Somewhere between Nemo’s Nautilus and a survivor of the Deathstar raid, Adastra might look Science Fictional but it’s a real yacht. A 15 million USD real yacht, in fact. Large enough to classify as a minor landmass, it was built to haul Hong Kong businessman Anto Marden and his lucky guests to and from the billionaire’s Indonesian island.
Currently the second largest trimaran ever built, the 42.5 metre Adastra was originally conceived as a no-holes-barred, stripped-out private shuttle capable of reaching fantastic speeds with utmost fuel efficiency.
When Marden, who made his fortune in the shipping industry, later decided he wanted to incorporate luxurious accommodation, that initial vision might have been compromised by the added weight. That it wasn’t completely is thanks to the Adastra’s use of an ingenious carbon fibre superstructure with a Nomex honeycomb core and its glass and Kevlar foam sandwich hull, which has kept the yacht light on her akas.
“Adastra takes the power trimaran concept further than ever before,” the nattily dressed Shuttleworth explained at the yacht’s recent launch on the Pearl River. “The challenge of turning this concept into a viable luxury yacht required extensive research and new thinking on stability and comfort at sea for this type of craft.”
With small outrigger engines in each of the outer hulls to aid in tight manoeuvres, the yacht’s main propulsion comes from a large 1,150hp Caterpillar C18 engine and even with a full complement of nine guests, six crew and two tenders, she can manage a top speed of 22.5 knots, a 17 knot cruising speed and miserly consumption figures of just 120 litres of diesel per hour. More impressive still is the fact that on a single tank, Adastra can cruise for up to 4,000 nautical miles. Enough to sail from the UK to New York comfortably, it makes mince out of Marden’s trip from home to island. To Infinity! And Beyond!
