superyacht obsidian

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OBSIDIAN is a 84.2 m Motor Yacht, built in Netherlands by Feadship and delivered in 2023.

Her top speed is 17.0 kn and she boasts a maximum range of 5500.0 nm when navigating at cruising speed, with power coming from four Caterpillar diesel electric engines. She can accommodate up to 14 guests in 7 staterooms, with 27 crew members. She has a gross tonnage of 2555.0 GT and a 13.6 m beam.

She was designed by RWD and Monk Design , who also designed the interior. RWD has designed 46 yachts and designed the interior of 65 yachts for yachts above 24 metres; Monk Design has designed 2 yachts and designed the interior of 4 yachts for yachts above 24 metres.

The naval architecture was developed by Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects , who has architected 102 other superyachts in the BOAT Pro database - she is built with a Teak deck, a Steel hull, and Aluminium superstructure.

OBSIDIAN is in the top 5% by LOA in the world. She is one of 65 motor yachts in the 80-90m size range, and, compared to similarly sized motor yachts, her volume is 81.66 GT above the average.

OBSIDIAN is currently sailing under the Cayman Islands flag, the 2nd most popular flag state for superyachts with a total of 1366 yachts registered. She is currently located at the superyacht marina Port-Vieux de La Ciotat, in France, where she has been located for 1 week. For more information regarding OBSIDIAN's movements, find out more about BOAT Pro AIS .

Specifications

• Name: OBSIDIAN
• Yacht Type: Motor Yacht
• Yacht Subtype: Displacement
• Builder: Feadship
• Naval Architect: Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects
• Exterior Designer: Monk Design , RWD
• Interior Designer: Monk Design , RWD

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This 276-Foot Hybrid Superyacht Emits 90% Less Carbon Than Gas-Powered Vessels

Feadship's obsidian is expected to be able to cover 35 nautical miles at 10 knots on batteries alone., rachel cormack.

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Rachel Cormack's Most Recent Stories

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Feadship has outdone itself with its latest fleet member, and that was precisely the point.

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It is estimated the Obsidian will operate with 27 percent less total environmental impact than a yacht of similar size launched only five years ago if run on fossil fuel, and 60 percent less if powered using a non-fossil diesel fuel called HVO. Obsidian actually ran on HVO during sea trials and emitted 90 percent less carbon than a traditional gas-powered vessel. Feadship says the trials showed Obsidian is even more efficient than previously calculated.

Biofuel isn’t the only exciting innovation, of course. Obsidian ‘s low, slim hull has been optimized for cruising, her fighting weight has been reduced, and her overall balance improved. On top of that, the yacht is equipped with a streamlined diesel-electric propulsion system and has 4.5 times more electrical storage capacity than its predecessor.

The cruiser is powered by a 4.5 MWh battery bank and four tweaked CatC32 engines. The 1,000-volt system is fully powered by electricity, too. Obsidian is expected to be able to cover 35 nautical miles at 10 knots on batteries alone. At anchor, the batteries will provide silent operation for between 10 and 15 hours. Feadship also incorporated several energy-saving features that reduce the yacht’s hotel load.

According to Jansen, the Obsidian ‘s volume is in line with larger 328-footers. Feadship opted for a single-level engine room for the first time in many years to give the designers more freedom with the layout. Both the exterior and interior styling was executed by RWD and MONK Design. The duo kept things bold and modern both inside and out.

Feadship says the living quarters are full of surprises. There is a hidden staircase that leads to a study and a sunken lounge on the main deck, for instance. Similarly, an asymmetrical atrium staircase takes guests to a lower deck dining saloon with an entire wall that opens to provide a stellar view at sea level. Further toward the stern lies a scenic Aqua Lounge that can double as a cinema or a classroom and a fully equipped gym.

Another surprising touch is that none of the rooms have any 90-degree angles except for the seven staterooms. One more hidden gem is the observation lounge in the bow. Accessible via a main deck corridor, this secret escape sports floor-to-ceiling windows for cinematic vistas.

