An open sport yacht for recreational day-touring with six to eight guests, powered by twin high- performance Lexus V8s and with advanced styling and handling was given to the Lexus Design Center in Toyota City, Japan.
Lexus revealed the result of this project, a running proof-of-concept for a Lexus Sport Yacht, at Di Lido Island on Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach, Fla. As a concept, the Lexus Sport Yacht revealed at Miami is a bespoke one-off project with no production intent. To produce this single example the Marine Department selected the Marquis-Carver Yacht Group of Pulaski, Wisconsin, USA, based on their in-house engineering and manufacturing capabilities and their skill in large hand- laid composite structures.
The design of the Lexus Sport Yacht concept has the upper deck and outer hull seamlessly bonded around the inner structure, each piece a single massive hand-laid composite of two-part polyurethane epoxy resin reinforced with hand-laid woven carbon fiber cloth, a composite material called carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, or CFRP.
CFRP is the technology used in the structure of racecars and supercars like the 202 mile per hour (325 kmh) 553 horsepower Lexus LFA, high-performance military and civilian aircraft, competition skis and bicycles, and world-class racing sailboats.
The Lexus Sport Yacht concept’s unique CFRP construction saves nearly 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) compared to a similar yacht in fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP). The underwater hull design is stepped to reduce resistance or drag and improve handling balance at high speeds.
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26 January 2017
