RJ 130

• LOA 40.5 m, beam 8 m
• Under 500 GT, steel hull with aluminium superstructure
• Design by Francesco Paszkowski, naval architecture by Hydro Tec
• Twin MTU 10V2000 M72 engines, 14.5 knots maximum
• 5,500 nm range at 9 knots
• 12 guests in 5 suites, 7 crew in 4 cabins on hull one
• 12 mm keel plate, twin independent rudders
• First RJ Class yacht, launched January 2021

The boat that started the line

The first RJ 130, named RJ, hit the water in Ancona in January 2021 and was delivered later that year, departing on a maiden voyage into the Mediterranean. She was a departure for the yard, the first project handed entirely to Francesco Paszkowski for exterior and interior, with naval architecture by the long-standing partner Hydro Tec underneath.

Paszkowski described the challenge as keeping an austere, rigorous silhouette while hiding an explorer's logistics inside it, and the result reads as a modern long-range ship with none of the trawler nostalgia the segment leaned on for years. Today the RJ Class spans 102, 115, 130 and 155 feet, and every one of them traces its architecture back to this hull. Four have now been delivered across three of the sizes, an unusually fast maturing for a line whose first steel was cut in a pandemic.

Forty metres, measured for the long game

The current RJ 130 is offered at 40.5 metres with an 8 metre beam, in steel and aluminium below 500GT like everything the yard builds. The structural specification is unapologetically heavy, a 12 millimetre keel plate, twin independent rudders and framing drawn to commercial habits, because the design brief assumes groundings avoided by inches and weather chosen badly at least once in a boat's life.

Exterior space is the line's quiet advantage, roughly 200 square metres of usable outdoor living spread across three decks, with a large aft main deck and a sundeck that runs most of the superstructure's length. It is organised for living and entertaining more than for cargo, the key philosophical difference between an RJ and a Flexplorer of similar length.

An explorer with an architect's silhouette, a 12 millimetre keel plate and 5,500 miles in the tanks.

Twelve guests, seven crew, no crowding

The first hull sleeps twelve guests in five suites, with an owner's stateroom forward on the main deck behind glazing that would flatter a shoreside penthouse, and seven crew in four cabins. Circulation is kept strictly separate, so a full guest complement never meets a laundry trolley, a detail that matters more on a 40 metre than owners expect.

Paszkowski's interior for hull one set the register the line has kept since, pale timbers, clean vertical surfaces, restrained hardware and light pulled deep into the plan by the big windows. Later RJs, through to the Salvagni-finished 155, pushed the luxury further, but the 130 established that an explorer's interior could be judged by city standards.

MTU power, ocean legs

Uniquely in the yard's larger fleet, the first RJ 130 runs twin MTU 10V2000 M72 diesels, good for 14.5 knots at full load and an easy fast cruise, with a range of 5,500 nautical miles at nine knots. The figures put the entire North Atlantic circuit, or Suez and the Indian Ocean, inside one fuel plan.

The machinery space follows the house pattern, full headroom, clean access, redundancy in pumps and power generation specified for remote-area operation. Crews report the boats as straightforward to run and maintain, which is the practical dividend of a yard that thinks like a shipbuilder first and a stylist second. Later RJs adopted Caterpillar C32s, the 155 among them, and both engine families carry global parts networks, which counts for more than the badge in the anchorages these boats are drawn for.

Where the 130 sits now

With the 155 taking the flagship role and two RJ 115s, Stellamar and Pazienza, delivered in 2023 and 2024, the 130 holds the centre of the line, the size where twelve guests and a 40 metre length meet the most manageable crew and berthing footprint. For many owners it is the RJ that balances presence against practicality. The line has since stretched downward too, with the first RJ 102, Mon Coeur, launched in 2026 to carry the same architecture to 31 metres, evidence the concept's appeal runs in both directions.

A new build is specified from the yard in Ancona with a designer's freedom inside the platform, and the delivered first hull demonstrated the concept's resale strength when she moved on the brokerage market. As with every CdM series, the value case rests on scarcity. Only a handful exist, and the yard's slots are booked years out.

Who it is for: An owner drawn to Paszkowski's clean architecture who wants a 40 metre that crosses oceans, hosts twelve, and avoids both the expedition cliche and the 500GT regulatory step.