In keeping with the green theme, Obsidian ’s two custom-made primary tenders are both electric-powered and can be charged at special stations installed on the yacht.

Obsidian is the first of Feadship’s new generation of large eco-friendly cruisers, and its launch puts the yard another step closer to its goal of producing carbon-neutral superyachts by 2030.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

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Obsidian: Feadship’s first delivery of 2023 raises the bar on carbon reduction

Feadship is another step closer to the goal of producing carbon-neutral superyachts by 2030. The recently built 84.20-metre Obsidian is the first of Feadship’s new generation of large yachts furthering carbon reduction through hulls optimised at cruising speed instead of top speed, weight control, advancements in electric propulsion, and the ability to run engines on non-fossil diesel fuel called HVO. In fact, the yacht's trials were conducted with the generators running on this second-generation biofuel, reducing carbon emissions by 90% compared to yachts operating on fossil fuels.

The brief for the yacht was to be more energy efficient and emit less carbon than Feadship’s ground-breaking hybrid yacht, Savannah , which launched in 2015. Reducing the environmental impact by more than 30% would have been a tall order in any case, but the entire 12-month design period for Obsidian occurred at the height of a global pandemic. With Covid-19 lockdowns, none of the designers, engineers, or other parties were able to collaborate in person.

Working in parallel, Bram Jongepier, Senior Designer at Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects, developed a sustainability index, providing a great deal of guidance on how all of a yacht’s components and operations contribute to its carbon profile and environmental impact.

Reducing CO2 emissions is a top priority, but Feadship goes even further by addressing the overall environmental impact of its vessels. The emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (NOx), particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and the impact of building materials like steel, aluminium, fairing compounds, antifouling, teak, interior finishing, and more, are under scrutiny. This, together with CO2 emissions, is what we call environmental impact, which is calculated using life cycle assessments (LCA).

Yacht Environmental Transparency Index

Jongepier’s work became known as YETI, the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index. Operating on the philosophy that one cannot control what one cannot measure, the algorithms describing the environmental impact of CO2, NOx, particulate matter, shore power, and fuel production have been made freely available by Feadship to the signatories of the Water Revolution Foundation, a yachting industry association dedicated to driving sustainability in the superyacht industry through collaboration and innovation. This led to a Joint Industry Project (JIP) under the flag of the Water Revolution Foundation with twenty major partners in the yachting industry.

The YETI JIP produced a tool which, with data augmented now by other partners like engine manufacturers, predicts the environmental impact of a standardized operational year in the yacht’s lifecycle. Jongepier estimates that YETI effectively captures 90% of the total lifecycle of a yacht and each new build helps gather more data. It is estimated that Obsidian will operate with 27% less total environmental impact than a yacht of similar size launched only five years ago if run on fossil fuel, and 60% less when using HVO.

For Obsidian , the first step was building on innovation from the award-winning Savannah . Using Feadship’s Advanced Electrical Drive (FAED) program for diesel-electric hybrid power, Obsidian has 4.5 times more electrical storage capacity than our first hybrid yacht, Savannah . She has no drive shafts and no rudders, preventing added drag caused by these appendages. Propulsion and steering are supplied by a pair of Veth contra-rotating thrusters that deliver both functions. Veth’s experience with compact units for ships operating on rivers was seen as a perfect fit for a yacht specified for a relatively shallow draft. Feadship and Veth collaborated on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the shapes of the drive legs and the propellors to maximize efficiency and minimize vibration, dampening vibration being another key component of the brief.

Powering it all is a 4.5 MWh battery bank that is charged by four generators — two large and two small, custom, variable speed units based on tweaked CatC32 engines with permanent magnet alternators that deliver power as needed. Where Savannah and Lonian – which launched in 2018 – operated on 560 volts, the DC system on Obsidian is a staggering 1,000-volt system because the yacht is fully powered by electricity. A total of 560 battery modules are housed in a special chilled room amidships on the tank deck, revealing another benefit of the hybrid system: The components no longer need to be adjacent. The thrusters are in the best location for steering and water flow, while the generators and their exhaust systems, batteries, and electrical switchboard are located elsewhere for optimal weight distribution and crew access. Obsidian should be able to cruise for 35 nm at 10 knots on batteries alone. At anchor, the batteries will provide silent operation for 10-15 hours.

