NILAYA: Royal Huisman Launches Milestone Featherlight Project

Royal Huisman as a shipyard has a proud heritage that dates back to 1884. Throughout all of this time, the builder has adhered to an ethos that strives for perfection, pioneering new innovations particularly in the sailing yacht market.

Nilaya is another milestone in this respect, as she becomes the first superyacht to benefit from Royal Huisman’s Featherlight design and production method. Featherlight applies Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a method which is known for its application in spacecraft technology. This FEA modelling has enhanced the stiffness of the hull whilst minimizing its total displacement.

Royal Huisman’s in-house engineering team worked alongside sister company Rondal, a specialist in carbon fibre, to determine which structural elements would be benefit most from composites or aluminium.

The overall approach has helped to ensure that the weight of the yacht is kept as low and centred as possible, to provide optimal balance for performance and comfort.

The superyacht features a racy, low profile which matches the style of her owner’s previous maxi-racer of the same name. Nilaya’s naval architecture has been crafted by Reichel / Pugh, with Nauta Design penning the exterior and interior design. Both of these firms were also chosen by the owner for their previous yacht, with Nilaya becoming the largest sailing yacht in Nauta Design’s portfolio.

“With Reichel / Pugh, we set the target weight,” explains Mario Pedol of Nauta Design. “Royal Huisman really embraced the concept. It was a very good process, good collaboration.”

Jan Timmerman, CEO of Royal Huisman, celebrated a milestone reach for an innovative project that sets a new precedent for processes at the shipyard. “The success of the innovations with Project 405 paves the way to use this bold new approach for future builds,” said Mr Timmerman. “I am proud of the investment we have made in advanced engineering and of the way teams from Royal Huisman and Ronal advanced new solutions to meet the brief from very knowledgeable clients and designers.

“The owners as well deserve congratulations for pushing everyone to achieve just a little bit more and for encouraging innovation at every step. Nilaya will be the world’s lightest aluminium sailing superyacht for her length. She rewrites the script for high-performance superyachts.”

We look forward to tracking the progress as Nilaya reaches the final stages before delivery to her owners this year.