| Blohm + Voss | 119M | M/Y "A" -ex.Project "Sigma" - | 2008 |

So, Sigma has been launched a while ago now, does anyone know how she does perform?
For that matter how about the other big name reverse bow yacht "Predator"?

I believe Sigma has not had any real world experience yet, only sea trials. Predator recently moved into the real world. I'm anxious to hear if she's encountered any seas and how she handled them but it's probably too early.
Dskira, I've seen a lot of poor spelling and grammer on this forum. It's mostly because english is a second language to many here. (Unfortunately I don't have that excuse ) Some just type too fast and don't proofread. You don't sound as if you're from down east though.??? Add to that the statements you made blasting into this forum and my nose starts to twitch. What's the story here? You say you don't need himility. Those who take that stance are usually very insecure. You might want to give that a little thought. You might also want to read the posts from some of the people you're dealing with here so you understand who is who. To save you a little time on that, I'm just a dumb old small boat captain who enjoys learning from very good minds.

It is an amazing boat design very forward thinking. In regards to questions about its design I would imagine that they have likely invented many new concepts in the yachts design that allow it to move through the water that is not seen in the photos I would think. With advances in software modeling they likely discovered many new techniques to make this design very usable.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7__7YvbXKg&eurl=http://www.excitedtube.com/169.htm

IIRC, according to an article looking into the spate of reverse, plumb and Axe bows in a magazine that I saw recently; Martin Francis' team build a large-ish, self propelled scale model of the hull and towed it around the Isle of Wight, including through the wakes of ferries, to asses the characteristics of the hull, as well as conventional tank testing.

Sound's like much more fun than fiddling with software.

Interesting well that is one way of looking at a problem. I was just thinking in the day of advance software tools that allow for complex mathematical models and accelerated prototyping for testing designs. Somewhere early in the design phase they may have done some preliminary modeling and testing of a design. Some very exciting advances that are now out there for designers. If they did their testing in the water with a large scale model and towed it around to test designs interesting approach even if someone used software tools it still does not rule out the use of traditional testing methods in the designing of a hull.

I just brought this up because of some who commented about the design of the ax bow. I just thought of this because there are so many new methods of designing things today that a lot of traditional designing concepts get thrown out the window. Just in case if some have not seen this in my running around looking up information about the ax bow design there is a short article in the current Yachts International that talks about the ax bow design and some of the possible reasoning behind it's use and also talks about the Predator as well as A SF99. Looks at past ax bow designs as well as a number of new ships coming up that incorporates the ax bow design.

It seems one of the changes seems to be where the designer places the accommodations of the Yacht. The ax bow encourages the designer to place these midpoint an area of minimal motion because this design tendency to pitch less then the conventional hull.

I thought this was funny and interesting in my research I found this photo of Raytheon DD(X) Stealth Destroyer. I found the design to be oddly similar to the Martin Francis' and Philippe Starck design of the SF99.

http://peos.crane.navy.mil/DDG1000/images/DDG1000_1_larger.jpg

Here is more information about the DD(X) and there is a nice photo of the model being tested.

http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/ddg_1000/tech/wpth/index.html

http://www.raytheon.com/broadcast/hull_form.asx

http://peoships.crane.navy.mil/ddx/

The Wave Piercing Tumblehome Hull is the responsibility of Northrop Grumman.

http://www.irconnect.com/noc/pages/news_printer.html?d=79338&print=1


http://www.ddxnationalteam.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt_class_destroyer

Amazed by the amount of info that was put out. Although the name is out there I won't repeat it here, but just want to say congratulations. She's my new screen saver.
So let me ask the crass question. Anybody know the rough cost?

No, but at 757 cubic meters of fuel oil, ~200k gallons, i wouldn't want to fill it up at my local fuel dock... at $5.09/gallon that's over a million bucks just in fuel to run her for a week or two!

Hi,

The only price I can find for Fuel ex Gib without asking for a quote ( have to reveal a lot of vessel info for this) is.

Top Grade suitable for High Speed Diesels Gensets etc.

Marine Gas Oil $1362 per Cu M or $1.19 a Litre x 3.786 = $4.50 a gallon.

$900,830 to fill up from scratch.

A Slightly Lesser Grade

Marine Diesel Oil $ 1339.5 per Cu M or $ 1.17 a Litre x 3.786 $4.40 a gallon.

$885,690 to fill up from scratch.

There are other lesser grades ( cheaper) of fuel oil that the main engines may well be able to run on but these would not be suitable if the use of any sort of particulate filter was being made in the Exhaust Lines especially of the Gensets.

I doubt any yacht even as large as this would have separate fuel for M.E and Gensets. I will try to find out what she does burn.

The pricing info came off http://www.bunkerworld.com

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that this ship won't be using a lesser grade anything to save 2%

Hi,

Like you Cap I don't think they will be using anything but the best fuels and lubes.

I am also surprised that the Owners Family name appears in that PDF Article posted above.

Way surprised, but not. This boat is "A" not "Incognito" .

Given the cost of Yachts that have lengths in the 400 foot range or about 120 meters I would put the ball park figure for this Yacht at around 250 million dollars US or about 160 million Euros likely even more. They estimate the cost of keeping a Yacht in operation as well as crew to be about 10 percent of the cost of the Yacht so it is likely costing around 25 million dollars or 16 million Euros each year to keep the Yacht afloat and moving.

One of the benefits of this design is that fuel use will be reduced by quite a bit it seems. Because of the ax bow design the ship will not use as much fuel to cover the same amount of distance.

Welcome aboard PEB,
Yeah, that would be about my guestimate as well. BTW anyone out there with actual figures DON'T POST THEM. This is just idle speculation. Actual costs are really nobody's business unless you're planning to build something similar and in that case adopt me first please .
One thing that did surprise me was the speed. I would have expected to see maybe 4 or 5 kts. more at cruise & top, not for any technical reason but simply because of how radical this whole project was.
In the old days my favorite yacht was Eco (now Enigma) now A has captured my imagination. Guess my taste just run that way. Congratulations again to the owners and thanks for my new screen saver.

Hi,

You would need to add about 20-25% to that price estimate or more mostly depending upon the style and type of interior.

It looks like the Marine Engineering of her has been very much along commercial ship lines given the choice of power plant and electrical system specs so some costs can be reduced there a bit.

In a UK mag this month there is an external review on A where the owners are mentioned. The PDF doc looks very much like it was taken from that.

Thank you if you have a chance if you have not already check out the video of
Wave Piercing Tumblehome Hull. It is very interesting because it does a good job of showing the ax bow in use and how the ship is helped by the use of the ax bow and the advance hull design. One of the most interesting applications because of this design leaves a much smaller wake is allows water crafts to enter the boat from the back


http://www.raytheon.com/broadcast/hull_form.asx