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Megayacht News Radio
Shadowcat and Its Shadow Yachts Are Changing the Game
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Discover the increasingly popular world of support yachts with us as Jennifer Johnston-Smith from Shadowcat takes center stage, sharing the fascinating journey behind their innovative superyachts like Hodor and Wayfinder. These vessels are setting new benchmarks in the luxury yachting industry, offering unprecedented stability and versatility. Learn how Shadowcat's client-driven approach and collaboration with a top naval architecture firm are transforming yachting experiences, maximizing both adventure and functionality on the open seas. From tackling the challenges of carrying extreme-sports-oriented tenders to providing comprehensive support facilities, these catamaran platforms redefine what’s possible on the water.
Venture into the evolving landscape of yacht ownership where catamaran hulls once met with skepticism are now embraced for their superior adaptability. The passionate adventurers driving this trend are reshaping designs and functionalities, demanding more from their yachts. As you'll discover, Shadowcat is doing even more, delving into innovative yachting technologies and sustainability efforts like Drift Energy's green hydrogen-producing vessels, which are making waves in the industry by reducing the carbon footprint of superyachts. Tune in to explore how these advancements are not just enhancing luxury but also promoting sustainable practices, earning accolades from yacht owners who have some of the toughest standards and highest expectations around.
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Welcome everybody. While custom yachts, by their nature, of course, are meant to stand apart from the crowd on the water, there are a few that really take this idea to heart. If you have ever seen or read about the yachts Hodor and Wayfinder in particular, you will know exactly what I mean. These two super beamies, shadow yachts, are from the team at Shadowcat and they are much more than quote unquote just yachts. Their space advantages, their stability advantages and other factors have led to Hodor herself barely sitting still since delivery five years ago, and Wayfinder, meanwhile, currently being among the most active charter yachts you will find on the planet.
Speaker 1:Neither of these is an exaggeration, trust me. Both also boast toy boxes with more toys, more kayaks, more tenders, more dive gear you name it than your local marine retailer has. All of this is possible because of the combined talents of ShadowCats founder and a naval architecture firm with deep experience in multi-hulls for offshore service. Joining me today to explain more about ShadowCats philosophy is Jennifer Johnston-Smith, the company's director of business development. Jennifer, welcome to Megayacht News Radio. I'm so glad to have you here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. We are delighted and honored to be invited as well, and thank you for that wonderful introduction.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're quite welcome these two boats. Like I said, if anybody knows anything about them, they know that they are certainly the real deal. So I'm looking forward to educating some more people about what they do and what all of you do. So I'm looking forward to educating some more people about what they do and what all of you do. So I think the best place to start really would be to explain how Shadowcat got its start. I love the story. I think it's one of these perfect opportunity presented itself and we found a solution story. So give us some background to it.
Speaker 2:Well, shadowcat, it wasn't created in a vacuum, you know. It wasn't just a bunch of smart people sitting around and saying I think there should be one of these. It was very much client driven. Our companies mine and Robert Smith, who is the founder we had a relationship with a client for whom we had done a fair amount of conceptual design work and he had done quite a lot of project management work. They had a need and a problem to solve and we were, as you say, right place, right time, exactly the right expertise and experience commercial shipping, yacht build management, engineering all of those things combined to come to the table with a unique solution that worked and ended up kind of changing that landscape of the support vessel environment.
Speaker 2:The client had visions of this extreme level of sport and activity that they wanted to experience at sea. The existing monohull platforms. They had real issues with stability and safety when you are trying to launch these extreme big, giant cigarette boats and big, huge limousines and fast, powerful vessels that are tens of tons in weight. You know, transfer of ballast and water and fuel and weather All of those things were going to be a problem.
Speaker 2:The client was quite close to purchasing a vessel, purchasing a more typical monohull that you'd expect, and the contract literally said you can only launch and recover in harbor conditions, and that's just not the world out there, that is not the environment that they are out there trying to enjoy, and certainly from a recovery situation if weather kicks up. You need to have some, some flexibility. So you know, we were able to to reach out to, as you mentioned this, this fabulous naval architect that has designed 700 of of the most important powerful catamarans on the water in real that are used in really intensive commercial applications. So we knew they'd have this very robust platform that we could design on top of and create the thing that the client needed.
