Luca Dini Design

The combination of an ambitious Urban Design project within a protected marine area in the Middle East and the need to move around inside that area, while maintaining total respect for the environment, has brought forth an idea for a new, carbon neutral mode of water transport.

And thus emerges CETACEAN, a multihull concept with full-electric propulsion designed to perform several functions and can be outfitted with different configurations, from a shuttle for transfers from the marina to smaller islands, to a mobile hospital or cargo carrier, and even an entirely private vessel. It can carry up to 25 people on board in addition to 5 crew members.

The construction is planned in aluminum with a tonnage of 90 and an overall length of 28 metres, guaranteeing noteworthy performance including a 12 kn cruising speed and a maximum speed of 16 kn.

It was 1421 when the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi designed the Badalone, a boat for transporting the marble blocks that had to be moved from Carrara to Florence to bring life to one of the greatest works in the history of Italian art: the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Then there are sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, dating back to 1470 and advancing this boat’s design thanks to a propulsion system with wind turbines allowing it to move forward. 

The Studio, enchanted by this foresight from centuries ago, has been inspired by the Badalone for the design of CETACEAN. Clean and harmonious lines come together in a vessel whose essence and philosophy is that of total respect for the environment. And this is the motivation for both the choice of the multihull with its draught of only 1.20 metres, and the study of propulsion and recharging in motion or at the dock. In motion, solar panels on the roof guarantee power to all additional systems, such as home automation and lighting. The propulsion is guaranteed by a series of the latest generation of batteries, recharged while the ship is docked. The dock, an integral part of the Urban Design project by the Studio, was conceived as an induction “plug-in battery charger”, just like the latest generation of smartphones. The dock, in fact, in correspondence with the parking position of the CETACEAN, has been designed to both accommodate the ship and to recharge it through a patented system by absorbing the water’s tides and waves. Full recharge is guaranteed within a maximum of 4 hours, and in the case of limited travel, like that of the marina in question, it can guarantee a "touch & go" recharge with stops of just one hour between each departure.