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Vripack Receives Patent for Hull Design

Vripack have announced that, for the first time, they are to receive a patent for one of their hull designs, a hull with such unique performance characteristics that she is worthy of a patent protection.

The realisation of the invention is as unique as its outstanding performance. It is the result of a close and long term cooperation with returning customer and experienced captain, Jaap de Bruijn. Driven by his passion for performance and comfort he tirelessly worked on the optimisation of the hull of his ship. His off-book discoveries and close cooperation with Vripack eventually formed the basis for their radical Slide Hull.

After hundreds of hours of research, sea trials and empirical comfort studies Vripack managed to capture the essence of the Slide Hull and improve it even further with some 15% efficiency at fast displacement speeds. Peter Bouma, Naval Architect at Vripack comments, “Together with captain Jaap and his friend Ruud Lievaart we went on and designed the SC Amethyst. She is the first vessel equipped with our Slide Hull.”

“The comfort of this hull is described as the boat riding on cushions. The damping in waves is beyond unique and thus prevents sea sickness. Next to that, the fuel consumption of our Slide Hull exceeds that of any other vessel that I have ever seen,” continues Mr Bouma. “The SC Amethyst uses just 180 litres at a cruising speed of 21 knots which is really low for a 45-tonne-ship. The lines are placed such that when the vessel picks up speed, the water flows in a way that resembles how you go down a slide, hence the name. Thanks to the Slide Hull we outperform all other competitors in this field,” Mr Bouma adds.

Vripack reports that their new hull is specifically designed for fast displacement hull speeds particularly for vessels with a large variation in loads. Currently two more vessels are under construction with Slide Hulls.

Established in 1961, Vripack has been a leading full service yacht design, naval architecture and engineering studio with over 7000 projects under its belt.