Nomad 101

The surprise flagship

Gulf Craft kept the Nomad 101 quiet until the covers came off in Dubai in 2023, an unusual move for a flagship launch. The boat that emerged moved the explorer line into genuine superyacht territory, three decks, around 135 tonnes of displacement, and the same design partnership with Phathom Studio that had just reset the Majesty range.

Beneath the styling sits naval architecture from Andrew Wolstenholme, the British specialist in efficient displacement forms. Management framed the brief as keeping the boat light and efficient while preserving real speed, and the delivered yacht backs that up, composite construction holding weight down so that range, pace and interior volume stop fighting each other.

Three thousand miles between fuel docks

The numbers define the boat. Cruise at 10 knots and the Nomad 101 covers beyond 3,000 nautical miles, Dubai to the Maldives and back again, or the Red Sea to the Seychelles without a bunkering plan. Engine options run to 1,900 hp a side, and with the throttles open the hull still reaches into the low twenties.

That spread is the explorer argument in one spec line. Most 31 metre yachts choose between a fast coastal profile and a slow trawler one. The 101 holds both, passage-making endurance for the crossing, then real speed for the weekend when the owner has a schedule. Nearly 14,000 litres of fuel and twin 45 kW generators carry the endurance side of the promise. Fuel planning becomes a seasonal exercise instead of a weekly one, which changes how itineraries get drawn.

Two jet skis and a Williams tender on deck, five cabins below, and 3,000 miles of range in a 31 metre explorer.

An upper deck that runs all the way around

The design's centrepiece is a full walkaround upper deck, 35 square metres of open exterior wrapped around 16 square metres of interior, so the deck works as a continuous observation gallery in the way expedition ships intend. Forward, a dedicated foredeck lounge takes the anchorage view, and the flybridge above adds the third open level.

The aft deck is honest working space, sized to stow two three-seat jet skis and a Williams 325 jet tender with room to launch them without choreography. This is deck gear philosophy borrowed from far larger explorers, the toys ride with the boat, the tender is always minutes from the water, and no marina forklift appointment sits between the owner and a morning's plan.

Five cabins, light woods, new materials

Ten guests sleep in five cabins, with the owner's suite up on the main deck where the glazing is, and four guest cabins below. The arrangement holds the owner's privacy even with every cabin filled. Five crew run the boat from their own quarters with a combined laundry sized for long trips, the sort of practical provision that betrays genuine expedition thinking.

Phathom's interior swaps the dark, heavy explorer cliche for blonde woods, marble and cream fabrics, and it experiments where the market is heading, upholstery in pineapple-fibre leather alternatives and carpets woven from recycled fishing nets. It is a fresher, lighter idea of what an adventure yacht should feel like inside, and it photographed its way around the trade press at launch.

The explorer that anchors the brand's second range

The 101 gives the Nomad line what the 175 gave Majesty, a flagship that defines the family. Below her the 75, 70 and 65 carry the same semi-displacement, long-legs formula into owner-operator sizes, and above her the concept space stays open, Gulf Craft has shown the model as the headline act of its recent Gulf show appearances, including the Qatar Boat Show in 2025.

The natural owner is one who reads a chart before a marina guide, Gulf and Indian Ocean crossings, Sri Lanka, the Andamans, the northern Red Sea, with five cabins of family aboard. For that brief there is very little else at 31 metres with this range, this deck capability and a SYBAss-member yard behind it at a composite production price.

A flagship with a real track record

The first hull, named Bluestone, went to an owner in Sydney and now operates there as a charter yacht under an Australian Maritime Safety Authority survey allowing up to around 100 to 105 people aboard for day-charter work, alongside private weekly charter bookings. An independent trade-press sea trial of that hull found real expedition substance behind the styling: oversized cleating and large capstans for stern-to berthing, a Portuguese bridge reachable straight from the helm for tight manoeuvring, and a dinghy garage that genuinely converts into a beach club rather than just photographing as one. Two more hulls, 101/03 and 101/04, were delivered in 2025 and 2026, giving the flagship a three-year production run most new superyacht designs do not reach this quickly.

The one caution in that record is the paperwork. Engine and range figures for the 101 vary sharply depending which listing or press source is quoted, from Gulf Craft's own beyond-3,000-nautical-mile claim on its largest engine option down to a 1,030 nautical mile figure tied to a lower-powered package, and resale asking prices for delivered hulls run from around EUR 8.8 million to roughly USD 10.2 million, with at least one listing showing a figure that looks like a data error rather than a real price. A buyer should get the exact engine, tank and price confirmed for the specific hull, not the model name. The design itself has drawn independent recognition beyond the sea trial: the 101 was a finalist for Best Naval Architecture among semi-displacement and planing motor yachts at the 2024 Boat International Design and Innovation Awards, a judged category rather than a builder's own claim. None of that recognition settles the engine question, so it remains a line for a buyer's broker to confirm hull by hull rather than assume from the brochure.

Pour qui: An owner who plans by chart, wants the family along in five cabins, and expects the boat to carry its own toys across an ocean gap without support.