Catamarans are nearly all the same. The staterooms sit in the hulls, though some megayacht catamarans do situate the master suite forward on the main deck. That lets the owners benefit from the generous beam. But, it also means the owners aren’t all that close to the water. Either way, guests aren’t close to it, either. Lazzara Ombres Architects believes there’s a better way. The 80-foot (24.4-meter) Oasis has an unexpected layout that results in a flush, full-beam lower deck. The mega cat does this without compromising the efficiency of catamaran design, either.
The principals of Lazzara Ombres Architects each have longstanding experience in design and naval architecture. Joe Lazzara may be familiar to those of you who’ve been in yachting a while. He’s part of the famed Lazzara family, which established Lazzara Yachts in 1990. His father and uncle ran the Tampa-based shipyard, building semi-custom yachts and megayachts. Joe worked in the design department, later serving as president when the Avanti Ocean Group acquired the Lazzara Yachts assets in 2015. In addition, Joe’s grandfather, Vince Lazzara, established the famed Gulfstar Yachts sailboat builder in the 1970s.
Ian Ombres, meanwhile, also worked at Lazzara Yachts in the yacht-design and naval-architecture departments. Prior to that, he worked for a design and engineering firm serving the aerospace and defense industries. Ombres later went on to join Chris-Craft, before hanging his own naval-architecture shingle.
According to Joe Lazzara, Oasis blends the benefits of a power catamaran with the toy stowage of a shadow yacht. Catamarans boast better stability and efficiency than monohulls. Typically, they also have technical spaces directly between the twin hulls. The difference with Oasis, however, “is the stepped layout and higher freeboard,” he explains. The stepped hull alleviates the slamming sometimes common among cats. Simultaneously, it keeps the conventional catamaran undercarriage. Most of all, Lazzara says, it afforded “an opportunity with a traditional catamaran hull to create a full-beam lower deck.” In the process, the twin hulls hold the technical spaces (see illustration below).
Given the 35’6” (10.9-meter) beam, Oasis puts plentiful space at owners’ feet. The master gains even more thanks to fold-down balconies to each side. Guests, who get four staterooms forward, can join the owners in the 900-square-foot (83-square-meter) beach club. Add in FunAir inflatable slides, and a variety of toys that can stow on the elongated swim platform/toy platform. All told, the mega cat reportedly boasts the interior and alfresco areas of a 130-footer (39.6-meter).
Lazzara Ombres Architects calculates that Oasis will see a 20-knot top speed under Caterpillar power. CFD (computational fluid dynamics) additionally reveals a 672-nautical-mile range at 17 knots. The design team anticipates aluminum construction, too, with a carbon fiber composite flying bridge.
Though Oasis doesn’t have a builder yet, Lazzara Ombres Architects plans to announce one at the Fort Lauderdale boat show, along with further details.
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