Pastrovich Studio has revisited a concept that could turn commercially idle offshore supply vessels into explorer yachts, expedition charter vessels and small expedition cruise ships — using a conversion strategy designed to be repeated across an entire class of vessel.
The Monaco-based studio’s Explorer PSV Conversion Studies centre on Platform Supply Vessels originally designed for demanding offshore operations.
Rather than treating each conversion as an entirely new naval architecture project, the concept uses the common characteristics of PSV platforms to develop a repeatable conversion strategy.
The existing hull, propulsion, navigation and dynamic positioning systems are retained, while a new guest superstructure is constructed separately and installed onto the vessel’s large aft working deck.
Pastrovich Studio estimates that the approach could allow a conversion to move from yard entry to delivery in approximately 14 to 20 months.
And one underlying platform could support several very different commercial models.
The original 88-metre configuration accommodates 30 guests in 15 suites, or 36 guests in 18 suites. Lengthening the platform to 100 metres creates options for a 64-guest boutique expedition charter vessel or an expedition cruise configuration accommodating up to 116 passengers.
From offshore workhorse to explorer yacht
The project has its origins in 2015, when a Norwegian shipowner approached Italian designer Stefano Pastrovich about finding a new purpose for two 88-metre Platform Supply Vessels.
PSVs are designed to transport equipment and supplies to offshore installations including oil platforms and wind farms.
The downturn in offshore oil activity had left vessels that remained technically capable without sufficient commercial work.
Pastrovich’s brief was therefore not simply to redesign the appearance of an industrial vessel.
The objective was to retain the range, reliability and redundancy expected of a North Sea working ship while creating the accommodation, hospitality spaces and guest experience associated with the superyacht and expedition sectors.
That resulted in a platform capable of being adapted to three different operating models.
At 88 metres, the vessel can accommodate 30 guests in 15 suites or 36 guests in 18 suites.
Lengthened by 12 metres to 100 metres, the same underlying concept can accommodate 64 guests as a boutique expedition charter vessel or operate as a small expedition cruise ship carrying up to 116 passengers.
Why a Platform Supply Vessel?
The engineering architecture of a PSV is central to the conversion strategy.
Many conventional yacht conversion projects begin with a unique second-hand hull — perhaps a research vessel, ferry, icebreaker or commercial ship.
That means the naval architecture and conversion work can effectively begin again with every vessel.
Pastrovich Studio argues that PSVs present a different opportunity.
Their basic architecture typically places machinery, crew accommodation and key operational systems towards the forward section of the vessel, leaving a substantial open working deck aft.
That open deck provides the space required for the new guest accommodation.
Instead of extensively rebuilding the existing vessel, the concept retains its core technical platform while using the aft deck as the foundation for an entirely new hospitality structure.
As Stefano Pastrovich puts it:
“The front is engineered and fixed. The back is yours.”
The principle allows the conversion concept to be developed once and potentially applied to other suitable vessels within the same class.
Superstructure built away from the vessel
One of the most significant boatbuilding elements is the proposed construction process.
The new guest superstructure would be fabricated off-ship, at the same time as the existing PSV is being prepared at the conversion yard.
Once completed, the superstructure would then be transferred to the vessel and installed on the existing working deck as a major assembly.
Meanwhile, the original hull, propulsion, navigation and dynamic positioning systems remain largely intact.
Parallelising those two workstreams is intended to reduce both conversion time and technical exposure.
Pastrovich Studio estimates a timeframe of 14 to 20 months from yard entry to delivery.
For an owner or commercial operator, that could offer a very different proposition from commissioning an equivalent large new-build expedition vessel.
The studio also argues that retaining proven systems and an existing operational platform can reduce capital exposure and technical risk compared with starting from a clean sheet.
Built around a proven offshore platform
The reference vessel for the study is the M/V Brage Supplier, a PSV 09 Clean Design platform built in 2011.