Fuel savings

Advanced propulsion alone, however, would not result in the level of fuel savings required. When analysing Obsidian using the YETI tool, it revealed that about 60% of the energy consumed goes simply to powering the onboard lifestyle – the air conditioning, heating, hot water, lighting, cooking, entertainment electronics, pools, and laundry service. Reducing the energy needed to provide for the yacht’s “hotel” load became the target.

Several major innovations adapted for Obsidian address these target areas through peak load shaving and reducing HVAC demand through the computerized management of cooling guest and crew zones. But since making and using energy creates heat, capturing unwanted or “waste” heat to be used for other purposes became a key focus. Out of every 100kW of energy created by fossil fuel combustion in a typical internal combustion engine, only 35 to 40% is effective mechanical energy, with the rest being heat, usually discarded overboard with the water-cooling system and in the exhaust gasses. Feadship’s design and engineering team began by developing a much more comprehensive system than simply using generator cooling water to heat a swimming pool, a process that has become standard for many superyacht builders.

Considering that 25% of that "hotel" energy demand is about making heat, everything that needed heat was identified. The largest consumer was air conditioning.

The reason being that to sufficiently dehumidify the surrounding sea air, the HVAC system needs to cool incoming fresh air to about 7 degrees Celsius, but then, to keep the interior from feeling like a meat locker, heating units must warm the air to the desired temperature for each room.

Many points of energy savings

Conventional installations typically reheat with an electric heating element, but Obsidian uses waste heat for that purpose. Not only is waste heat captured from the generators, but also from the AC chillers themselves. This is not just free energy, but it is essentially carbon-free energy because it reuses incidental heat generated by another function. “There are so many points of energy savings integrated on this yacht that it is hard to count,” said Project Manager Mark Jansen.

Urged to explore all avenues, Feadship’s engineers introduced an innovative heat pump system to pull heat from various sources, including ambient sea water. Using a heat pump, which transports thermal energy (heat) from one place to another, is five times more efficient than simply making heat with a regular electrical heating coil, according to Jongepier.

An onboard computer system helps to choose seamlessly the appropriate combination of sources. This translates into the following operational modes:

• In harbour at normal sea temperatures plugged into shore power: Heat is provided by AC compressor waste heat, augmented by the heat pump if necessary.
• At anchor at normal sea temperature, operating on battery power: Heat provided by AC compressor waste heat, augmented by heat pump if necessary.
• Sailing, at anchor or in harbour at normal sea temperature with generators in operation: All necessary heat provided by generator waste heat.

Because the path to carbon-neutral superyachts goes far beyond a single solution, Obsidian also involved fresh approaches to the hull form. De Voogt’s naval architects created the low, slim hull, optimized at cruising speed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the final form being made into a model tested in a towing tank. Complex engineering for balance and weight reduction includes new applications for carbon fibre. The louvered aft deck overhangs, for example, are all carbon fibre attached to the aluminium superstructure and require no support pillars. This weight benefit also offered new deck layout possibilities.

For the first time in many years, Feadship is delivering a yacht with a single level engine room, which gave her designers considerably more freedom in creating the interior layout. It also lends more space for guest accommodation and features a total of seven staterooms. According to Jansen, the volume of this 84-metre yacht is typical of that on 100-metre Feadships.

The layout is just as bold and modern as the exterior profile would suggest. Both the exterior styling and interior design are by the British firm RWD, in collaboration with MONK Design.

There are surprising destination spaces such as an asymmetrical atrium staircase leading to a lower deck dining saloon with an entire wall that opens to provide a terrace view just 75 cm above sea level.

Near the stern is an Aqua Lounge where massive windows below water level offer a unique view from the nearby gym. The Aqua Lounge can also function as a cinema and even a classroom.

