Novurania

From a Trentino fabric mill to Florida

The business began in the 1950s at Tione di Trento, where Adelmo Pellegrini and Pietro Caresano were competitors in protective garments before merging to form Urania, a maker of rubber-coated fabric. In 1964 the same founders started Novurania to put that fabric into inflatable boats. By the 1970s the company was an international name in the category, and in the 1980s the two businesses merged under the Novurania name as American demand grew.

Novurania of America was set up in 1983 to serve United States customers, began domestic production in California in 1989 with the MX 430, described by the company as the first American-built RIB, and moved manufacturing to Florida in 1991. The operation is now at Vero Beach on the Atlantic coast. That location puts it inside the Florida marine cluster and close to the yachts that use its boats through the winter.

What the range covers

Five series and two standalone models cover 3.4 m to 11.6 m. The DL series is the simple end, side-console RIBs from the 3.4 m DL 335 carrying four people at 24 knots up to the 5.5 m DL 550 carrying nine on a 115 hp outboard at 41 knots. These are the boats that get used every day for beach runs and provisioning, and they are the ones that take the abuse.

Above them sit the LX limousine tenders, the Chase series and the catamarans, plus the Como line and the individual TR 270 and GS 420. The structure of the range is unusual in that it does not step neatly by length. A yacht may take a 5.5 m DL for daily work and a 7.5 m LX for guests, and the two boats are built to different briefs entirely.

One of the last tender builders that still makes the fabric its boats are wrapped in.

The LX and Chase tenders

The LX series is the guest tender. Four boats run from the 6 m LX 600 to the 7.5 m LX 750, all on a 2.7 m beam with a 0.58 m tube, carrying ten to fifteen people. Outboard versions reach 42 to 44 knots and inboard diesel versions 37 knots. The consistent beam across the series matters, because it means a garage sized for one LX will take a longer one.

The Chase series is the faster and more serious boat. The 5.8 m Chase 19 runs a single Yanmar 4LV of 195 hp for ten people, the 8.3 m Chase 27 offers a 320 hp Volvo D4 or twin Yanmars and reaches 38 knots, and the 9.5 m Chase 31 will do 51 knots on twin outboards. At the top the 11.6 m Chase 38 carries 21 people on twin Volvo D6 380 hp diesels with 833 litres of fuel.

The catamarans and the bow ramp

The catamaran series is the part of the range that solves a problem specific to large yachts. Every model carries a hydraulically operated bow ramp, so guests walk off onto a beach without wading and without a second dinghy. The Cat 20 at 6.1 m is the beach lander proper, and the Cat 24 at 7.3 m carries ten people at 43 knots on a 250 hp outboard or a Yanmar diesel.

The twin hull format buys stability at rest, which is what makes these boats useful for diving, for loading luggage and for elderly or nervous guests. The Cat 28 at 8.7 m and 3.3 m beam carries fourteen on twin 200 hp outboards. The trade is beam. A catamaran tender eats garage width, and on many yachts that is the dimension in shortest supply.

How they are built

Novurania makes its own tube fabric, which almost no other tender builder does. The material is layered with neoprene on the inside and Hypalon on the outside, a construction chosen for resistance to delamination, abrasion, mould and colour loss. Hypalon tubes cost more than the PVC used on cheaper RIBs and last considerably longer in Mediterranean and Caribbean sun, which is the difference an owner sees in year five. The hull under it is a vacuum-bagged cored laminate with foam-encapsulated stringers.

The company has been vertically integrated since the 2000s, with engineering and design in house and production controlled under one roof. Boats are specified individually, so upholstery, deck, hardware and colour can be matched to the mothership, and the order book sets the delivery date. One thing Novurania does publish, and most bespoke tender builders do not, is an average dry weight for every model on its own specification page. That single habit makes the range checkable against a crane before a dealer is in the room, and the figures that follow were read from those pages in July 2026.

The weights, and what the crane has to lift

Length, beam and height decide whether a tender enters the garage. Average dry weight decides whether it can be lifted out of the water at all. Read in July 2026, Novurania's model pages give the 5.5 m DL 550 at 645 kg, the 7.3 m Cat 24 at 1,600 kg on outboards and 1,950 kg on the Yanmar inboard, the 7.5 m LX 750 at 1,723 kg outboard and 2,000 kg inboard, the 8.7 m Cat 28 at 2,404 kg, the 8.3 m Chase 27 at 2,720 kg, the 9.5 m Chase 31 at 3,200 kg inboard or 3,700 kg on twin outboards, and the 11.6 m Chase 38 at 4,630 kg. The spread across the catalogue is a factor of seven.

