This paper addresses a fundamental study of a floating type shrouded wind turbine on the design, mathematical model and motion analysis. Several novel concepts are introduced to the system for cost reduction: a revolute hinge is applied between the tower and the nacelle to maintain the orientation of the nacelle even in a large tower inclination, a swashplate mechanism with cyclic control is employed for blade pitch regulation to improve the system controllability, a novel mooring system with a slewing bearing is utilized to build the passive yawing system, and an advanced spar-type floater is used to obtain high restoring performance with a short spar. Firstly, the design aspects of the main components of the system are given. Then, the numerical model including the structural model, hydrodynamic/aerodynamic model, and the control system is presented. The static and dynamic responses under both the operational situation and survival conditions are finally studied. The paper illustrates the probability of the shrouded wind turbine on floating offshore application, and can provide critical information for the optimization design in next stage. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.