From decks to the interior, the design leitmotif is all about surprise – most of the corridors and many of the rooms, as well as all of the al fresco living spaces, are not oriented on a fore and aft or athwartships axis. In fact, except for staterooms, none of the interior rooms have any 90-degree angles. A hidden staircase to a study and a sunken lounge on the main deck are just two more of the unexpected interior elements. But the biggest surprise involves the use of submarine anchors. Eliminating the need for a mooring deck forward allows Obsidian to feature a fantastic interior bow observation lounge with double curved glass floor-to-ceiling windows. Access is via a main deck corridor from the guest accommodation area through the tender garage to this hidden gem.

In keeping with the carbon reduction theme, both of the yacht’s primary tenders are electric-powered and custom made by Tenderworks. Four fast charging stations installed by the yard will allow them to be charged in the water or in the tender garage.

After the sea trials it turned out that Obsidian is even more efficient than previously calculated.

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Feadship releases images of superyacht OBSIDIAN heading for sea trials

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By Nina Done   26 June 2023

With the sun shining and Goldilocks sea conditions, the impressive 84m (276ft) superyacht OBSIDIAN departed Feadship ’s build facilities at Alsmeer in the Netherlands to undertake her first round of sea trials, designed to test her capabilities, equipment and safety features.

Known throughout her build as Project 710 , the steel and aluminum motor yacht  showcases a low profile with masculine lines and seamless tinted glazing that wraps around her plumb bow, bearing all the hallmarks of her Feadship pedigree. 

She also sports a metallic gray hull with teak accents on the lower edges of each faring on her superstructure, creating a distinctive look that marks her out against her contemporaries.

Her exterior design and naval architecture are from the boards of RWD, a long-time Feadship collaborator, while her interior styling is from the pen of French studio Monk Design, also in collaboration with RWD.

Some of the standout features on board the 2,555 GT yacht include an observation lounge on her bow with double-curved glass floor-to-ceiling windows, an asymmetrical atrium stairwell leading to a formal dining area that can be opened up for guests to enjoy waterside views and an Aqua Lounge in her stern offering unique underwater vistas.  

She is also fitted with the latest Starlink antennas enabling download speeds of up to 350MB anywhere in the world.

The yacht also boasts a raft of green credentials, including an optimized hull at cruising speed and the ability to run her generators on HVO, which is essentially hydro-treated vegetable oil, offering a 90% reduction in greenhouse gasses, helping Feadship and their clients work towards a net zero CO² fuel goal.

She is also able to capture waste heat from the custom variable speed generators and air conditioner chiller to supply heat to the AC system, pool water, domestic water, engine preheating, and more. Meanwhile, an innovative heat pump system allows the yacht to draw heat from seawater.

Delivery is expected in the coming months, following the successful completion of sea trials. It is not expected that superyacht OBSIDIAN will be available for charter once she’s delivered to her owner.

In order to make enquiries regarding a charter with a Feadship superyacht, please get in touch with your preferred charter broker . Alternatively, view all superyachts available for charter .

Image credits: @Feadship

Video credits: Dutch Yachting

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Feadship is another step closer to the goal of producing carbon-neutral superyachts by 2030.

The recently built 84.20-metre Obsidian is the first of Feadship’s new generation of large yachts furthering carbon reduction through hulls optimised at cruising speed instead of top speed, weight control, advancements in electric propulsion, and the ability to run engines on non-fossil diesel fuel called HVO. In fact, the yacht’s trials were conducted with the generators running on this second-generation biofuel, reducing carbon emissions by 90% compared to yachts operating on fossil fuels.

The brief for the yacht was to be more energy efficient and emit less carbon than Feadship’s ground-breaking hybrid yacht, Savannah, which launched in 2015. Reducing the environmental impact by more than 30% would have been a tall order in any case, but the entire 12-month design period for Obsidian occurred at the height of a global pandemic. With Covid-19 lockdowns, none of the designers, engineers, or other parties were able to collaborate in person.

