Steve Dashew has shared the design for his largest yet FPB yacht, the 40.4 metre FPB 130, and reveals exclusively to Boat International that construction could begin next year.
Fresh from the launch of the FPB 97, Iceberg, Steve Dashew presents the new flagship designed for incredible efficiency and performance.
“It’s a natural evolution”, Steve Dashew tells Boat International. “Over the last few years, as more FPBs began to cruise and be visited by other yachtsmen and professional crew, we have had requests for a larger FPB”.
Ready for round-the-world cruising and adventure, the FPB 130 is ice-classed and heavy-water capable with capsize recovery systems.
“After the Yogi capsize the interest increased in designs with self rescue”, Dashew says about the capsize recovery feature.
According to Steve Dashew, his team have been working on the design that has now evolved into the FPB 130 since completing hydrostatics on the FPB 97 Iceberg a few years ago, but they weren’t ready to carry on with work on the new FPB flagship until sea trial data was back from Iceberg.
With tiny engines for a yacht of this size – just twin 675hp diesels – Dashew is expecting a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 14 knots with a top speed of 16.5 knots. They are the “most efficient propulsion and electrical systems ever offered in a large yacht”, he says.
Steve Dashew says that in order to address efficiency, he didn’t just look at propulsion but at the yacht’s entire systems and how they worked together, paying careful attention to displacement, weight and hull shape, “where waterline is the key driver, followed by wetted surface and form drag”, says Steve Dashew. “With our hull shapes, wave drag is a small part of the total drag package”.
Dashew notes that systems are key as well, and by reducing generator requirements, weight can be saved from machinery and put back into the hull structure – for needs such as ice classification. Keeping the structural weight low overall reduces the waterline beam, which adds to the efficiency. Smaller engines are needed to push a more efficient and lighter hull, which saves on fule. But at the same time, Dashew was able to use larger propellers.
“A side benefit is sea going comfort”, he says.
Steve Dashew says metal could begin to be cut for the construction of the first-ever FPB 130 around the first of next year.