Two consequences follow. The first is that engine choice moves the number materially and not always in the same direction, so the weight has to be taken for the exact build and not for the model. The Yanmar inboard adds 277 kg to an LX 750, while on the Chase 31 it is the twin outboard installation that is heavier, at 3,700 kg against 3,200 kg. The second is margin. The Superyacht Tenders Register guide to launch and recovery, read in July 2026, advises adding 10 to 15 percent over published dry weight for fuel, gear and lifting tackle before comparing against a davit's certified safe working load, and puts typical capacities at 500 kg to 8,000 kg for side-mounted hydraulic davits, 1,500 kg to 12,000 kg for aft slewing cranes and 500 kg to 4,000 kg per arm for garage launch systems. A Chase 38 at 4,630 kg dry therefore needs better than 5,000 kg of certified lift, which is an aft crane on a yacht of roughly 50 m and up, not a garage arm.

What it costs, and how long it takes

Novurania publishes no prices and quotes every boat through the yard or a dealer, so the only public anchors are the brokerage market and the comparable builders. Boat Trader's Novurania Chase listings, read in July 2026, ran from USD 43,900 to USD 118,995 with an average of USD 85,000 across eight boats of model years 2007 to 2024. Those are mostly small and mostly used, and none of them is a new Chase 38, so the figure sets a floor and nothing more. For scale at the top of the range, a United Kingdom tender guide consulted in July 2026 put a 7.10 m Williams EvoJet 70 from roughly GBP 300,000, and Boat International put a 9.6 m Pascoe SL Limousine at about GBP 1 million excluding VAT in August 2015.

Lead time is the number that actually constrains a project. The Superyacht Tenders Register, read in July 2026, gives 14 to 30 months for a custom Novurania build and 6 to 14 weeks for a stock boat, and that gap is the whole planning decision. A tender replaced during a winter refit can be a stock hull ordered in November and aboard for the season. A tender matched to the mothership in upholstery, hardware and paint is ordered more than a year ahead, which on a new build means contracting it when the general arrangement is fixed rather than when the yacht reaches the paint shed. Engine choice remains the largest single variable in the quote, and a twin diesel inboard installation costs far more than a single outboard on the same hull.

Who fixes one in the Mediterranean in August

This is the weakest part of the proposition, and Novurania's own dealer directory says so. Read in July 2026 it lists thirteen points in the United States, one in Canada, one in Puerto Rico and one in Singapore, against exactly three around the Mediterranean: EYOS Tenders in the Balearics as dealer and service, Bodhi Nautic in Barcelona as service only, and Blues Yachting at Mugla in Turkey as dealer and service. There is no listed dealer in Italy, in France or in Greece, which is where most of these boats spend August. The Italian company that still carries the name, Novurania S.p.A., now sells technical fabrics, printing blankets and protective clothing materials, and lists no boats at all.

The practical consequence is that a structural, tube or hydraulic fault on the Cote d'Azur or in the Ionian is handled by a local composite or inflatable specialist working from Vero Beach's instructions, or the boat travels to Mallorca or Turkey. Engine faults are the easy case, because Yanmar and Volvo Penta reach every cruising ground and parts are ordinary inventory. Tube repair is a specialist job but a common trade in any large marina. What takes weeks is anything custom, because a matched upholstery panel or a shaped piece of hardware has to be made in Florida and shipped. A spares package agreed at handover is worth more on a Novurania than on a Williams, precisely because the network behind it is thinner in the water the boat lives in.

Against Williams, Pascoe and the custom yards

Williams Jet Tenders dominates the small jet tender market and is the default fit on many production yachts. Pascoe International builds bespoke limousine tenders for the largest yachts and competes at a different price level. Novurania sits between them, with a catalogue range that can be customised heavily and a size ladder that reaches from a 3.4 m dinghy to an 11.6 m chase boat.

Where Novurania wins is breadth and the in-house tube. One builder can supply the daily beach boat, the guest limousine and the beach-landing catamaran, all finished to match. Where it loses is on the jet-drive question. Owners who want a propeller-free tender for swimming areas will look at Williams or at a Castoldi-driven boat, and owners commissioning a fully bespoke limousine will look at Pascoe.

The warranty, and the two clauses that cost money

Novurania's published warranty, read in July 2026, is unusually strong at the structural end and unusually short at the end an owner actually touches. On 2017 and newer boats the fibreglass hull, deck, transom and interior rib stringer system are warranted for the lifetime of the boat, subject to normal recommended use and maintenance. Tube seams, inflation valves and the Hypalon and neoprene fabric carry five years, with the fabric written against cracking and porosity but explicitly not against discolouration, fading or chafing. Handles, seats, rails, cushions and oars carry 120 days.

Two clauses decide whether any of that is available. Warranty registration has to be completed within sixty days of the original purchase date, which on a tender delivered alongside a yacht is the sort of administrative step that falls between the yard, the broker and the crew, and it should be confirmed in writing at handover. The second is commercial use. A tender on a chartered yacht sits under the commercial terms, where the fibreglass cover drops from lifetime to five years. An owner who intends to charter should settle the tender's warranty position before delivery rather than after the first claim.

Who it is for: Owners who want the daily RIB, the guest limousine and the beach lander from one builder, finished to match the yacht.