Working in parallel, Bram Jongepier, Senior Designer at Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects, developed a sustainability index, providing a great deal of guidance on how all of a yacht’s components and operations contribute to its carbon profile and environmental impact.

Reducing CO2 emissions is a top priority, but Feadship goes even further by addressing the overall environmental impact of its vessels. The emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (NOx), particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and the impact of building materials like steel, aluminium, fairing compounds, antifouling, teak, interior finishing, and more, are under scrutiny. This, together with CO2 emissions, is what we call environmental impact, which is calculated using life cycle assessments (LCA).

Yacht Environmental Transparency Index

Jongepier’s work became known as YETI, the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index. Operating on the philosophy that one cannot control what one cannot measure, the algorithms describing the environmental impact of CO2, NOx, particulate matter, shore power, and fuel production have been made freely available by Feadship to the signatories of the Water Revolution Foundation, a yachting industry association dedicated to driving sustainability in the superyacht industry through collaboration and innovation. This led to a Joint Industry Project (JIP) under the flag of the Water Revolution Foundation with twenty major partners in the yachting industry.

The YETI JIP produced a tool which, with data augmented now by other partners like engine manufacturers, predicts the environmental impact of a standardized operational year in the yacht’s lifecycle. Jongepier estimates that YETI effectively captures 90% of the total lifecycle of a yacht and each new build helps gather more data. It is estimated that Obsidian will operate with 27% less total environmental impact than a yacht of similar size launched only five years ago if run on fossil fuel, and 60% less when using HVO.

For Obsidian, the first step was building on innovation from the award-winning Savannah. Using Feadship’s Advanced Electrical Drive (FAED) program for diesel-electric hybrid power, Obsidian has 4.5 times more electrical storage capacity than our first hybrid yacht, Savannah. She has no drive shafts and no rudders, preventing added drag caused by these appendages. Propulsion and steering are supplied by a pair of Veth contra-rotating thrusters that deliver both functions. Veth’s experience with compact units for ships operating on rivers was seen as a perfect fit for a yacht specified for a relatively shallow draft. Feadship and Veth collaborated on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the shapes of the drive legs and the propellors to maximize efficiency and minimize vibration, dampening vibration being another key component of the brief.

Powering it all is a 4.5 MWh battery bank that is charged by four generators — two large and two small, custom, variable speed units based on tweaked CatC32 engines with permanent magnet alternators that deliver power as needed. Where Savannah and Lonian – which launched in 2018 – operated on 560 volts, the DC system on Obsidian is a staggering 1,000-volt system because the yacht is fully powered by electricity. A total of 560 battery modules are housed in a special chilled room amidships on the tank deck, revealing another benefit of the hybrid system: The components no longer need to be adjacent. The thrusters are in the best location for steering and water flow, while the generators and their exhaust systems, batteries, and electrical switchboard are located elsewhere for optimal weight distribution and crew access. Obsidian should be able to cruise for 35 nm at 10 knots on batteries alone. At anchor, the batteries will provide silent operation for 10-15 hours.

Fuel savings

Advanced propulsion alone, however, would not result in the level of fuel savings required. When analysing Obsidian using the YETI tool, it revealed that about 60% of the energy consumed goes simply to powering the onboard lifestyle – the air conditioning, heating, hot water, lighting, cooking, entertainment electronics, pools, and laundry service. Reducing the energy needed to provide for the yacht’s “hotel” load became the target.

Several major innovations adapted for Obsidian address these target areas through peak load shaving and reducing HVAC demand through the computerized management of cooling guest and crew zones. But since making and using energy creates heat, capturing unwanted or “waste” heat to be used for other purposes became a key focus. Out of every 100kW of energy created by fossil fuel combustion in a typical internal combustion engine, only 35 to 40% is effective mechanical energy, with the rest being heat, usually discarded overboard with the water-cooling system and in the exhaust gasses. Feadship’s design and engineering team began by developing a much more comprehensive system than simply using generator cooling water to heat a swimming pool, a process that has become standard for many superyacht builders.

