Super stable superyacht

BUILT FOR STABILITY: Silver Cloud has two submerged torpedo-shaped hulls that contain the twin engines, fuel and water tanks.

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

LUXURY LIVING: Owner Alex Dreyfoos in the catamaran's main bedroom. There is a set of controls near the foot of the bed if he wants to steer the boat.

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All previous boats owned by multimillionaire Alex Dreyfoos have had one drawback – his wife, Renate, got seasick in them.

That problem is solved with his latest acquisition, the luxuriously appointed 41-metre Silver Cloud superyacht, which is scheduled to leave Wellington today after a weekend tied up at Queens Wharf.

The Cayman Island-registered boat, worth tens of millions of dollars, was designed and built for Mr Dreyfoos using special stability technology to prevent seasickness.

It called in to Wellington during a leisurely New Zealand and Pacific cruise by Mr Dreyfoos, 72, the founder and chairman of a Palm Springs photo electronics company.

He declined to say exactly how much his gleaming blue and white yacht cost, but indicated that even his chequebook had its limits.

"I actually planned to have a helicopter on board but when the recession came along I cancelled it and I'm glad I did. It costs about 10 per cent of the purchase price every year to maintain her and I had to have enough left over for that."

Mr Dreyfoos, a keen photographer and scuba diver, said Silver Cloud had a maximum speed of about 27kmh, not fast for a catamaran.

It was built for comfort rather than speed and has two submerged torpedo-shaped hulls that contain the twin engines, fuel and water tanks. These hulls, which contain most of the boat's weight, cut through the water about a metre below the surface and are therefore largely unaffected by wave motion.

Movement is dampened even more by stabilisers, and the catamaran's 17.8m beam gives it even more stability and an enormous amount of living room – huge lounges, spacious accommodation for 10 guests, rear stowage for a diving tender and a helicopter pad.

The couple's bedroom, just below the bridge, stretches the width of the boat and there is a set of controls near the foot of their king-size bed if Mr Dreyfoos wants to steer the boat himself. Mostly he leaves it to his skipper, one of the eight crew.

- © Fairfax NZ News