The vessel has an overall length of 86.6 metres, a 19-metre beam and approximately 1,000 square metres of aft deck space.
Its machinery comprises four Wärtsilä 9L20 main engines, while propulsion is provided by two Rolls-Royce Azimuth Aquamaster units.
The vessel also features Kongsberg K-Pos DP21 dynamic positioning and DNV classification.
Those are precisely the capabilities Pastrovich wants to preserve.
Rather than removing the commercial vessel’s underlying engineering identity, the design uses it as the foundation of the explorer.
For the 88-metre version, this provides a platform intended for operations in remote cruising regions including Antarctica, the Arctic, Svalbard, Greenland, Patagonia and Papua New Guinea.
From 30 guests to 116 passengers
The flexibility of the platform also demonstrates how the boundary between explorer yacht and expedition cruise vessel continues to evolve.
The 30-guest version is designed around 15 suites.
A 36-guest alternative increases that to 18 suites and has been developed with the Passenger Yacht Code in mind.
The larger 64- and 116-passenger configurations move the concept further towards commercial expedition operation, with the design work considering SOLAS Convention and Passenger Ship Safety Code requirements.
The layouts were informed by studying existing expedition operators and the practical requirements of remote cruising.
Guest accommodation is grouped away from service areas, restaurants are positioned in areas intended to experience less vessel motion, panoramic lounges occupy key viewpoints and embarkation platforms support Zodiac operations and diving equipment.
The objective is to combine the operational capabilities of a working offshore vessel with a much more refined hospitality environment.
One platform, multiple commercial lives
That flexibility could be one of the concept’s most commercially interesting elements.
A suitable PSV does not necessarily have to emerge from conversion as a conventional private superyacht.
The same underlying engineering platform could potentially support private ownership, large-family use, expedition charter or small-scale expedition cruising.
For shipyards, naval architects and suppliers, that creates a different approach to conversion.
Instead of engineering a single bespoke project around an individual donor vessel, a repeatable conversion package could allow more of the design and engineering work to be carried forward to subsequent vessels.
It also provides a potential second-life route for commercial vessels whose original market has changed while their underlying engineering remains viable.
The project remains a study
Importantly, none of the three configurations has yet been built.
Pastrovich Studio has reopened the studies to a wider audience more than a decade after the original project began, arguing that the market conditions that inspired the concept remain relevant.
The original project began in response to an offshore downturn.
Today, the studio sees continued growth in expedition yachting and expedition cruising as providing another potential reason to reconsider technically capable commercial platforms.
Boatbuilding News Analysis
The interesting part of this project isn’t the idea of converting a commercial ship into an explorer yacht. That has been done before.
It’s the attempt to make conversion repeatable.
Traditional yacht conversions are inherently individual. Different donor vessel, different engineering, different structure and another substantial design exercise.
Pastrovich’s PSV concept challenges that model.
If suitable vessels share enough fundamental architecture, the conversion itself starts to look less like a one-off refit and more like a productised boatbuilding process.
The proposed off-ship construction method reinforces that idea.
Preparing the existing vessel while simultaneously constructing the new guest superstructure could compress the programme considerably — with the studio suggesting 14 to 20 months between yard entry and delivery.
There is also an important sustainability discussion here, although it needs to be treated carefully.
Reusing an existing technically viable hull and major machinery potentially avoids replacing a substantial amount of existing structure and equipment. That does not automatically make the resulting vessel environmentally benign, and the study does not provide lifecycle carbon data to quantify the benefit.
But extending the useful life of existing marine assets rather than automatically replacing them is an increasingly relevant question for shipbuilding.
Perhaps most interestingly, the concept sits directly between several sectors Boatbuilding News covers: commercial marine, yacht conversion, expedition cruising and superyacht construction.
A PSV designed to service North Sea energy infrastructure becoming the basis of an 88-metre explorer yacht is interesting.
Developing a process that could potentially do it repeatedly is the bigger story.