Speaker 1:So the notion of shadow yachts, support yachts, whatever term somebody wants to use. These definitely have been growing in popularity for a few years and, I think, unintentionally. Sometimes those of us in the media do the owners and the buyers a disservice by describing them a little bit too simply. We tend to focus on how they're good for overflow guests or they're good for holding tons and tons of toys, tend to focus on how they're good for overflow guests or they're good for holding tons and tons of toys. Obviously they are good for those, but there's more to it than simply extra space, because if that were all that somebody wanted, then they could simply just build a 90 meter as opposed to a 50 meter right, or a 120 meter as opposed to a 70 meter, et cetera, et cetera. So what do you see as the factors that are driving the appeal?
Speaker 2:I've got kind of a romantic response to this and I would say that there is is finally today, right now, a realization that you can perfect an experience with one of these, that there were some compromises and sacrifices that these owners didn't even necessarily realize that they were making. There is such a flexibility of purpose. I don't think there is a program out there that wouldn't benefit from adding a shadow, even though our clients started with those more stereotypical needs that you've described. You know they need a bigger helicopter and their vessel can't handle it, or they need a helicopter and their vessel can't handle it, or they need to. They want to buy this bigger, sexier tender and there's no way it's going to fit in their hull door or in the space that they have in the existing 80 meter vessel that they've got. You know the dive shop, the submersible, which is huge right now, but we've quickly evolved into the clients that need to carry staff. You know, historically they would charter another they charter another yacht and put their staff onto these boats if they needed to be around them. But there's staff, there's entourage, there's other pilots, there's, you know, a surgical suite. So when you are away in some remote area, you are not without appropriate medical care that you or your guests might need.
Speaker 2:Right now we have a lot more clients, as you say, that are kind of embracing this overflow guest idea. Um, you know, they don't necessarily want to buy another boat because their kids are at the ages where their friends all want to travel with them, or the grandchildren are interested in spending the holidays with them for this window of time. Um, you know, we can expand those experiences they undertake at sea. We've had a client who purchased a shadow vessel before a mothership only so it could support their charters. I mean, that is an incredibly efficient ownership model. You know these things that you are always going to need. You've got that on that less expensive, more efficient vessel and then you charter whatever you want around the world. The fear, the flexibility, I think, of this efficient, more cost-effective tonnage and how many ways you can utilize it means those possibilities are endless. And these clients imaginations are engaged. You know we are ready to do whatever they need and can do that because of our bespoke custom approach, and they're coming to us with amazing, amazing ideas.
Speaker 1:Let's go into that a little bit more, because I think that's actually a really good point about how everything that you do is fully custom. There are some other companies is out there that have a set platform and that works for those buyers, saves them some time, et cetera. There's a variety of different reasons that they might really appreciate that, but it sounds to me that your customers are coming to you because there are different things that tick the boxes for them the custom aspect for sure, probably some of the experiences that you were kind of giving us some hints into. They're looking for these much more extraordinary experiences. So can you give us a couple of examples of how some of the customers have already been using the yachts like, say, hodor, wayfinder, anybody else? That really gives a better picture of what's ticking the boxes for them.
Speaker 2:Now I think you've really hit that on the head.
Speaker 2:Where this customer base is concerned, now I would say when we started this idea which now is I don't know, eight, nine years ago, when the idea was sort of germinating, maybe longer, longer these kinds of owners were in the minority. And now that market has dramatically changed Our types of owners, our style of owner is now really what's making up the face of yachting. They're active, they're this new breed. That's kind of changing the face of our client from someone who lounges on deck and just, you know, sits to be seen to want to, to those that want to explore the deep sea, um, fish the world's oceans, engage in extreme sports and bring instructors along with them so they can become, you know, world-class level competitors in these sports. They want to extract such an intensive value from that time at sea, even if the time is limited, that they want it to really be quite perfect for their use. So Hodor, great example, our first vessel, still iconic, still stunning anytime that you encounter her. She's got more hours on her main engines that she has on her generators.
