Reichel/Pugh-Nauta 154 Nilaya has been honored by Robb Report with Best of the Best - Sailing Yacht award. “This year marks 36 years of Best of the Best.” explains Paul Croughton, editor in chief of Robb Report: “In that time, the awards have grown into one of the premier accolades in luxury, recognized around the world.”
Reichel/Pugh-Nauta 154 Nilaya has been honored by Robb Report with Best of the Best - Sailing Yacht award. “This year marks 36 years of Best of the Best,” explains Paul Croughton, editor in chief of Robb Report: “In that time, the awards have grown into one of the premier accolades in luxury, recognized around the world.” "The new Nilaya’s naval architecture is the beginning of a new era in Superyacht design,” explains Reichel/Pugh President Jim Pugh.
Reichel/Pugh’s latest superyacht flagship Design #283, the REICHEL/PUGH-NAUTA 154 NILAYA has combined Reichel/Pugh’s world-renowned expertise partnered with builder Royal Huisman's new holistic Featherlight™ construction method to invent the next iconic luxury global cruising yacht capable of podium finishes at the top superyacht regattas.
Reichel/Pugh-Nauta 154 NILAYA’s design development is a result of Reichel/Pugh’s 40 years of yacht design experience and designing the optimum CFD study to analyze R/P’s latest candidate hull shapes. Earlier Superyacht designs by Reichel/Pugh are groundbreaking and include the iconic yachts, the 147’ Visione, the Reichel/Pugh-Nauta 112’ Nilaya, the 200’ Hetairos Ketch and the Reichel/Pugh-Nauta 130’ My Song.
Visione, Nilaya and Hetairos have each won overall the Superyacht Regatta the St Barts Bucket.
The new Nilaya’s low profile, straight bow, wide transom and twin rudders is a leap forward from the look of her owners’ previous highly successful 112’ blue water cruiser also designed by Reichel/Pugh and Nauta. For the new Nilaya, which is 12m / 42ft longer than their previous maxi, the owners sought a yacht that could offer their family and guests the opportunity to “explore the world in the utmost comfort and safety, but at the same time could offer an exciting and fast sailing experience.”
“The Nilaya 154 is not in any way a development of her predecessor," Jim Pugh explains, "naval architecture has come a long way since the launch of the first Nilaya in 2010. Our knowledge base has expanded dramatically and the CFD hydro tools we now use provide far more accurate computational results, both in flat water and waves. The new Nilaya’s naval architecture is the beginning of a new era in Superyacht design.”
Noting that their carbon fiber yacht produced a lot of noise and vibration – a motion the owner calls “nervous,” they wanted the lightweight benefits of carbon but sought a quieter package that felt solid and was built to the highest standards. Royal Huisman pioneered the shipyard’s comprehensive Featherlight™ approach, blending the strength and motion of an aluminum hull with the speed and displacement weights common to carbon fiber maxi yachts.
The new Nilaya was builder Royal Huisman’s first Featherlight racing yacht in lightweight aluminum. Reichel/Pugh and engineers used a computer modeling tool based on technology from the European Space Agency for designing the structure, saving weight and reducing noise wherever possible. The result is a fast, stylish superyacht for racing and cruising.
Three deck areas and a beach club accommodate gatherings, while below-decks are dining and social areas, guest staterooms, and the full-beam main suite. The owner has already crossed the Atlantic twice aboard Nilaya and also claimed a win in the 2024 St. Barths Bucket, fulfilling both missions less than a year after launch.
Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design designed and managed a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study bringing in America’s Cup CFD specialists Caponnetto-Hueber and Giorgio Provinciali for the Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) performance analysis. This was a comprehensive hull design study to improve seakeeping while motoring and sailing at various speeds and heel angles in different wave conditions. Reichel/Pugh collected extensive wave data from the owners’ favorite windy cruising grounds of Greece and the Caribbean and developed new hull shapes to run through the RANS CFD code. Improving the seakeeping characteristics in waves both under sail and power was paramount.
“Royal Huisman used Finite Element Analysis (FEA) applied its novel Featherlight methodology adapted from spacecraft technology to develop the structural design, fully optimizing strength and stiffness. Bringing in the mast and sail designers early in the process has significant advantages,” said Jim Pugh. “From the aero CFD side, Rondal and the Doyle sail designers shared high quality data about sail forces and sail loads of the powerful sail plan that were integrated into the hydro CFD studies of the candidate hulls. This markedly improved the quality of the CFD hull testing and the resultant VPP performance prediction. The mast and sail loads were then input into the hull and deck’s structural engineering,” said Pugh. “These studies are applicable to any design whether Featherlight™ or heavy, such a study will yield remarkable results.”
Nauta has drawn on all its long experience to make Nilaya’s exterior profile as beautiful as it is pragmatic. The coachroof blends gracefully with the sheerline, while the wide stern flies above the water. Much thought went into optimizing proportions to favor a coaming to protect the guest cockpit and a bulwark to protect the aft cockpit, maneuvering area, and side passageways. “A wooden plinth between sections in composite and the teak deck makes them visually lighter, and also conceals the string lights that illuminate the deck at night,” says Massimo Gino, co-founder of Nauta. “Teak inserts on the bulwarks, coamings and coachroof further enrich the deck.”
Nauta’s vision reached into the aesthetics and functionality of the sailing hardware as well – nothing was ‘off the shelf’. “Our customization of deck hardware included the styling of the 21m Rondal boom, the through-deck fittings for jib sheets, the bollards and other elements,” says Gino. “Removable gate-shaped grabrails were fitted on deck sections from the transom to the guest cockpit for the safety of crew and guests: when the gates are fitted, there are never more than two steps without a grabrail - a useful feature aboard a large yacht where walking distances, when heeled, are a consideration.”
The interior is also a matter of enormous pride, delivering the exceptional lifestyle desired by the owner, as well as the most efficient service workflow for the crew. The Owner’s decorator, May Vervoordt, chose the materials used in the interior styling. The interior is centered around the social hub that is the magnificent raised-deckhouse saloon, finished in a contemporary mix of contrasting woods, pale upholstery and dashes of muted blue and terracotta for sofa and cushions. The crew area fills the boat’s aft section and has a dedicated companionway to the aft deck. This space is dominated by the galley to starboard and the mess to port – both generous spaces with large hull windows to bring in natural light and promote crew wellbeing.
Main Specifications
Yacht name: Nilaya
Type: High-performance cruiser sloop
Length overall: 46.8m / 154ft
Beam: 10m / 33ft
Draft: 4.5 - 6.9m / 15 - 23ft
Accommodation: 8 - 10 owners / guests + 8 crew
General concept, exterior & interior design: Nauta Design
Naval architecture: Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design
CFD – Caponnetto-Hueber SL
VPP – Georgio Provinciali Srls
Owners’ representative: Nigel Ingram, MCM Newport
Owners’ race team: Bouwe Bekking and Romke Loopik
Builder: Royal Huisman Project 405
Construction: Aluminum and carbon composite
Classification: Hull structure & superstructure according to the rules & regulations of Lloyd’s Register Special Service Craft Rules, eligible for the class notation: X100A1, SSC, Yacht, Mono, G6
Rig + handling: Rondal carbon Panamax rig + Integrated Sailing System
Year of delivery: 2023
Read on about the world-renowned team, year-long design process, break-through technologies, and the construction hall launch.
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