The new 180-foot yacht Zephyr, designed by Federico Fiorentino and built by Rossinavi, reaches 32 knots but its high-performance hull is designed to cross the Atlantic.
Federico Fiorentino?s new 180-foot Zephyr concept makes use of a combination of gentle curves popular in ?60s automotive designs and taut lines to create a long, streamlined profile, embellished with stainless-steel accents. The Rossinavi-built yacht will have a Fast Displacement XL 500 hull by Van Oossanen Naval Architects. The XL running surface is the next step forward for the Dutch firm?s patented fast displacement hull form. It provides 20 percent more speed over the previous generation and, perhaps more critical to the owner, 20 percent more interior space.
On Zephyr, the hull is particularly noteworthy: With 16V 4000 MTU engines, it will deliver a top speed of 32 knots. At 12 knots the yacht has a transatlantic range of 3,540 nautical miles with fuel consumption of less than four gallons per nautical mile. One of Fiorentino?s primary goals was to put the owners and guests beside the water without using a conventional beach club. Instead, Fiorentino created a 990-square-foot beach area that covers the entire aft deck that is connected to a 300-square-foot raised terrace. With the huge swim platform deployed, the focal point of the stern becomes its 18-foot swimming pool.  The views are exceptional from every point on this deck, from the raised terrace to the transparent edges of the pool. The deck...