We all know who Bill Gates is, well he knows Tenerife too, as his luxurious 68 metre long megayacht the Wayfinder is in dock at the Santa Cruz port (above), which is the auxiliary catamaran of the Atessa IV, the main megayacht owned by Microsoft.
The Wayfinder has space for 18 crew and 14 passengers or service personnel, divided into 15 cabins, and was built at the Armon Shipyards in Navia (Asturias) and designed by the Australian marine engineering company Incat Crowther.
This type of boat is known as a shadow boat or support yacht as it transports the "toys" of the owner and his guests on the main megayacht. It has jet skis, speedboats, diving equipment, quads, motorcycles, a helipad and hangar for a helicopter on board, and supplies the ‘mother ship’ with fuel and food supplies, has a spare parts workshop and a rescue boat.
Stock image of the Wayfinder at sea
Combining design, luxury, safety and performance, the Wayfinder is also environmentally friendly. It develops a maximum speed of 21 knots (almost 39 kilometres per hour) with its two engines, of 3,850 horsepower each, which reduce its nitrogen oxide emissions to 2 grams per kilowatt hour (IMO certified TIER 3).
In order not to pollute the marine environment, it cleans all the wastewater it discharges into the sea, in addition to treating and storing all the solid waste that it may generate on board. Other data for connoisseurs are the 200,000 litres of fuel in its tanks or the 22,000 litres of drinking water… if this is the support boat, what’s the big one like!!
