''Silver Cloud'' is a private

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

owned by Alexander Dreyfoos. It is a 134 ft

SWATH A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is locate ...

(Small-Waterplane-Area Twin Hull) vessel, built by

Abeking & Rasmussen Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is a shipyard situated in Lemwerder, near Bremen in the German state of Lower Saxony. The shipyard is on the left bank of the River Weser, and currently comprises five production halls with associated workshops and offi ...

Lemwerder Lemwerder is a municipality in the district of Wesermarsch, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is on the left bank of the Weser, approximately east of Oldenburg, and northwest of the centre of Bremen. Since April 2001, Lemwerder is governed by May ...

, Germany, in 2008. It is believed to be the first yacht employing the SWATH technology. The SWATH technology was until 2008 primarily used only in pilot tenders, and military and research vessels. The use of a pair of cylindrical hulls, a bit like small torpedoes, connected by slender struts to the superstructure places most of the ship's displacement below the water's surface, in calm water. This results in an extremely stable platform. At the time the ''Silver Cloud'' was built, only an estimated 20 SWATH vessels were in use in the world. The ''Silver Cloud''s beam is 58 feet, balanced by a 13.5 foot draft, with a cruising speed of 12.5 knots (14 knots maximum).

References

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External links

The ship web page
2008 ships Motor yachts