Speaker 1:That is amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean. What that means is she has not stopped. She has traveled the world's oceans repeatedly. She has really really ticked that box for that owner that he's been able to undertake whatever adventure he wanted to. You know, the flexibility and stability of that core platform lets these owners expand and grow and change the things they're interested in. You know where a typical vessel has to kind of reject the idea of newer, bigger, heavier, more complex. Ours are really inherently modifiable. They're quite flexible, as is the case with the ones that we have out. Where we can, we can add a secondary helipads. We can, you know, build out a hangar, we can switch out a crane and add another 10 tons to the to the vessels they want to load on and off the boat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's a lot of advantages there, for sure. In terms of other advantages, one of the things that I always found interesting was that Shadowcat was really well ahead of the curve in embracing the catamaran hull form. Catamarans have been around, obviously, for years and years and years, decades. They weren't really popular for a long time and I think they kind of got a bad rap to a certain degree. Maybe 20 or so years ago there were some production boats that maybe weren't really popular for a long time and I think that kind of got a bad rap to a certain degree.
Speaker 1:Maybe 20 or so years ago there were, there were some production boats that maybe weren't the most, certainly not the most stylish let's just be frank but they they also weren't very comfortable, so I think that maybe that made a lot of people kind of shy away from them, but they've certainly come a long way in terms of how you can incorporate different designs. And the one thing that I think has been the mainstay the whole time, and something that definitely Incat Crowther understood, is that the stability and the capabilities outside of the quote unquote normal calm conditions are pretty extraordinary. So clearly that had to be a motivating factor for all of you. Based on what you were describing with the reason the first boat even came out, is that something that you're seeing from the owner's standpoint? Is that something they understand and acknowledge, or is it something that they're learning in their conversation with you?
Speaker 2:You are. You are correct, everybody thought we were crazy in the beginning. This, it was very, very ambitious to do this. I'm going to give credit to that first owner again as somebody who had great trust and confidence in you know the information that was being brought to him and and quite a lot of courage and said let's do this. If what you're telling me is true, this is going to be amazing. The yachting industry is a little slow to embrace change, let's say a little bit slow to embrace something that's new and revolutionary. So it was. Within the rest of the market there was resistance and I'm going to jump right into the one that is, you know, kind of the elephant in the room, and that is comfort.
Speaker 2:Now, catamarans are different than monohulls. You know, our most successful programs that have these vessels are the ones that recognized. A super yacht captain that has driven a monohull his entire career is not going to know how to optimally operate a catamaran. Most anybody who's had experience in a catamaran, it's usually going to be in a high-speed ferry crossing the english channel. Those are the kinds of things that they've done and in that scenario, if that high speed ferry is making that crossing on a schedule, it doesn't matter what the weather is, it doesn't matter what's happening at sea. They have to make the shortest point from A to B, no matter what, and sometimes that's not ideal.
Speaker 2:So really it's about seamanship navigation, understanding these ideal conditions for catamarans. And that's not to say that they are not robust. These are not, you know, fragile flowers. These are the vessels that they use to transport crew to rigs in the North Sea because they can handle a huge sea very efficiently, very stably. They are meant for very intensive operations. So the education curve was big. But now, with three of these vessel types out on the water, operating regularly, operating with really responsible, knowledgeable crew at the helm, we've overcome that and the owners are noticing these. The owners are grasping all of those benefits that they really want to have and I would say probably 30% of the clients that we are currently engaged with it's directly with the owner and that is very uncommon at our level of the market that the owner has said I saw this, I want one of these. Tell me, tell me how it can work.
Speaker 1:That is unusual. There's usually there's the project manager or somebody else who's an advisor, who says here's what you should consider, let's go have a conversation.
