In terms of exterior and interior styling, boat builders tend to be a conservative bunch, and there are an awful lot of white, look-alike motor yachts with cherry joinery and beige interiors. Boat buyers’ tastes seem to be broadening, however, and every now and then a project comes along that breaks the mold and defies our expectations. Nina J, Baglietto’s 42.2-meter aluminum flagship launched last June, is one such project.

Experience accumulated during decades spent building race boats and wartime MAS-type torpedo boats allowed Baglietto to react quickly to market demand for fast, light alloy motor yachts in the 30-meter-plus range. The results have been notable yachts such as Blue Ice, Thunderball and Tatiana per Sempre. It comes as no surprise, then, that the inspiration behind Nina J was her immediate predecessor, an iridescent 41-meter, launched in 2004.

"The owner of Nina J saw that boat while it was still under construction and desired the same concept adapted to his own personal needs," explains Tommaso Spadolini, the man responsible for the exterior styling and naval architecture of both yachts. "Although the wide-body concept is basically the same, the two projects are still distinctive. Despite her extra deck, Nina J is a more streamlined yacht that appears to sit lower in the water." Combined with her gunmetal gray paint job, flush black windows and crimson waterline stripe, Nina J’s profile reflects the designer’s predilection for clean, essential lines, a taste he inherited from his father, Pierluigi Spadolini, creator of the popular Akhir range by Cantieri di Pisa.

Like her predecessor, Nina J is fitted with waterjets and twin MTU 16V4000 engines. Compared to propellers, waterjets produce higher speeds for the same horsepower. But most significantly, at speeds over 20 knots waterjets produce 50 percent less vibration and noise. Nina J is fitted with powerful KaMeWa S-series jets with a mixed-flow pump for maximum efficiency, a combination that provides a top speed of 32.5 knots and a cruising speed of 28 knots.

Having covered more than 3,000 miles cruising the Mediterranean this summer, Nina J’s captain believes this performance can be improved. "The yacht is basically a prototype, so the summer cruise served as an extended sea trial, and we’ve identified a few issues to be reviewed," he notes. For example, the tender weighs 1.3 tons and is housed in the garage on the foredeck. This has shifted the boat’s trim forward and, consequently, the waterjets are nearer the surface. By adjusting her trim aft, he believes Nina J can gain a couple of extra knots of speed.

Nina J’s aggressive Tommaso Spadolini exterior. (Click image to enlarge)

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"Life on board should reflect the owner’s life on land," Porfiri says. "The functions are much the same, but the context is very different. For one thing, you have to take advantage of the panorama and natural light, which are constantly changing. My challenge as a designer is to capture this changing environment so you always feel in contact with the world outside."

Nina J is entered from the aft deck through a bar area with graphite black, ardesia stone flooring and blue LED lighting glinting off silver grating. Porfiri says this is a deliberate transitional area, an entrance into another world. This lobby opens onto a full-beam salon with windows that run the length of the main deck. An LED monitor recessed into the salon floor dapples the room with light and colors from a video loop of undersea images."Because boats don’t have walls like a house, the structure itself determines the space," says Porfiri. "But as a designer I can influence that structure, and I’ve used the open space concept to create separate areas without partitions." Hence, a central staircase leading below is flanked to one side by the dining table and to the other by a relaxation area incorporating casual objects from the owner’s home life, including an antique travel trunk. "The dining table is placed to one side so that everyone has an uninterrupted view," continues Porfiri, "and when you look around you see air, water and light.…It’s like having your own private island."

But the most unusual feature in the salon is a vertical garden of living plants with the odd orchid growing here and there. This exercise in hydroponics—where all the nutrients required by the plants are contained in the water supply—is a technique Porfiri perfected after first experimenting with it aboard the 41-meter Baglietto Blue Ice and then researching the topic with French botanist Patrick Blanc. As a concession to overseas customs regulations, the panels making up the garden wall can be dismantled and stowed. On each side of the garden, pairs of glass doors leading forward incorporate liquid crystal technology that allows them to be changed from opaque to transparent, providing sight lines that run the length of the main deck. Aware of the need to integrate living space with technical systems as unobtrusively as possible, Porfiri has housed the AC fan coils in the windowsills.

The nav station’s scarlet leather pilot seat, bottom, recalls the yacht’s red waterline stripe. (Click image to enlarge)

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The owner’s suite continues this play on light and texture. "The closeness of surfaces on board a yacht mean we pay more attention to the tactile quality of materials," muses Porfiri. So the linen, cashmere, fur and suede bed coverings call out to be touched, while the quantity of light entering the huge overhead skylight and side windows can be controlled by roll-up shades to provide diffused lighting or complete blackout. Here, as throughout the yacht, a flat-screen TV is housed behind a tinted glass panel so that, in Porfiri’s words, "I don’t have to choose Sony, Phillips or Panasonic on the basis of the television frame!" Two side doors open to reveal telescopic platforms that provide the owner with his own seaview balconies.

Extra-clear glass, which has lower iron content than standard glass, is used in the bathrooms throughout the yacht to further reduce the separation of space. "Why should the bathroom be closed off? Washing is a ritual and a pleasure and should be celebrated, not segregated," says Porfiri. The bathtub and washbasin in the owner’s bathroom are made of rare, 150-year-old Japanese hinoky wood that gives off a delicate perfume when in contact with warm water. The result is an aromatherapy session every time you turn on the taps. "It comes from a forest near Kyoto and is the most expensive wood in the world," says Porfiri. "There are just two small Japanese companies dealing in it, but I tracked them down because we tend to forget what nature can provide and that we should work with it." A final personal touch to the bathroom is a 1952 Verner Panton plywood chair, one of several collectors’ pieces aboard the yacht.

Although far from the standard image of a boat interior, Porfiri emphasized certain structural features of the yacht, such as the curvature of the hull, in the guest accommodations and bathrooms. "It’s important to maintain the connection with the boat’s function," she explains. "This is first and foremost a marine environment."

The two identical double guest cabins have Pullman bunks with ingenious foldout ladders. The wardrobes function as a series of compartments that Porfiri likens to a Louis Vuitton travel trunk. Another innovative design solution is the VIP cabin aft, which converts from a full-beam cabin with his-and-hers baths, into two ensuite double cabins by sliding a screen out of the wardrobe. Furniture by Jan Jacobsen and Marcel Breuer fill the owner’s study on the flying-bridge deck. The outside is pulled into the study by way of a skylight, and by tongue-and-groove sanded teak flooring that matches the exterior decking. Outside, a long, sanded teak dining table folds along its length, and the entire dining area can be covered by an electrically operated awning in the roll bar.

Porfiri’s attention to detail is renowned, and her interiors are built to a tolerance of millimeters. Nothing is left to chance. She roams during the build, lux meter in hand, checking light levels and temperatures. Aboard Nina J she has created a container, a neutral space where the interplay of natural and artificial light and verdant plant life blur the distinction between interior and exterior. It is a space without apparent partitions, where form changes to suit function and personal objects reflect the owner’s individuality. It is a space that defines a new kind of interior aesthetic for a new kind of client.