - YouTube

Why waterjets

To get that amount of the power of a ships engine converted into thrust via a conventional prop or serveral props, you either need a large amount of props or props with a very large diameter. A ships propeller can only convert a certain amount of KW per area into thrust. If you ask more of him, he will cavitate or stall. In order to convert the 76000+ KW of Azzam into thrust, you would need one 45 ft prop or two 32 ft props of the cargo ship type, to deliver these power without cavitation. With high performance variable pitch props, you might be able to lower these diameters for some feet. But for a yacht, this requires far to much draft of the hull. Big container vessels easily reach 50 ft of draft or more.

For a very high speed yacht or warship, waterjets are a great solution. The disadvantage of waterjets is the lower efficiency at lower speeds and the lower maneuverability at these speeds. But remember, for this speed range, Azzam has a complete low speed propulsion system with full DP capability and two stabilization systems for high and low speeds. So if money does not count (both for buying and operating costs), this is the optimum solution for a very large, very high speed yacht.

B.t.w. as I am stuck in Hamburg for private reasons at the moment, my "standing orders" for the family apply. Any family member passing to the north of Bremen, make pictures of A&R or Lürssen, if nice boats are docked at the outside (My daugther and her husband live in Bremen).

This is the result of todays photorun of my son in law to the Weser River:

Both yards were quiet, except Lürssen for this little white Yacht, moored at Aumund, which just came back from seatrails. On the second picture, you can clearly see the colour change of the SS exhaust stacks and the typical "dirty mast" problem of large yachts with dry exhaust stacks (like Topaz).

But my biggest surprise was the third picture, after opening the Email. My son in law caught a YF member making pictures of Azzam. What a coincidence .

From the information I have (people working at a tank testing facility), a special high speed hull (destroyer stern) with waterjet propulsion and of the size of Azzam needs about 100 to 140 feet of water below her keel at full speed, in order to not to do any harm to the bottom of the sea (like a coral reef). The dregding they are doing, is for her berth.

Fish swimming in the water layer between the keel and the bottom may end up with some spacial disorientation, when Azzam has passed them overhead at 35 Kts . And this does not count for the temperature rise of the water in her wake (leaving cooking water behind) .