#75: ARCHIMEDES—222’3″
With a blue hull and a John Munford interior, this new Feadship embraces classic megayacht elements. Details have been kept under close wraps, though we understand her owner is American.
Y: 2008; B: Feadship/Royal Van Lent Shipyard, Holland; N: De Voogt Naval Architects; H: steel; E: 2/2,000-hp Caterpillars
World’s 100 Largest Yachts 2008
FAST FACTS
Reprodart.com
Archimedes of Syracuse was one of the most brilliant minds of the ancient world. Yet his ties with the maritime world were complicated.
Plutarch attributes many discoveries to Archimedes in his account of him in The Lives of Famous Men. The foremost is the discovery that the buoyancy of an object is equal to the weight of the water it displaces, a founding principle in hydrodynamics; it’s a basic tenant that companies like De Voogt Naval Architects, which designed this yacht, rely upon.
When the Romans attacked his island of Sicily during the second Punic War, the tale goes that two of Archimedes’ inventions held the legions at bay. One was a giant claw that plucked the Romans’ ships from the water, while the other was a death ray that refocused the sun’s light onto them to set them afire. Livy, another Roman historian, said the inhabitants repelled the Romans until the raiding army conducted a surreptitious attack during the Feast of Artemis while the Syracuseans were engaged in festivities. The sack resulted in Archimedes’ death. While the veracity of these inventions remains speculative, no one can doubt the great impact he had upon shipbuilding. No wonder he’s the namesake of this 222-footer.—Capt. Grant Rafter
This article originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
