Heesen Unveils Project

NovaWe’ve teased you a few times with artist’s illustrations of this exciting project, but now we can finally bring you full photographic imagery and details of this high-tech new hybrid superyacht.

Hessen’s Project Nova is the ground breaking new hybrid 50m superyacht launched recently at the Monaco Yacht Show, 2015. Project Nova is a Fast Displacement Hull, a concept Heesen were first to develop with the launch of the Galactica Star back in 2013.

Unlike Galactica Star, Nova is not designed for exceptionally high speeds, but instead uses the ultra efficient and easily driven hull form at the lower speeds typically associated with traditional displacement hulls, to achieve vastly lower fuel consumption.

To give you an idea, at 12 knots Nova has a fuel consumption of 98 litres per hour (excluding generators), and at 10 knots this reduces to a staggering 57.5 litres per hour – this for a yacht 50m long, displacing 315 tons and with a gross tonnage of 499. In addition, she has a cruising range (at 12 knots) of 3,750 miles with a fuel capacity of just 45,000 litres.

All of this is achieved with a pair of MTU 12V 2000 M61 engines putting out 600 kW each, which might not sound like much, but when mated to twin DC water cooled DC electric shaft motors of 127kW each through the hybrid propulsion system, you begin to see how such impressive performance is achieved.

Nova can cruise at speeds up to 9 knots using the generators alone. The added benefit to these hybrid engines is the noise. Project Nova is exceptionally quiet for a 50m superyacht.

With massively reduced noise and fuel consumption, Project Nova looks to be the future in yacht propulsion systems!