Oceanco has revealed its newest project, the105-metre (345ft) diesel-electric driven Esquel, at the Dubai International Boat Show.

 

The yacht has been conceived and designed to explore new territories, the company says.  "Eighty percent of yacht activity takes place in 20% of the world’s oceans. Only 5% of what is beneath the world’s oceans has been seen, let alone experienced," it says. 

 

Oceanco has created Esquel in collaboration with Timur Bozca Design, stylist Gina Brennan, Lateral Naval Architects and Engineering, and Pelorus -- a leading experiential and yacht expedition travel company.

 

Sporting a displacement hull with a plumb bow, Esquel has been designed for extensive cruising to remote regions extending from the North Pole to the South Pole and everywhere in between. 

 

“…At the same time, she offers all the aesthetics, amenities, interior and exterior finishes and attention to engineering detail seen onboard all Oceancos,” says Dirk de Jong, commercial director at Oceanco. 

 

A perfect blend between an expedition vessel and a sophisticated superyacht, Esquel offers the best of both worlds. She has a 230 sq m tender garage for fast ribs, varietal tenders, watersports toys and diving gear. Her expansive uncluttered main deck, measuring 200 sq m has an aft deck glass superstructure with an enclosed pool and wellness area with panoramic views. This deck also offers plenty of space for accommodating locked containers of any sort, as well as additional tenders and off - road vehicles. 

For those interested in marine biology and ocean conservation, Esquel can become a platform for any number of scientific studies such as coral aquaculture -- creating reef farms aboard to help restore our world’s dying reefs. 

 

Esquel has a very flexible layout and can be adapted to house additional multi-purpose cabins, first response units, seminar areas, and research offices. 

 

Timur Bozca Design was selected to design Esquel. Bozca, who has design studios in London and Antalya, has won several design accolades in the last few years including Young Designer of the Year Award --  an established international competition that Oceanco sponsors annually. 

 

“Our vision is to create solutions by considering human factors, technology and aesthetics," says Bozca. “We design everything for a reason—not just for the sake of designing. We believe that we must not only create for tomorrow, but also for the day after.”

 

Esquel is equipped with a state-of-the-art sustainable compact diesel-electric architecture to allow uncompromised and autonomous operation throughout the world. With her strengthened hull and Polar classification, she has a cruising range of 7,000 nautical miles and can reach a top speed of 16.5 knots. 

 

“In order to truly realise her expedition potential,” says James Roy, managing director of Lateral, "Esquels’s naval architecture has been executed to provide maximum redundancy for the lowest possible maintenance.”

 

While the exterior of the expedition yacht is very masculine and modern, the interior is stylish and warm with comfortable furniture to create the feeling of a home away from home.

 

“The ambition for the look and feel of Esquel’s interior is geared towards depicting the life, influences and home of a young explorer says London-based interior stylist Gina Brennan. Visible will be an eclectic mix of antiques and artefacts collected on his/her travels.”

 

Working with the team at Pelorus to fully understand the true nature of adventures in remote places such as Greenland and Patagonia, Esquel has been designed and engineered to carry and deploy two submarines, a land vehicle, and motorbikes, as well as accommodate a helicopter.  She can also be equipped with laboratories for scientific experiments and exploration. 

 

Able to take to the high seas in any hemisphere, Esquel truly represents another one-of-a-kind vessel that carries Oceanco’s distinctive innovative DNA.  - TradeArabia News Service