Considering that 25% of that “hotel” energy demand is about making heat, everything that needed heat was identified. The largest consumer was air conditioning.

The reason being that to sufficiently dehumidify the surrounding sea air, the HVAC system needs to cool incoming fresh air to about 7 degrees Celsius, but then, to keep the interior from feeling like a meat locker, heating units must warm the air to the desired temperature for each room.

Many points of energy savings

Conventional installations typically reheat with an electric heating element, but Obsidian uses waste heat for that purpose. Not only is waste heat captured from the generators, but also from the AC chillers themselves. This is not just free energy, but it is essentially carbon-free energy because it reuses incidental heat generated by another function. “There are so many points of energy savings integrated on this yacht that it is hard to count,” said Project Manager Mark Jansen.

Urged to explore all avenues, Feadship’s engineers introduced an innovative heat pump system to pull heat from various sources, including ambient sea water. Using a heat pump, which transports thermal energy (heat) from one place to another, is five times more efficient than simply making heat with a regular electrical heating coil, according to Jongepier.

An onboard computer system helps to choose seamlessly the appropriate combination of sources. This translates into the following operational modes:

• In harbour at normal sea temperatures plugged into shore power: Heat is provided by AC compressor waste heat, augmented by the heat pump if necessary.
• At anchor at normal sea temperature, operating on battery power: Heat provided by AC compressor waste heat, augmented by heat pump if necessary.
• Sailing, at anchor or in harbour at normal sea temperature with generators in operation: All necessary heat provided by generator waste heat.

Because the path to carbon-neutral superyachts goes far beyond a single solution, Obsidian also involved fresh approaches to the hull form. De Voogt’s naval architects created the low, slim hull, optimized at cruising speed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the final form being made into a model tested in a towing tank. Complex engineering for balance and weight reduction includes new applications for carbon fibre. The louvered aft deck overhangs, for example, are all carbon fibre attached to the aluminium superstructure and require no support pillars. This weight benefit also offered new deck layout possibilities.

For the first time in many years, Feadship is delivering a yacht with a single level engine room, which gave her designers considerably more freedom in creating the interior layout. It also lends more space for guest accommodation and features a total of seven staterooms. According to Jansen, the volume of this 84-metre yacht is typical of that on 100-metre Feadships.

The layout is just as bold and modern as the exterior profile would suggest. Both the exterior styling and interior design are by the British firm RWD, in collaboration with MONK Design.

There are surprising destination spaces such as an asymmetrical atrium staircase leading to a lower deck dining saloon with an entire wall that opens to provide a terrace view just 75 cm above sea level.

Near the stern is an Aqua Lounge where massive windows below water level offer a unique view from the nearby gym. The Aqua Lounge can also function as a cinema and even a classroom.

From decks to the interior, the design leitmotif is all about surprise – most of the corridors and many of the rooms, as well as all of the al fresco living spaces, are not oriented on a fore and aft or athwartships axis. In fact, except for staterooms, none of the interior rooms have any 90-degree angles. A hidden staircase to a study and a sunken lounge on the main deck are just two more of the unexpected interior elements. But the biggest surprise involves the use of submarine anchors. Eliminating the need for a mooring deck forward allows Obsidian to feature a fantastic interior bow observation lounge with double curved glass floor-to-ceiling windows. Access is via a main deck corridor from the guest accommodation area through the tender garage to this hidden gem.

In keeping with the carbon reduction theme, both of the yacht’s primary tenders are electric-powered and custom made by Tenderworks. Four fast charging stations installed by the yard will allow them to be charged in the water or in the tender garage.

After the sea trials it turned out that Obsidian is even more efficient than previously calculated.

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By SuperyachtNews 31 Jul 2023

Feadship delivers 84m Obsidian

The dutch shipbuilder claims its latest renewable diesel-powered delivery brings it one step closer to building completely carbon-neutral yachts by 2030….