Speaker 2:No, no, we've, we've. We've been really pleased to watch this. I think that's probably as much an aspect of this new style of owner. I think they are a little bit more personally engaged in things that they're going to enjoy and, um, not not opposed to picking up the phone and saying you know nice to meet you, I'm so, and so tell me more about this. You know nice to meet you, I'm so-and-so tell me more about this. You know, this looks like something that could work for me. Tell me what this means.
Speaker 1:Right, right, I like that. I like that a lot. It's them becoming much more educated, as opposed to relying on everybody else to tell them what is or isn't going to work. Ultimately, I always wondered why more people quite honestly didn't do that. Because they are the end user and it's their friends, their families. So if they don't really totally understand the nuances, the benefits and perhaps even the drawbacks of some of the things that they're buying, then if they don't really understand the drawbacks, then they could have made a very expensive mistake. If they don't understand all of the benefits, then they're not reaping the rewards of what they've spent.
Speaker 2:Right, no, and that can really be. I mean, this is a little bit of a tangent, but that can be a problem in our industry, you know I would. I would encourage you to lean into that as a potential story to. To look at closer, is this lost in translation phenomena when, when we will package something quite efficiently and then it goes to a captain or it goes to a project manager or a technical team, and then it goes to the broker, or you just don't know which one is going to be delivering which pieces of information and which things end up getting lost. You know which benefits or features are, just because the person who is relaying that information isn't that interested in them, decides, well, the owner won't be interested in that either, and and and you really lose somebody's engage. You lose that engagement because that's not more clear that is you know, something I think we all have to.
Speaker 2:We all have to face yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, the good news is there's a um, a phenomenal person who's going to be doing some regular writing for us, who is pretty well versed in both sides of the picture, was a captain for a very long time and is now on the industry side and trying to really fill a need for a variety of owners. And I don't want to say too too much because I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but that's the whole idea. It's to help people become better educated. It's kind of cliched, but you don't know what you don't know, so let's-.
Speaker 2:No, that is so exciting. I'm really, really thrilled to hear that we sort of went the track of let's push this information out in a format where it goes directly to the owners. And, sure enough, as soon as it did, the owner said oh, absolutely would love one of those. Definitely, you know, of course that's what we need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, you've got a pretty educated clientele, so it isn't terribly surprising that that's kind of continuing to spread. In terms of some of the new designs that you've been working on and putting out there, some of the new collaborations you're doing, too, what can you shed some more light on? I know there was a really cool sport fish concept and you've had some interesting conversations with Drift to Energy. What can you tell us about those?
Speaker 2:Well, this is when I really get excited. You know, we have the meat and potatoes, that is, the flexibility of our platform and the fact that we build it bespoke and that they are all sort of optimized to a certain performance which lets them be more efficient you know, up to 40% more efficient, just because of the fact of their naval architecture. But when I really really get going is when we have these fantastic uses for them, these wonderful, wonderful outlets. One that you kind of alluded to was our release, the concept that we released at Monaco this year, which was the catfish you know catamaran fishing combination that one carried a was designed to carry a 61-foot, 45-ton sport fish vessel that was 100% client-driven. We engaged with a client whose desire is to fish the world's oceans and you could imagine that there are logistical problems with that and we felt confident we could come up with a solution for him, which still had guest cabins and ways for, you know, he and his friends and his crew to all travel together. And we did that. We kind of went back to the drawing board with what was available to us in those commercial sectors and had a lifting, launch and recovery mechanism that we can stop this boat in up to one and a half meter seas, which is not nothing. We can instantly, without moving ballast, engage the Davit system and launch this vessel and our mothership will move three degrees. It is such a remarkable game changer for people that literally in that scenario would be looking at shipping their boat on a tanker, you know, to get it to the places that they needed it. I mean logistically, just really, really, really complex. So that one we're quite excited about that one had a really good application. We have a vessel that's going to be announced at Palm Beach this year which is called the Toy Shop. It's a little sub 500 GT, about a 48 meter vessel that is going to be created and marketed completely stocked with all of its toys. So it's really the first turnkey support vessel, toy carrier. So a client could say get me that and he will be handed his vessel for X amount of dollars and be instantly ready to charter, instantly ready to operate. That one's another really exciting one.
