Studio Segno's 46.7m Maai Swaps Its Beach Club for a Dining Room

What is Maai?

Maai is a 46.7m motor yacht concept from the Italian studio Studio Segno, published in early October 2026, for ten guests in five staterooms. No builder, owner or price is attached.

BOAT International credits Giovanni Paszkowski with the exterior and Cagla Enginer with the interior, and MegaYacht News names the two as the studio's founders. The yacht measures 153 feet 2 inches, or 46.7m, on a 9m beam and a 2.4m draft, and two MAN engines of 1,650 hp each drive her. Robb Report covered the same concept as a 154-foot design that blends Italian and Japanese ideas, which matches the other two outlets.

Everything here is a design. MegaYacht News says naval architecture was built in from the concept phase, but no naval architect is named, and the images are studio renderings. That doesn't make it a weak story for an owner. Concepts from studios are the nearest thing the market has to a written brief, and Maai is unusually specific about how its spaces should feel. It also joins a crowd: since 24 September this site has covered five other concepts shown without a builder, from Feadship's Hive and Sinot's Fusion to VPLP's Tyrena, Abbasli Design's Mava and Astra Nord's Ciappaira. The test an owner should apply to all of them is the same. Does the layout answer a real use, and is there a yard that has built something of this size before?

What does the name Maai mean for how the yacht is arranged?

The studio takes the name from the Japanese idea of ma-ai, the meaningful interval between people and spaces, and arranges the yacht from private areas forward to social areas aft.

BOAT International and MegaYacht News both describe the layout as a progression, with quiet spaces at the bow and the busiest rooms at the stern. The studio says the idea reflects the constantly changing relationship between people, which is why the plan favours flexibility between intimate and communal moments. It's a layout principle an owner can test against their own habits: how much of a day aboard is private, and how much is hosting?

The owners' accommodation takes a dedicated deck with full-height glazing, a private forward terrace for watching the sunrise and a sheltered aft lounge for a couple's retreat, according to MegaYacht News. BOAT International adds that the owner's cabin sits at the bow with a private jacuzzi and that a dedicated wellness area occupies the upper deck. The main deck has a sunken lounge and a sculptural staircase, so the vertical circulation is part of the design statement, too.

Why does Maai have a dining room where the beach club would be?

Maai puts its main social space at the stern at water level as a dining room whose opening platforms and fold-down transom balconies on three sides turn it into an indoor-outdoor room, in place of a conventional beach club.

MegaYacht News describes the lower dining area as the signature element: with the platforms open the room takes in daytime swimming and long lunches, and in the evening it turns to drinks and music. BOAT International says the dining area serves as the social hub instead of a traditional beach club. The idea is that the table becomes the place where the yacht meets the sea, instead of a lounge that sits beside the water.

It's a real trade. A beach club normally gathers the water platform, the lounge and often a spa in one place, and the toy and tender storage sits close by. Neither source says where Maai keeps its tenders and toys or how guests get from the water to the dining room wet, and a client would need those answers early. Dining at a long table with the sea on three sides is a strong image. Whether it works for a family with a full set of water toys is a question for the first drawings.

What Japanese design cues does Maai use?

Maai borrows from Japanese pavilion architecture in its rising layered decks, from the katana in the lines of the upper structure and from Japanese rooms in a sunken saloon lined with cherry oak and washi paper.

MegaYacht News says the sunken main-deck lounge uses cherry oak and washi paper, which filters the natural light while the sea views stay open. Washi is the translucent handmade paper used in traditional Japanese sliding screens, so it softens daylight without closing the room off from the water. BOAT International describes layered decks inspired by Japanese pavilions and a katana-inspired upper structure. The renderings show dark timber lattice screens, low upholstered seating and long glazed openings, and a bedroom where a wall of glass looks straight out to sea.

The mix is deliberate and, in the renderings at least, restrained. Studio Segno is an Italian studio, and the Italian side shows in the sculptural staircase and the furniture, while the Japanese side shows in the screens, the low planes and the way rooms open to the outside. For an owner who likes a calmer, warmer interior than the white-and-glass default, it offers a coherent alternative with a genuine reference behind it.

What are Maai's specifications and what is still missing?

Maai is 46.7m long with a 9m beam and a 2.4m draft, powered by two 1,650 hp MAN engines for a 15.5-knot top speed and a 10-knot cruise, with a quoted range of 3,000 nm at 10 knots.

BOAT International gives the engines, the 15.5-knot maximum and the 10-knot cruise, and MegaYacht News gives the dimensions and the range. Three thousand nm at 10 knots is 300 hours at sea, about 12.5 days, which is a long-range figure on paper. The top speed is modest for a yacht of this length, a sign that the brief is about comfort and arrangement and not about pace. Set it beside two other yachts we covered this week: Maai quotes 3,300 hp for 15.5 knots, while Van der Valk's 47.83m Zen gets 17.5 knots from about 2,860 hp and Rossinavi's 53m Heed 18.5 knots from about 3,200 hp. Maai has the most power and the lowest top speed of the three, which may point to more weight or volume to push, although no displacement figure has been published.

What isn't published matters as much. There's no gross tonnage, no tank capacity, no crew count, no builder and no price, and the naval architect isn't named. An owner who liked the concept would next need a yard willing to build a custom 47m, a class and flag decision and a cost estimate, none of which a rendering can supply. Treat Maai as a well-argued brief and ask the studio for the weight and stability data before anyone calls it a design.