Lost at Sea… of Solar Panels - The Solar Yachts SY80
Image Credit: Silent Yachts.
Today, we're dipping our toes into the wet and wild world of electric boats. Yes, I know, stick with me. It's not all wind power and soggy sails, though some would have you believe otherwise. We're talking about a proper yacht here, one that sips sunshine like a fancy cocktail instead of guzzling dinosaur juice.
Silent Yachts apparently heard me grumbling about noisy engines disturbing my seaside naps, and have been at this solar-powered boat game for a while. Since 2016, they've been slapping solar panels onto hulls, trying to prove you can cruise the oceans without sounding like a disgruntled whale every time you leave the dock. Under new management since last year – presumably with pockets deep enough to fill the gap left by not selling massive diesel engines – they're unveiling their latest, greatest, and largest creation to date. Prepare yourselves for the SY80.
Image Credit: Silent Yachts.
Eighty feet long. Let that sink in for a moment. That's roughly the length of a decent-sized blue whale, or maybe three fully-grown double-decker buses parked end-to-end. My shed isn't 80 feet long, and it's got quite a vehicular collection squeezed into it. This isn't just a dinghy with a solar panel stuck on top; this is a serious chunk of floating real estate. Apparently, it's got the internal volume of a monohull yacht roughly 115 feet long. Which means, if you own this thing, you'll likely need a map, a compass, and perhaps a Sherpa to find the kitchen after you've just woken up. "Honey, have you seen the coffee maker? I think it's somewhere near the starboard bow... or was it the port stern?" Utter madness. But luxurious madness, you know - the good kind.
Now, the clever bit, the bit that gets my slightly skeptical but ultimately hopeful electric heart a flutter. The roof – and indeed, a significant portion of the upper decks – is absolutely bathed in solar panels, with a peak power of 22.4 kilowatts. That's enough to power my entire street back home. All that lovely, free sunshine juice gets stuffed into an enormous battery bank. Standard fit is 522 kilowatt-hours, which is as much as 7 of the new Toyotas bZ Woodland put together.
Image Credit: Silent Yachts.
If you're feeling particularly power-hungry, or perhaps just prone to extended periods of cloud cover, you can upgrade that to a whopping 696 kilowatt-hours. That's enough electricity to potentially run a small village, or at least keep the champagne fridge stocked for a very, very long time. This boat is really shaping up to be a perfect survival vehicle for a zombie apocalypse.
Silent Yachts are so confident in these solar bits, they're giving the panels a 25-year warranty. They must truly believe the sun's not going anywhere. Or maybe they just figure if the panels conk out in 24 years, you'll be on your third boat and won't even remember the first one. Either way, it's a bold statement, and one that makes me think they've actually done their homework.
Performance? Right, this isn't exactly a speed demon. They've managed to coax a cruising speed of seven to eight knots out of it. For those of you more familiar with road speeds, a knot is roughly 1.15 miles per hour. So, cruising is somewhere between 8 and 9 miles per hour. Maximum speed, if you really boot it and probably drain the batteries quicker than a toddler can empty a cookie jar, is 12 knots. That's about 14 miles per hour. This is not a vessel for outrunning pirates. This is for gliding along, silently, soaking up the rays, and making everyone on the fuel-guzzling superyachts look utterly ridiculous as you waft past them like a serene, expensive cloud.
They haven't actually told us the range yet for this specific model, which is slightly annoying, isn't it? It's like reviewing an electric car, but they won't tell you how far it goes. However, previous, slightly smaller Silent Yachts could reportedly do about 100 miles a day just on sunshine. Perfectly respectable for a leisurely day trip, or slowly making your way across a very calm sea.
Inside is where your millions (and yes, you'll need millions) really get you something. This is a yacht, after all. Luxury is the name of the game. It's been styled by a chap named Marco Casali, and they say it's sporty and modern but not "excessively trendy." Which, in yacht-speak, I think means it won't look completely embarrassing in five years when the current fad for neon-pink dashboards has passed. It's got that signature Silent Yachts look with big windows – "long stretches of glazing along the sidewalls," they call it – meaning you get cracking views of the ocean you're supposedly saving.
And space? Oh, there's space - you can fit a small army on board. Or, you know, a large family and their equally large collection of designer luggage and water toys. Silent Yachts says it can accommodate up to twelve guests across as many as six staterooms. Six bedrooms on a boat! My house doesn't have six bedrooms. You could probably get lost trying to find the salon. There's even a massive outdoor space on the top deck of the 3-Deck Open version – an "ocean sky lounge" covering a sprawling 904 square feet. That's bigger than most apartments!
The SY80 comes in three flavors: 2-Deck, 3-Deck Open, and 3-Deck Closed. So you can pick how much open air you want, or how many decks you want to traverse just to fetch a fresh lime for your sundowner. And you can apparently customize almost everything inside. The master cabin can be on the main deck, or tucked away below. The CEO of Silent Yachts, Fabrizio Iarrera, sounds rather keen on the customization bit, saying they can turn "the yacht of your dreams into a lived reality." Which sounds lovely, provided your dreams involve spending an awful lot of money on a boat that goes about as fast as a determined cyclist.
Speaking of money, the price. Ah, yes, the price of saving the planet in style. Silent Yachts don't exactly put price tags on their website like it's a Walmart value meal deal. These things are bespoke, built to order, and dripping in high-end everything. While the exact price for the SY80 hasn't been plastered everywhere just yet, given that their smaller SY60 model starts somewhere north of $3 million U.S. dollars, you can safely assume the SY80, being significantly larger and their new flagship, will set you back considerably more. Think somewhere north of $8 to $10 million, and probably climbing steeply from there depending on how many gold-plated faucets and solid diamond countertops you decide you absolutely must have.
Silent Yachts S60. Image Credit: Silent Yachts.
The 2-Deck version will be first shown at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2025. If you happen to be swanning around the South of France between the 9th and the 14th of September next year, keep an eye out for the big, silent, sun-powered catamaran. Sea trials should be happening soon, which sounds like a jolly good excuse to go for a nice boat ride in the sunshine, all in the name of "journalism," of course.
The Silent Yachts SY80… It's enormous, it's luxurious, it's powered by the sun, it's quiet, and it costs more than a small country's GDP. It's not fast, but it is green, or at least, a lot greener than the alternative. It's a fascinating step forward in trying to make luxury boating compatible with not boiling the oceans. I remain gently skeptical about the true "zero-emission" nature of anything this large, but I'm undeniably impressed by the technology and the sheer audacity of building an 80-foot yacht that runs on hopes, dreams, and a very large patch of solar panels. It's progress, isn't it? Progress, at a rather eye-watering price. But still, progress. And silent. That's a big plus.
