In ship design, an inverted bow is a ship's or large boat's bow whose farthest forward point is not at the top. The result may somewhat resemble a submarine's bow. Inverted bows maximize the length of waterline and hence the hull speed, and have often better hydrodynamic drag than ordinary bows. On the other hand, they have very little reserve buoyancy and tend to dive under waves instead of piercing or going over them.
M/Y A cruising at Sorrento, Italy in 2012.
SMS Viribus Unitis, a dreadnought type ship with inverted bow, flagship of the Austro-Hungarian navy in 1912.
Well intervention vessel Sarah with X-Bow.
Bourbon Orca anchor tug, shown in 2012, was the first ship built with an Ulstein X-Bow in 2006.
Motor Yacht A is a superyacht designed by Philippe Starck and engineered by naval architect Martin Francis. It was built by the Blohm + Voss shipyard at the HDW deepwater facility in Kiel. It was ordered in November 2004, and delivered in 2008 at a rumoured cost of US$300 million. With a length of 119 metres (390 ft) and measuring almost 6,000 tonnes, it is one of the largest motor yachts in the world. It is owned by Russian entrepreneur and industrialist Andrey Melnichenko. To avoid seizure by EU authorities, the yacht has been laid up in the United Arab Emirates since 2022.
M/Y A cruising off Sorrento, Italy
Conceptual designer Philippe Starck was responsible for A's radical silhouette.
A in the harbor of St. John's, Antigua