Feadship has delivered 83m Obsidian , its latest yacht designed to run on renewable diesel and electric propulsion. The ship is the first of Feadship’s new generation of large yachts with the aim of reducing carbon emissions through advancements in weight control, propulsion technology and the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel, instead of traditional diesel.

Obsidian's trials were conducted with the engines running on HVO, which has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 90% when compared to yachts operating on fossil fuels. Notably, HVO is a ‘second-generation’ biofuel, meaning that it was made using by-products rather than crops that compete with food production.

Feadship says the aim of the project was to build a more energy-efficient vessel than its first hybrid yacht, Savannah , which launched in 2015. Using Feadship’s Advanced Electrical Drive (FAED) programme for diesel-electric hybrid power, Obsidian has 4.5 times more electrical storage capacity than Savannah . 

Bram Jongepier, Senior Designer, De Voogt Naval Architects , developed the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI),  a sustainability index that provides guidance on how a yacht’s components and operations contribute to its carbon footprint and environmental impact, and used it during Obsidian's  12-month design process.

According to Jongepier, YETI can calculate 90% of the total lifecycle of a yacht. With YETI available to Water Revolution Foundation signatories, the Foundation predicts that the environmental impact of O bsidian  will operate with 27% less total environmental impact than a yacht of similar size when powered by fossil fuel, and 60% less when using HVO. 

Inside the hull, Obsidian’s propulsion and steering are supplied by two Veth contra-rotating thrusters that deliver both shaft and rudder functions. These are powered by a 4.5 MWh battery bank that is charged by four generators — two large and two small, custom, variable speed units based on tweaked CatC32 engines with permanent magnet alternators. 

The change in propulsion methods alone didn't provide the level of fuel savings Feadship desired. Using the YETI tool, the shipyard noticed about 60% of the energy consumed goes simply to powering the onboard lifestyle. To combat this, Feadship sought to utilise the yacht’s waste heat for efficiency.

Feadship’s engineers introduced a heat pump system to pull waste heat from ambient seawater, generators and AC chillers. The heat pump then transports thermal energy from one place to another and is five times more efficient than making heat with a regular electrical heating coil, according to Jongepier.

Obsidian also has a single level engine room, which gave the designers more freedom in creating the interior layout and more space for guest accommodation with a total of seven staterooms. Jansen says the volume of the yacht is more typical of that on 100m Feadships. Both the exterior and interior design are by the British firm RWD and Switzerland-based MONK Design.

Obsidian will also employ Quantum XT™ (extendable) Fin Stabilizers, a semi-retractable boat stabilizer fin system that operates underway and at zero speed, optimised for energy efficiency.

Renewable diesel and biofuels are becoming more prevalent in superyachting as the race to decarbonise the industry continues. And it is availability is increasing too. Recently,  Peninsula announced that it will supply biofuels to yacht owners in the Gibraltar Strait and surrounding areas, having recently received its International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC).

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OBSIDIAN Feadship

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276-foot-long feadship superyacht designed to reduce carbon emissions.

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Feadship's new superyacht Obsidian

Feadship not only has a reputation for building some of the most luxurious and recognizable superyachts in the world. The Dutch shipyard is also striving to produce carbon-neutral superyachts by 2030. And the brief for newest launch was that it had to be more energy efficient and emit less carbon than Feadship’s award-winning hybrid yacht, Savannah , which launched in 2015.

Obsidian is one with its surroundings

As a result, the 276-foot-long Obsidian is the first of Feadship’s new generation of large yachts that are specifically designed for significant carbon reduction through hull design, weight control, advancements in electric propulsion, and the ability to run engines on non-fossil diesel fuel called HVO. In fact, the sea trials were conducted with the generators running on this second-generation biofuel, reducing carbon emissions by 90% compared to yachts operating on fossil fuels.

According to Feadship, reducing CO2 emissions was a top priority, but the company wanted to go even further by addressing the overall environmental impact of its vessels. Therefore everything from emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide (NOx), to particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and the impact of building materials like steel, aluminum, fairing compounds, antifouling, teak, interior finishing, and more were analyzed.

