If guests are lucky, they will experience speeds of more than 24 knots under sail, with the diesel engines delivering up to 17 knots and eight knots in electric mode. When the 2,500-tonne three-master with hybrid drive and hydrogen generation was launched by Oceanco in 2018, it was considered highly innovative.
The 106.80 metres of steel and aluminium sail primarily as a sailing yacht. A total of 2,934 square metres of cloth roll out of the 70.60 metre DynaRig carbon masts. Thanks to the electrically rotating square rig, there are no stays and no sheets running across the deck. The sails extend and retract at the touch of a button. The concept of "Black Pearl" was conceived by Ken Freivokh, the designer of the DynaRig pioneer "Maltese Falcon" (88 m). The final design bears the stamp of the Nuvolari Lenard studio.
Those who book on board via Superyacht Connections can bring up to 13 people with them and safely take the helm themselves on the flybridge. Inquisitive guests can learn many details on the bridge, for example "Black Pearl" crossed the Atlantic in twelve days in 2023, almost entirely under sail and largely without fossil fuel emissions. Generators are usually always running on sailboats of this size. When the blades of the two controllable pitch propellers are unfurled, the yacht makes slightly slower progress. Instead, the generators are idle and electricity is generated by two 400-kilowatt electric motors and stored in batteries - for the energy requirements of the sailing systems and the hotel load.
"Black Pearl" also relies on a heat recovery system, and all connections are in place for the originally planned solar panels on the sails and superstructure. The charter rate is 1.2 million euros. Customers select the mode in advance: Eco for propulsion with sails or electric motor, Non Eco for optional diesel assistance.

Editor News & Panorama
Uske was born just outside Volkswagen in 1970 and tested various small boats with sails through her boyfriend (now husband 😊) on a quarry pond. Her studies in Kiel took her to the Baltic Sea with boats of all kinds and eventually to a regatta from Hong Kong to Mauritius via the Academic Sailing Club. Her teacher training ended at the Burda School of Journalism in Munich instead of in the classroom and finally at Boote Exclusiv. After a long break and various stories about house building, she returned to Delius Klasing and has been filling the magazine with long stories about large ships ever since. A family-owned H-boat was quickly sold again as the mother realized that sailing with two small children was neither relaxing nor fun.