Speaker 2:You mentioned Drift Energy, which I will say personally is the one that makes my heart the happiest. We have been in a relationship with them now, for goodness, two years, if not a little bit longer, and we are supporting them in how that technology can relate to the super yacht industry and how we can support them in building this scale of efficient catamarans. They have a concept where they're able to sail out to sea and come back having created green hydrogen from nothing but seawater and wind power, and that's something that we're looking at. You know the ownership model of the prototype of applying that technology to small island developing states who are at the tail end of receiving their energy Down to providing energy to super yacht ports worldwide. That is green energy that our vessels can plug into. Vessels can plug into. So knowing that a hotel load is some of the most extensive energy use of our industry, if that energy is green hydrogen via a fuel cell that they can just plug into, that really starts to change the conversation about our carbon intensity in super yachting.
Speaker 1:I love how it has. The Drift Energy Project has more than just the yachting impact too. The yachting impact obviously is huge because that's the main focus, but the island nation impact and there's probably other potential uses that my brain can't even comprehend right now. It just sounds really, really cool. It's kind of interesting to see how the industry can have a far more reaching effect. Something that can be part of the industry, I should say, can have a far more reaching effect.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's remarkable, and I only can scratch the surface. You know I make a joke that to me electricity is witchcraft. You know there's a big part of this that is so beyond my technical capability of understanding, but I do understand the applications and I have had the great honor and pleasure of supporting the very, very bright people that own and operate Drift. We attended the United Nations SIDS conference in Antigua this year and we're able to engage with a lot of these nations that are looking for these resilient, resilient, green forms of energy that are not going to end up destroying their, their environment. You know, the only thing that they have is the sea and if you dig it up with a title program or you, you know, have to put in a whole bunch of wind turbines and run cables along the seabed, all of those things start to interfere with what they have.
Speaker 2:And drift is designed, the system where, in the case of an island like that, you have a plant on the shore side, you have your boats. If a hurricane is coming, the entire shore side operation can load on the boats and you have your boats. If a hurricane is coming, the entire shore side operation can load on the boats and get out of the way and then, when the storm has passed, they come back, put it all ashore again and you could be back in business. You know, there's obviously going to be issues potentially with the grid, but if you need to try to get power to a hospital or try to get power to emergency services, this is something that is really quickly, easily deployable. So that's kind of one track.
Speaker 2:Then there's the track of, you know, shore power for cruise ships. So, so none of them are using generators and engines and creating more carbon when they're in port. There's super yachts. There's, you know, whiskey distilleries on the coast of Scotland that would take all of the energy we could provide them, so they could be sort of the first truly green whiskey that's ever been made. Um, drift has really just gone from strength to strength. They just recently I will celebrate them they just recently, within about the last week and a half, won at the uh monaco hydrogen innovation award. Um, so that was a you, you know received their award directly from His Serene Highness Prince Albert. You know, won awards at COP. They're really, really doing some great things out there.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Yeah, they're a fascinating company to watch. I highly recommend those of you listening to look into them. We'll make sure we link on our website to the previous coverage we've done about Drift Energy, because it's a super cool company run by some incredibly smart people. Like you said, their brains work in ways that are just amazing, absolutely amazing. Well, jennifer, as long as we have been covering Shadowcat and as much as I always think that I have pretty much figured out a lot of what you do, clearly conversations like this open up new doors and give me the opportunity to jot some more notes about things that I did not know previously, so I really appreciate speaking with you today. It was a lot of fun, very educational, very eye-opening and I'm sure it was certainly for all the people listening too.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great and thank you again. It was really, really a treat. You're one of my favorite people in this industry and I was just ecstatic to join you today.
Speaker 1:Terrific. Thank you so much. I appreciate that Well, everyone. If you would like to learn more about what Shadowcat can do for you, you can visit their website, which is theshadowcatcom. It's all one word. Until next time. I'm Diane Byrne.