New Feadship superyacht Obsidian launch in Holland

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Operating on the philosophy that one cannot control what one cannot measure, Bram Jongepier, Senior Designer at Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects developed the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) to accurately measure the environmental impact of CO2, NOx, particulate matter, shore power, and fuel production have been made freely available by Feadship to the signatories of the Water Revolution Foundation, a yachting industry association dedicated to driving sustainability in the superyacht industry through collaboration and innovation. This led to a Joint Industry Project (JIP) under the flag of the Water Revolution Foundation with twenty major partners in the yachting industry.

The YETI JIP produced a tool which, with data augmented by partners like engine manufacturers, predicts the environmental impact of a standardized operational year in the yacht’s lifecycle. Jongepier estimates that YETI effectively captures 90% of the total lifecycle of a yacht and each new build helps gather more data. It is estimated that Obsidian will operate with 27% less total environmental impact than a yacht of similar size launched only five years ago if run on fossil fuel, and 60% less when using HVO.

The battery room onboard the new Feadship Obsidian

For Obsidian , the first step was building on innovation from the award-winning Savannah. Using Feadship’s Advanced Electrical Drive (FAED) program for diesel-electric hybrid power, Obsidian has 4.5 times more electrical storage capacity than Feadship’s first hybrid yacht, Savannah . Another innovation is Obsidian has no drive shafts and no rudders. Propulsion and steering are supplied by a pair of low-drag Veth contra-rotating thrusters.

Veth’s experience with compact units for ships operating on rivers was seen as a perfect fit for a yacht specified for a relatively shallow draft. Feadship and Veth collaborated on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the shapes of the drive legs and the propellors to maximize efficiency and minimize vibration, dampening vibration being another key component of the brief.

Powering it all is a 4.5 MWh battery bank that is charged by four generators — two large and two small, custom, variable speed units based on tweaked CatC32 engines with permanent magnet alternators that deliver power as needed. Where Savannah and Lonian – which launched in 2018 – operated on 560 volts, the DC system on Obsidian is a staggering 1,000- volt system because the yacht is fully powered by electricity. Obsidian should be able to cruise for 35 nm at 10 knots on batteries alone. At anchor, the batteries will provide silent operation for 10-15 hours.

Innovations in hull form lead to better fuel economy

Because the path to carbon-neutral superyachts goes far beyond a single solution, Obsidian also involved fresh approaches to the hull form. De Voogt’s naval architects created the low, slim hull, optimized at cruising speed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the final form being made into a model tested in a towing tank.

For the first time in many years, Feadship is delivering a yacht with a single level engine room, which gave her designers considerably more freedom in creating the interior layout that’s just as bold and modern as the exterior profile would suggest. Both the exterior styling and interior design are by the British firm RWD, in collaboration with MONK Design.

Near the stern is an Aqua Lounge where massive windows below water level offer a unique view from the nearby gym. The Aqua Lounge can also function as a cinema and even a classroom.

The massive, one-level engine room onboard Obsidian

From decks to the interior, the design leitmotif is all about surprise – most of the corridors and many of the rooms, as well as all of the al fresco living spaces, are not oriented on a fore and aft or athwartships axis. In fact, except for staterooms, none of the interior rooms have any 90-degree angles. A hidden staircase to a study and a sunken lounge on the main deck are just two more of the unexpected interior elements. But the biggest surprise involves the use of submarine anchors. Eliminating the need for a mooring deck forward allows Obsidian to feature a fantastic interior bow observation lounge with double curved glass floor-to-ceiling windows. Access is via a main deck corridor from the guest accommodation area through the tender garage to this hidden gem.

The pump room onboard Obsidian

In keeping with the carbon reduction theme, both of the yacht’s primary tenders are electric- powered and custom made by Tenderworks. Four fast charging stations installed by the yard will allow them to be charged in the water or in the tender garage.

Of course the tenders are electric! Stay tuned for more from the future.

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