Nilaya

At the start of February, Panamax sloop Nilaya reached another milestone with her departure from her construction hall at the builder’s Vollenhove facility in preparation for the installation of her towering rig in Amsterdam.

This highly anticipated superyacht is the first to utilise Royal Huisman’s new Featherlight design and production method. Continuous weight monitoring throughout the build of Nilaya, aka Project 405, confirms the Dutch builder has achieved its goal of slicing 11% of the weight of its typical advanced aluminium cruising yachts. Most importantly, it has reduced weight without sacrificing sti ness or cutting corners on quality for this high-performance cruiser. The shipyard’s Featherlight method for this 46.8m sailing machine is not a single process or construction technique, but a holistic light weight approach combining various weight-saving solutions.

The Featherlight process makes use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a design methodology rooted in spacecraft technology. FEA modeling enabled selecting various construction materials and varied Alustar aluminium plate thicknesses and frame spacing to maximise hull sti ness while minimising total displacement.With engineering and weight management brought in-house, the approach was comprehensive, extending to lighting, insulation, and all mechanical systems. The interior, too, benefited from careful weight analysis. All interior structural members utilise lightweight foam coring. This innovative approach narrows the displacement gap between aluminium and carbon composite yachts. Comfortable, robust characteristics of an aluminium yacht are now a viable option for owners seeking true sailing performance.

Carbon fiber expertise to the max

Capturing the carbon fiber expertise of its sister company Rondal, Royal Huisman’s engineering team used this synergy to analyse and predict which structural components would be best made of composites or aluminium. For example, >> the entire 17.5m curvaceous coachroof and guest cockpit structure are carbon composite. Likewise, the recessed tender well on the foredeck (that transforms to a seating area for cruising or a flush deck for racing) is also carbon composite as are a watertight bulkhead, crew entrance, twin rudders, the keel trunk and a cockpit bimini hardtop.

For any high-performance cruiser, a carbon fiber mast, boom, and standing rigging are critical to keeping weight as low and as centered as possible for optimal balance. While Rondal has considerable carbon spar expertise, bringing the design of this component — and the sailmaker – into the process during the larger hull design phase is apage out of a maxi-racer’s playbook.

Best of both materials

Nilaya is also the first yacht of this size range designed to take advantage of structured lu sail design pioneered by Doyle Sails, a choice that allowed the entire Rondal mast, rig, and components to be lighter – a key point considering her Panamax air draft. To take advantage of the very narrow headsail sheeting angles possible, Rondal created a radical new curved carbon fiber spreader design that is both shorter and more aerodynamic than anything previously available. Rondal also supplied new generation hybrid (carbon and aluminium) captive winches, hatches and various sail handling gear. Most deck hardware is titanium.

Nilaya’s racy, low profile with its straight bow, wide transom, and twin rudders, echoes the look of her owners’ previous highly successful maxi-racer of the same name. Not surprisingly, she is from the boards of the same naval architecture and design firms, Reichel/Pugh and Nauta, both firms with impressive reputations for high-performance sailing yachts. Exploring all the options for a luxurious performance cruiser also capable of podium finishes at superyacht regattas, the team made full design studies for the yacht in both carbon and aluminium using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimise hull shape and balance. Royal Huisman’s Featherlight method, an evolution of nearly 60 years of aluminium yacht-building experience

Nilaya means ‘blissful home’ in Sanskrit.

melded with the latest carbon technology, provides her owners the best of both materials for a no-compromise yacht.

World’s lightest

Royal Huisman’s CEO Jan Timmerman used the occasion to highlight both the innovative construction methodology and the latest milestone for Project 405, “The success of the innovations with Project405 paves the way to use thisbold new approach for future builds. I am proud of the investment we have made in advanced engineering and of the way teams from Royal Huisman and Rondal advanced newsolutions 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 highperformance superyachts.”

A blissful home on the sea

Royal Huisman’s Project 405, Nilaya (which means ‘blissful home’ in Sanskrit) will be delivered to her owners in the coming months. At the start of April, i. royalhuisman.com

Nilaya was christened at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. The Dutch are a nation of seafarers whose culture has been profoundly shaped by the ocean over the past five centuries. They even invented yachting as a pastime and came up with the word ‘jacht’ to describe a pleasure boat. So it is hardly surprising that the country takes immense pride in institutions such as Het Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum) in Amsterdam, which house extensive collections of maritime art and artefacts illustrating this bond with all things nautical. Royal Huisman enjoys a close relationship with the National Maritime Museum, which also played host to the World Superyacht Awards some years ago. The christening ceremonies of various Royal Huisman yachts have been hosted by the museum, while the shipyard actively supports the institution’s cultural and educational activities.

