X3 Superyacht Aims To Be an Extreme Sports Heaven With Endless Entertainment

While searching the internet for the next project to shed light on one possible future, I've run across the X3 superyacht by Oliver Clarke, a superyacht designer for Olesinski, a crew that's been around since 1971. However, X3 seems to be a personal project, as Olesinski's website shows nothing of the sort.

That said, take a close look at the images in the gallery and tell me if you can figure out what the heck is going on with this massive hunk of steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, and glass (common materials used in yacht building).

Any idea? Well, if you weren't able to figure it out, X3 is a superyacht built to be a floating exhibition center for extreme sports. That's why you may have noticed a climbing wall, full-size basketball court, and multiple pools. Not to mention meeting centers, VIP lounges, and one very special support vessel.

To start, X3 is based upon a trimaran platform. This should offer excellent stability so that sportsmen can go about their competitions. Overall, the longest hull yields a length of 120 m (393 ft), enough for a football field, end zone to end zone.

A beam of 40 m (131 ft) helps expand the usable surface area of X3, large enough to fit a couple of helicopters side by side. Even though this thing is massive, with diesel-electric propulsion, it's meant to reach a top speed of 25 knots (28 mph) and cruise for 3,000 nautical miles (3,452 miles).

Each hull of X3 offers access onto the ship, yet the central hull also has multiple pools that flow into each other from the vessel's center. Once on the main deck, you'll be able to head to the front of the craft, where a basketball court and courtside seating are arranged. When the court is not in use, it can be a host for dancing and parties.

The central structure spans multiple levels and is host to spaces like VIP lounges and entertainment rooms, bars, and dining centers, all revolving around the climbing wall. Up above, two helipads sit in wait to receive world-class athletes and other fortunate guests, and a couple of lounges allow you to enjoy the view the moment you set foot onto X3.

Sporting events aside, Mr. Clarke also reveals that the sides of this central structure can be covered with screens that transmit live images of the events happening around the ship. From a business standpoint, this feature can also be used for marketing.

Earlier I mentioned a "very special" support vessel. Even though Mr. Clarke didn't give this ship as much attention as it did X3, it is part of the entire package and essential to the capabilities of the mothership.

The support vessel is set up on a catamaran platform, so comfort is once again the goal, but this craft is designed more as a point of transition towards the main ship and acts as a transport, additional support, for viewing events going on outside, and has a couple of lounges and a pool of its own.

Sure, it may be some time before we really see something this large in real life, but with the way things are going, this just may be the sort of concept we may witness in this lifetime. Considering X3 is priced around 250 million USD (about 221 million EUR at the current exchange rate), a crew like Red Bull or Rockstar could make it happen.