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THE UNSTOPPABLE SILENT 80 SOLAR POWERED CATAMARAN!

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A solar-powered catamaran keeps sailing forward even as Italy locks down its shipyards.

With Italy easing its pandemic restrictions in mid-2020, Silent-Yachts resumed public updates on the build progress of its flagship Silent 80, the largest vessel in its solar-electric lineup. Construction had been paused across two Italian shipyards under government mandate, but work restarted with only limited delays. More striking than the resumed build: the Austrian brand kept selling boats through the shutdown.

• Silent-Yachts has sold six Silent 80 units as of spring 2020, with a starting price around $4.6 million.
• The 24.3-meter (80-foot) catamaran carries an 10.9-meter beam and roughly 70 high-efficiency SunPower solar panels producing up to 26 kWp.
• The vessel cruises at 6 to 10 knots, tops out at 12 knots, and runs on unlimited range with zero emissions, noise, or vibration.

Production Resumes After Lockdown

Construction of the Silent 80 had been split across two Italian shipyards, both of which were forced to shut down as the country’s government imposed nationwide COVID-19 restrictions. Once those mandates eased, work picked back up with only limited setbacks to the build schedule — a notable outcome given how badly the pandemic disrupted marine manufacturing elsewhere. Silent-Yachts CEO Michael Köhler has continued to push updates through the delay, treating the resumption as proof the project could withstand a shutdown that halted entire industries.

Six Boats Sold Through a Global Shutdown

What separates this update from a routine progress report is the sales figure: Silent-Yachts confirmed it had sold six Silent 80 units by spring 2020, each starting around $4.6 million, even as broader economic activity stalled worldwide. That demand, in the middle of a pandemic that grounded travel and froze luxury spending in many sectors, is the real headline behind the build footage.

Six Silent 80 catamarans sold at roughly $4.6 million apiece — during a global lockdown that shut down the very shipyards building them.

The Engineering Behind the Zero-Emission Multihull

The Silent 80 was engineered with naval architecture from Amedeo Migali of MICAD, with exterior and interior styling handled by Marco Casali of Too-Design. At 24.3 meters long with an 10.9-meter beam, the catamaran carries roughly 70 SunPower solar panels capable of generating up to 26 kWp, feeding a large lithium-ion battery bank that drives the boat’s electric motors. That setup lets the Silent 80 cruise at 6 to 10 knots and push to a 12-knot top speed while running every onboard system — lighting, climate control, galley equipment — without a generator, exhaust fumes, or engine noise. Anyone who has toured a diesel-powered flagship, like the ARIA 80 Sunreef Power Catamaran, will notice the difference immediately: no hum, no vibration, just wind and water.

The solar-electric approach also removes the range anxiety that typically comes with electric propulsion on the water. Because the panels continuously replenish the battery bank underway, the Silent 80 effectively carries unlimited range rather than the fixed radius you’d get from a fixed battery capacity alone — a distinction that matters as more builders experiment with electrified hulls, the way Tesla owners have tinkered with solar panels on a Tesla to stretch charge on land.

With six units already sold and Italian production back online after the lockdown pause, Silent-Yachts’ next milestone is simple: getting those hulls finished and into the water for owners who committed to a $4.6 million boat sight-unseen, mid-pandemic.