Inmarsat Government selects new generation terminals

Cobham Satcom, the leading provider of radio and satellite communication (satcom) solutions to the global maritime and land mobile sectors has been chosen by Inmarsat Government to supply new generation SAILOR XTR user terminals for the provision of fast, reliable and secure worldwide end-to-end commercial satcom for the US Navy Military Sealift Command’s (MSC) Next Generation Wideband service.

Inmarsat Government is trusted with upgrading the primary MSC afloat network from Ku-band VSAT to the Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band under a tenyear, EUR 529.7 million Follow-On contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) awarded in August 2022. Cobham Satcom was selected as the user terminal partner. The roll-out, which includes replacing all existing Ku-band user terminals on MSC vessels with customised rapid deployment 1 meter SAILOR 1000 XTR and 0.6 meter SAILOR 600 XTR Ka-band VSAT terminals, starts immediately.

Fully compatible

Designed specifically to leverage the worldwide coverage and capabilities of GX, Cobham Satcom’s technology leading user terminals are fully compatible with GX-R2 High Power requirements as well as GX upcoming satellites (GX6AB, GX10AB and GX7, 8& 9), helping Inmarsat Government to provision a high performance, dependable and futureproof solution. SAILOR XTR 1000 and 600 user terminals operate across multiple orbits. In addition to GEO,

About Inmarsat

Inmarsat delivers world leading, innovative, advanced and exceptionally reliable global, mobile communications across the world – in the air, at sea and on land – that are enabling a new generation of commercial, government and mission-critical services. Inmarsat is powering the digitalisation of the maritime industry, making operations more e cient and safer than ever before. It is driving a new era of inflight passenger services for aviation, while ensuring that aircraft can fly with maximum e ciency and safety.

Inmarsat Government’s selection of Cobham Satcom’s innovative user terminal technology platform is in line with the MSC’s demand for highly reliable and always available satcom in rough sea conditions.

the user terminal supports operation with Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) satellites (GX10AB), ensuring access to GX over the Arctic region.

Inmarsat Government’s selection of Cobham Satcom’s innovative user terminal technology platform is in line with the MSC’s demand for highly reliable and always available satcom in rough sea conditions. While SAILOR XTR 1000 and 600 are both designed and manufactured with premium quality and robustness that can be depended upon,

Furthermore, Inmarsat is enabling the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and enabling the next wave of world-changing technologies that will underpin the connected society and help build a sustainable future. And now Inmarsat is developing the first-of-itskind, multi-dimensional communications network of the future, ORCHESTRA. In November 2021, Inmarsat and Viasat announced the planned combination of the two companies, to create a new leader in global communications.

About Inmarsat Government

The US government has relied on and trusted Inmarsat satellite services since 1979. Inmarsat Government continues to deliver the world’s most advanced global, mobile satellite communication services to US defense, intelligence, homeland security, public safety and civilian agencies, with highly reliable, secure and a ordable connectivity. Built with government users in mind, Inmarsat Government provides resilient, flexible capabilities to complement government satellite resources, anytime, anywhere. Leveraging an industryleading scalable multiband network infrastructure, Inmarsat Government o ers a suite of managed network services and end-to-end communication solutions to support users on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Headquartered in Reston, VA, Inmarsat Government is a whollyowned subsidiary of Inmarsat Group Holdings Limited.

Cobham Satcom’s proven global support network was also an important selection criterion as it will optimise user terminal installation during roll-out and resolve support issues quickly wherever vessels are in service.

A powerful solution

“Cobham Satcom is proud to build on our long-lasting commercial relationship and partner with Inmarsat Government on providing mission-critical global satellite communication solutions with exceptionally reliable, high-performance and globally supported user terminal technology as a foundation”, said Martin Buhl, Director Strategic Partners, Cobham Satcom. “GX is a powerful solution for fast, secure and uninterrupted connectivity especially when our field-proven robust and feature-rich SAILOR XTR user terminals are providing the on-board link to the network.”

“The provision of global, mobile connectivity requires an advanced network and well-engineered user terminals”, said Steve Gizinski, President, Inmarsat Government. “We are confident in the proven capabilities of the Global Xpress network coupled with the SAILOR XTR user terminals to deliver the highquality service that the MSC missions demand and deserve on a global basis.”

About Cobham Satcom

Cobham Satcom is a market-leading provider of radio and satellite communications solutions and services for the maritime and land segments, delivering business- and mission-critical connectivity to a broad range of service providers, enterprises, and government customers.

By exploring new technologies, partnerships, and spaces, Cobham Satcom continues to deliver on tracking and pointing innovation, and designs and manufactures high-performance radio and communication terminals, gateways, and systems solutions under the SAILOR, Sea Tel, EXPLORER, and TRACKER brands.

i. inmarsat.com i. cobham-satcom.com