Focusing specifically on yacht owners and their enjoyment of commissioning and sailing a Royal Huisman yacht, innovative thinking is applied to:
Creating a great experience for clients in every phase of the yacht’s build, and time spent on the oceans.
The “Client App” for our clients is a fine example of dynamic involvement – allowing them to enjoy the yacht even before it is actually launched. This mobile tool has been developed to enhance the client’s experience. The unique app provides regular updates on the progress of the client’s yacht under construction, keeping both client and team fully involved.
It cannot be denied – part of the excitement of building a new yacht is anticipating the way she will be received by family and friends. Perhaps the most eye-catching of Project 403 (PHI)’s many innovative features – and a feature that accentuates the magnificent shape of the yacht herself – is her breakthrough laser fiber-optic exterior lighting system. This futuristic system was jointly developed by Royal Huisman and laser light specialist Fibr8.com. The continuous glowing threads of light, carefully positioned to mark out her exotic lines, create a spectacular head-turning effect wherever (and in whatever colors) her owner chooses to display them.
There are exceptional practical benefits apart from the lighting’s visual impact. The system leaves no unsightly gaps (as is often the case with the more common LEDs, which also have a tendency to fail) and is maintenance friendly, too. Its energy consumption is minimal. The whole, highly programmable system control unit is housed in a small, easily accessible casing. Exterior laser lighting is set to be the next trend in lighting, and has already been selected for project 406, as well.
Another innovative feature catching eyes in the marina or at an anchorage, and to date only featuring onboard Project 403, is an adaptable swimming pool. Situated on her aft deck and employing the patented DEPP system, this pool can be enclosed as a sealed tank, or opened for swimming, with fast-responding pushbutton transitions. This avoids the lengthy procedure of pumping water in and out of a separate dump tank.
Guests can enjoy a swim before playing a game on top of the covered pool just a few minutes later. When preparing for passage, the pool is topped up to prevent any surface effect and the inflatable seal is activated.
Royal Huisman excels in the smart use of glass, with every new project adding to the shipyard’s expertise. Experience the experience onboard Project 386 (Twizzle) and 400 (SEA EAGLE II), 398 (Ngoni) and 403 (PHI). The sliding glass walls separate the interior of the deckhouse salon from the sheltered exterior guest cockpit without a sill to step over: comfortably executed and with a “typical Royal Huisman” quality finish.
The innovative flush sliding glass doors onboard Projects 400 and 403 were exclusively made by the shipyard’s sister company, Rondal. The individual sliding panels do not have to open in the center like a conventional sliding door, and provide comfort and flexibility. The glass panels slide from view into their garage when opening, or are perfectly sealed within the salon when the weather demands their closure as can be seen in the aft main deck top view of Project 403.
How quiet is quiet? While silent cruising is the most immediate advantage of an electric boat in terms of onboard comfort, Royal Huisman has been building extremely quiet yachts based on conventional diesel engine and generator technology for decades. Sound-proofing measures such as “floating” floors mounted on rubber bushes, are now common practice in the yacht building industry. But the shipyard’s inhouse R&D team is committed to minimizing sound and vibration at its source and has studied how relevant measures affect the construction process.
The result: incredibly low noise levels when the generator(s) and household services, including air-conditioning, are in operation. Think of a closed library at night to have a sense of what 30dB represents. The R&D team is always focused on noise and vibrations and on removing noise at its source, rather than just adding more insulation.
Under power, the experience is very similar. Guy Booth, owner’s representative of Project 403 (PHI): “At 22 knots you can barely hear the engines anywhere inside. You wouldn’t know you were moving unless you looked out of the window.”