Feadship Fully Reveals 115m HIVE With 5MWh Battery Bank

Feadship has fully revealed HIVE, a 115-metre concept that turns the broad theme of life on board into a detailed technical and architectural proposition. The Dutch builder first previewed the name ahead of Monaco without publishing dimensions or propulsion data; the completed presentation now makes HIVE Feadship’s largest concept design to date and gives the project a substantially clearer engineering identity.

A four-deck space becomes the yacht’s social heart

The concept was developed by Studio De Voogt under senior designer Jan Schaffers around a fictional family of four, an exercise intended to start with how owners might actually use the yacht rather than filling a conventional deck plan. At the centre is a vast open volume extending across four decks, able to function as a saloon, stage or auditorium with terraces opening to port and starboard.

Curved staircases connect balconies and smaller spaces around that core, while service pantries, furniture storage and a green room allow the area to change character for performances, lectures, gatherings or everyday family use. Elsewhere, the yacht adds a two-storey beach lounge, water-level dining for at least 24 people, a circular glass-enclosed library opening onto a garden and an underwater lounge looking below the surface.

A 20-metre pool uses Feadship’s ContraWave system

The owner’s deck carries a 20-metre pool incorporating Feadship’s patented ContraWave technology, with the pool continuing indoors as a suspended glass-bottomed infinity pool. An observation lounge above uses a retractable glass roof, extending the concept’s emphasis on changing experiences from the waterline through to views of the night sky.

HIVE also departs from a traditional wheelhouse arrangement. A virtual command centre uses cameras and sensors to support navigation, while retractable glass wing stations provide direct external views for close-quarters manoeuvring; the change releases the forward superstructure for owner accommodation and observation spaces.

Five megawatt-hours of batteries sit behind the architecture

The technical package is based on a DC electrical architecture with three 900kW variable-speed permanent-magnet generators capable of running on HVO, supported by fuel cells and a 5MWh lithium-ion battery bank. Feadship says the battery capacity is around five times that of the pioneering 1MWh installation aboard Savannah while fitting within a comparable battery-room footprint.

For zero-emission operation, the concept allows either seven 75kW solid-oxide fuel cells or nine 250kW PEM fuel cells combined with a methanol reformer. Propulsion is through Voith Schneider units rather than conventional rudders and propellers, giving omnidirectional thrust with the manoeuvrability and low-noise characteristics already proven in other marine sectors.

HIVE reaches 9,500 nautical miles on HVO

Feadship lists a 17.5-metre beam, 4.05-metre draught, 410,000 litres of HVO or methanol fuel capacity and 75,000 litres of fresh water. The quoted cruising and maximum speeds are 12 and 16 knots, with range estimated at 9,500 nautical miles at 12 knots on HVO or 5,000 nautical miles at the same speed on methanol.

Superyacht Guide’s 16 September preview of HIVE deliberately omitted dimensions and propulsion claims because Feadship had not yet released them. The Monaco reveal now supplies those missing facts, turning the earlier teaser into a fully engineered concept that Feadship says uses technologies already available or in active development rather than speculative systems without a route to construction.