Engineering the Black Pearl: The World’s Largest Eco-Friendly Yacht

Looking for a fuel-efficient escape across the Atlantic? The Black Pearl might be the yacht to book for your travels.

 

Not to be confused by Jack Sparrow’s beauty of the sea on Pirates of the Caribbean, a real-life giant sailboat also named Black Pearl hit the waters, and I had to dive in to find out more.

According to Wikipedia, the Black Pearl is 106.70 meters (350.0 ft) from head to toe. Unlike its name-sharing fictional ship, she’s built by steel hull and aluminum and was made to with energy conservation in mind.

largest eco-friendly yacht

So what makes this yacht so efficient?

I’ve been trying to save the planet in one way or another these days; recycling target clothing tags and Starbucks cups any chance I can get, and did you hear about those reusable straws?! But oh boy, traveling AND saving the fishies sounds like a trip I can’t wait to take!

The Black Pearl can supposedly cross the Atlantic using only 20 liters (5.3 US gallons) of fuel. Here’s how:

  • Black Pearl can regenerate electricity through the under sail by the propellers– acting as a turbine the wind pushes the yacht across the ocean.
  • Heat capturing storage units placed strategically on the yacht conserve energy that’s generated and stores it for when it needs to be used – not wasting a spec of energy.

largest eco-friendly yacht

The history behind this beauty

Black Pearl was inspired by the Maltese Falcon, one of the world’s largest sailing yachts, which Black Pearl amazingly surpasses by 18.7 meters! Creating the style and design aspects of the yacht, Ken Freivokh worked with Dykstra Naval Architects and many others who shared their ideas and expertise on board the project to create a fuel-efficient yacht unlike any other.

Both Black Pearl and its inspiration, Maltese Falcon, were created using the DynaRig System, which involves freestanding, rotating masts that are in a square-rigged form. This concept is made to create a way for no gaps no matter what the sail plan. Black Pearl incorporates three 70-meter Dynarig carbon masts and has 2,900 square meters of sails, making her wind power unlike any other!

 

Black Pearl’s specifications:

Length- 106.7 meters

Interior volume- 2700 t

Guest capacity- 12 people (there are 6 cabins within)

Sail area- 2,900 meters^2

Max sail speed- 30 knots

 

Black Pearl took 8 years from contract to delivery and I can’t help but wonder how much quicker she would have been finished if only Oceanco and Freivokh had our 3D CAD… ?

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Adam Beck

Director of Marketing at CADENAS PARTsolutions | A Marketing graduate from the Miami University, Farmer School of Business in Oxford Ohio, Adam has years of experience in marketing and design for a variety of industries.