After a hiatus in her construction program, the train is getting back on track for Riostar and this 160-foot displacement yacht. The vessel styling was provided by Fernando de Almeida, who brought DLBA into the project to support the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering elements. The design of this vessel was completed back in 2015 and construction began at that time. After a hiatus due to a variety of factors, activity has restarted. This vessel will be Riostar’s largest build to date, it will be one of DLBA’s first true displacement hull designs. In fact, when the keel was laid, she was to become Brazil’s largest yacht constructed at that time. Riostar is based in Rio de Janeiro.

This tri-deck yacht is packed with amenities, including a large beach club, an open air flybridge with hot tub, and a plumb stem in keeping with mo dern designs. The foredeck contains the main tender storage space, as expected, but also has a large seating area for guests. She will have accommodations for 10 guests in 5 cabins, and 9 crew. Outfitted with twin Caterpillar C32 diesel engines driving propellers on inclined shafts, the all-aluminum vessel is predicted to have a maximum speed of 15 knots, with a cruising range of 4,000NM at 12 knots. She will have a length of 160’ (48m), a beam of 29’ (8.9m), and a displacement of about 440 tons.

We look forward to this project being completed and seeing her in the water around the world!

The DLBA Division of Gibbs & Cox is excited to announce that we will be supporting DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO) on their revolutionary No Manning Required, Ship (NOMARS) Program. The program will design, build, and field test an unmanned surface ship that can operate autonomously for long durations at sea with no human interventions or underway maintenance. Our team was selected by DARPA to explore the trade space for clean-sheet vessel designs developed without any provision for crew on board. The intent of this effort is to create a paradigm shift in the design of marine surface vehicles as we transition from manned to unmanned platforms, while leveraging newly established and developmental technologies to increase capability, increase reliability, and reduce total ownership cost.

NOMARS is a two-phased program, with this first phase centered on trade space exploration, development of a clean-sheet concept design, and maturation of concept into a preliminary design. We have assembled a team of subject matter experts and industry leaders to explore the many research areas of this program, some of which are: hull, mechanical and electrical systems; self-adaptive health monitoring and predictive analytics; power generation, distribution, and energy storage; as well as advanced depot based maintenance concepts. We will assess the interdependencies of the technical domains and evaluate each domain against overarching variables of cost, endurance, reliability, and manufacturability to ensure that our vessel design is optimized in all aspects of performance, production, and maintainability.

The views, opinions, and/or findings expressed are those of the author(s) and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.