Amer's first steel explorer runs 8,900nm at 60 litres an hour

A pod-drive explorer, which is unusual

Explorers this size almost always run twin diesel shafts. Even Further instead carries the Volvo Penta Professional Platform: two IPS40 pod drives fed by four D13 engines, built to IMO Tier III. That is the same pod thinking Amer has used on its smaller yachts, scaled up to a 440-tonne steel hull for the first time.

The payoff is efficiency. On initial trials the yard recorded 60 litres of diesel an hour in economy mode at 9.5 knots. With a 56,300-litre tank, Amer puts the range at 8,900 nautical miles, enough to cross an ocean and keep going, which is the number that matters when the fuel bill is the owner's.

Built to go cold, and carry toys

The hull is Ice Class certified, with a high bow for open-water work. Deck cranes handle loads up to eight tonnes, so tenders and dive gear are not a compromise, and there is a touch-and-go helicopter pad forward.

Volume goes into living, not just range. The flybridge runs about 17 metres, more than 40 per cent of the length, and the boat is set up for up to 19 aboard. Luiz De Basto drew both the exterior and the interior.

Why Amer moved to steel

Even Further is a double first: the yard's first steel hull and the opening boat of its new Custom line. Amer, part of the Permare group, has spent years selling fuel economy on GRP yachts, and steel lets it push the same pitch into the 40-metre, long-range explorer bracket where the competition is heavy.

For an owner the choice is the point. A steel explorer that burns like a far smaller boat, and can be built to order, is a different proposition from the shaft-driven norm. The boat heads to the Genoa show this autumn, where the order book for the line will be the real test.