No hurricane season wandering

A submarine yacht as suggested at (www.concretesubmarine.com) exposes almost no surface of its hull to weather except a small sail (tower). So you can get the nose into the wind with a very small engine under any condition. On anchor place this means that the bow area is not lifted in any wave as it is the case in a surface ship which tends to bring tremendous forces to the anchor rig, which is the cause of anchor break out in severe conditions. A submarine yacht as my tested prototype brings very little force to the anchor rig - even in storm conditions.

For surface yacht you need to find a hurricane save place during hurricane season so yacht owners frequently move their ships. A submarine yacht you can be left on anchor place in a open bay during that time - no weather condition will damage or affect it - this is a mayor cost benefit.

Marina and harbor free operation

A surface yacht must stay in marinas due to its vulnerability to weather - a submarine yacht allows true marina free operation any place is ok to stay during your trip you can have a nice meal and a fine night sleep in open sea.

Closed burglar and pirate safe

A burglar can break into a surface yacht of any kind using a light hand tool - this is not the case for a submarine yacht. A hatch can be made with security features of a bank safe - break in with tools you can deploy on an anchor place is impossible. A act of piracy is also impossible a pirate can get on deck - but never into the hull.

Drift dive operation

In July 1996 Ben Franklin a 130 ton research submarine made a drift dive of 30 days over a distance of 2700km in Golf Stream. This dive compared with a submarine balloon trip was performed without any engine use. Submarines that have a non-compressible buoyancy regulation can stay stable at certain depth to do that kind of voyage.

Economic cruising

No long distance surface swimming animal exists because this is not energy efficient. On contrary moving heavy streamlined bodies under water is VERY engergy efficient as the whale enegy model shows - those giants can swim 6 months with no refueling (feeding) and make distances of 10.000 miles per year. The power required to do so is about 20-40HP for a 200 ton body. See more about this in section energy economic submarine cruising ...

Small engine

So the recommendation for a engine in a submarine yacht must be between 2HP/ ton which is emergency power for a blue whale. This is already considerably less than you would have in a surface yacht but you should be aware that in a surface yacht you need a engine surplus to fight against a storm that could smash you against a reef. For a submarine yacht you could get away with a even smaller engine that would take you just to efficient cruising speed which is the range of 0.2 HP / ton of displacement. You may have a engine that is 5-10 times smaller than a similar sized surface yacht which means a mayor reducction in building and maintainance cost.

Enormous range

In a yacht submarine you have about half of the displacement as ballast weight. If you push it to the extreme you could replace all your ballast with diesel tanks. This would give you a tank reserve of 100.000 liter in a 200 ton submarine yacht. Which can take you 10.000 cruising hours at 3 miles/hour - So without taking the possible tank volume to the limits - you can have a tank size for oceancrossings in a submarine yacht.

Lower slip and maintainance cost

The concrete submarine hulls of our concepts are built according to the same rules that apply to submarine tunnels and bridge foundations - in the same way the only surface that is exposed to saltwater environment is a rounded concrete surface - therefore the maintainance needed is similar to a bridge foundation or tunnel - it stays in water for liftime - no dry dock, no painting, no sandblasting, - this is a mayor maintainance cost reduction compared to a normal yacht.

Lower hull building and engine cost

The hull building cost of our concrete hulls is less than 1/3 of building a comparable steel hull. The engine size you will build in is less than half of the horsepower you would have on a surface yacht of similar size. This is a mayor building cost reduction compared to a surface yacht.