The Ultimate Comfort

09 Sep 2024

Experience the ultimate comfort of sailing silently around the world

What first comes to mind when talking about “comfort” on board a superyacht? 

To put this into perspective, experiences and services on board a typical superyacht are on a par, (or sometimes more), with a 5-star hotel. Of course, the highest level of comfort is a given, but surprisingly not all aspects contributing to comfort are always given the same importance. 

For me, ultimate comfort is sailing the seas immersed in the sound of silence, interrupted only by the waves gently lapping the hull. Comfort onboard is to walk onboard barefoot feeling only the warmth of the deck, as if the boat structure and machinery carrying out their duties below were non-existent. Comfort is to feel as if you were gliding just above the sea. 

But how can this vision of onboard comfort be achieved? 

The first thing you need is to get organized, by hiring a noise and vibration consultant to support the owner’s team, and the designing of his/her yacht, from its inception. The expert will help with contract/specification developments, setting noise and vibration limits that are challenging, yet feasible and that will guide the owner and the shipyard building the most satisfying yacht. 

During the design phase, the noise and vibration expert will perform predictions to verify, pre-emptively, compliance with the agreed limits and suggest improvement focused on subjective noise and vibration perception. 

These predictions will allow us to determine possible noise and vibration levels in every single internal and external area of the yacht. Currently, if carried out by an experienced consultant, these predictions have a very high reliability. 

Different conditions can be tested, depending on the operativity of the yacht: the standard tests are those at anchor and during navigation at contractual speed. But I would also advocate considering an additional situation condition so often overlooked that it could be considered the “calling card” of the yacht: the manoeuvring condition. 

Imagine inviting friends on your newly built yacht. Cocktails are ready in the main saloon, people walking in the marina are observing this new gorgeous yacht departing, and… thrusters go off: the owner, guests and marina bystanders are met by a highly disturbing noise.  

Doesn’t paint a nice picture, does it? 

Nowadays noise and vibration predictions can take the noise of the side thrusters into account. Improvements to reduce structure-borne noise propagation onboard can be studied by considering external noise propagation as well. Thrusters are, by nature, very noisy components and whilst their noise cannot be eliminated, its propagation can be reduced significantly. An expert noise and vibration specialist can provide guidance, suggesting feasible modifications to improve comfort onboard and outboard, by defining the right technical specs for the key components and by recommending newly developed, quieter thrusters. 

Noise and vibration values can be analysed both as objective quantities, (measured by specialist instruments), and a subjective entity. New technologies permit us to virtually simulate sound reduction indexes of different barriers and listen to their different impact in the receiving room. So, if we think about a cabin adjacent to an engine room, it is possible to test different partitions and decide which one sounds subjectively better for the owner. As a result, insulation materials can be chosen not only for their objective characteristics, (sound reduction, weight, and cost), but also based on the owner’s personal feeling of comfort. 

Finally, once the yacht is under construction, it’s important to monitor the progress to avoid potential installation defects or unforeseen issues that ultimately may lead in a reduction of comfort. With instruments such as acoustic cameras and amplification motion cameras, it is possible to detect noise passages and vibration issues respectively, (both typically due to incorrect installations), at an early stage of outfitting or during sea trials, before final handover of the vessel to the owner. 

In conclusion, my advice is to think about noise and vibration performance from the very early stages of build, and to involve a trusted expert that can follow the yacht’s lifespan holistically, from the creation of the preliminary technical specification to the final delivery. 

And what do you do if as an owner you are not sure what the suitable noise and vibration limits are for your yacht? Most classification societies have additional class notations (e.g., RINA Comfort Yacht) focusing on comfort, by defining a set of goal-based parameters that will result in enhanced onboard and outboard comfort for humans… but not only this! Today, thanks to notations focusing on underwater noise emitted by yachts, (e.g. Dolphin Yacht), we can also protect our beloved sea fauna. 

Only by paying attention to this level of detail may you experience the ultimate comfort of sailing silently around the world, leaving no trace behind, as if you were gently gliding over the water.