"Don't call it a yacht": Greenpeace treats itself to a brand-new, 190-foot, custom-built, $26 million yacht with helicopter pad and double showers in each cabin

Return of the Rainbow Warrior | Environment | The Observer

In a hangar at the yard of Fassmer on the banks of the River Weser, however, a different kind of £16m dream boat is taking shape.
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The new Rainbow Warrior III, which I had come to Bremen to get a first look at, will be among the most environmentally advanced ships of its size at sea. The boat – "don't call it a yacht!" I'm told – is nearly 60m long and currently cased in scaffolding, though the distinctive dove of peace and childlike red-and-yellow- and-pink-and-green rainbow is visible on its hull. At the beginning of next month, when the ship is baptised, twin 50-metre masts will be hoisted on its deck to carry 1,200 sq m of sail. A state-of-the-art hybrid engine will be needed for only about 10% of its operational power.
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The Rainbow Warrior III project is being overseen in Bremen by William Sykes, a 6ft 6in Glaswegian second-row forward, who points out to me some of the ship's more unusual features – the advanced technology that will drop smaller inflatable speedboats from its sides at record speed for the quickest possible advance or getaway; the helicopter pad that can be created on deck
...One of the more insistent requirements, particularly from long-term crew members with the scent of old voyages to the Arctic or up the Amazon still vivid, was for a shower in each double cabin, as opposed to the scant communal facilities that had characterised previous boats.
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Still, he can't wait to get out on Rainbow Warrior III, not least because "Greenpeace running around in big polluting motor vessels is not ideal. It is good to see us get serious about alternative technology, because if we don't, how can we expect anyone else to?"