Why anchor your super yacht on that St. Tropez sugar-white beach, or on the Icelandic ice floe, when you can crawl over there? That’s the thinking behind a crazy new concept of amphibious catamaran called Pagurus – Latin for crab – from the designers at the Italian studio Lazzarini.
The key to the amphibious capabilities of this 82-foot mini-superyacht is the design of its double hulls. Nestled in recesses are four 21-foot-long steel cylinders, each featuring a helical spiral flange that looks like the thread of some giant screw. Pull to a beach and, at the touch of a button, all four cylinders fall off the hulls. With each powered by its own 440 hp diesel engine, the screws turn, biting the sand, dragging the catamaran down to earth.
“It would be the definitive explorer yacht, with the ability to take you both on land and to the sea,” said Pierpaolo Lazzarini Robb report.
Pegasus will load a Tesla SUV and snowmobiles for exploration entirely off the grid.
Courtesy Lazzarini Design Studio
Lazzarini’s original idea was a military version of the catamaran. He even did a rendering with camouflage paint and a roof canon. But seeing a huge increase in luxury yacht buyers looking to “get out of the loop” with friends and family, he felt that a global private version with cabins for eight people would have real appeal.
A major attraction of Pagurus’ ability to crawl to the shore – in addition to allowing you to see penguins through your bedroom window – is to explore in your own 4 × 4. In this case, a Tesla Cybertruck.
“We imagined that it could be arranged on a platform between the hulls and lowered in winches to the ground. The same platform can be used to accommodate some Tesla Cyberquad electric ATVs or snow vehicles, ”he says.
And increasing the volume of the Teslas would be easy, courtesy of the huge banks of solar panels built into the decks. Even the rotation of the screw cylinders when the catamaran is in progress is designed to help charge the batteries.
To take the Pagurus to those distant destinations, Lazzarini imagines the cat with a pair of 900 HP Caterpillar diesel engines coupled to outboard drives, providing a maximum speed of 25 knots.
In addition to its multi-terrain capabilities, Pagurus is a modern mini-explorer design, with features like solar panels to provide energy.
Courtesy Lazzarini Design Studio
Want to take a cruise to that remote bay without disturbing wildlife? These underwater helical screws could rotate under silent electrical energy to push the yacht to five stealthy knots.
Lazzarini says his inspiration came from a giant crab that gave the yacht its name. You see this in the hulls with high sides and in the low carbon fiber superstructure with its distinctive thin glass semicircle. Echoing the hard shell of a crab, Pagurus’ steel hull would be up to an inch thick with extra reinforcement around the bow for safe and effective ice crushing.
The spatial feel of the interior can be altered for owners who want something more contemporary.
Courtesy Lazzarini Design Studio
The designer understands that he can be criticized for the environmental impact that Pagarus can have, but sees the screws as a safety feature to extract the catamaran if it runs aground or gets stuck in the mud. It can also land alone if the weather gets worse.
The Pagurus concept could come true for about $ 30 million. If you like the shape, but not so much of the ambitious screw technology, a lighter Pagurus, built in carbon fiber with water jet strength and a maximum speed of 32 knots, could be built for about $ 8 million.