1000+ ISLANDS
The Story Behind the Maldivia 45
Some vessels are designed at a drawing board. The Maldivian 45 was born from a conversation — and shaped by years of accumulated experience, local knowledge, and an uncompromising pursuit of what a passenger ferry in the Maldives should really be.
The Beginning
In 2022, Tom Rebollini of Jalboot UAE and Hans Genthe of Aeomar sat down together with a single question: what does the optimal fuel-saving motorboat actually look like? It was the beginning of a collaboration that would take three years to reach the water — and the answer, when it came, exceeded everything the question had imagined.
Through 2023 and 2024, the concept evolved continuously. Early designs and feasibility studies gave shape to the ideas. Then came the knowledge that only comes from decades of living and working on the water: RJ Reddy of Jalboot Maldives, Ahmar Mohamed of Domus Rubri and Suleyman Gediz of Maldivian Blue brought generations of local Maldivian operational insight into the project — the routes, the conditions, the economics, the expectations of passengers.
The Moment Everything Accelerated
In August 2025, the team convened in the Maldives at the Kurumba Resort for a multi-day workshop — studying the market, testing competitor vessels, and mapping the gap between what was available and what operators genuinely needed. That workshop was the turning point. The planning of the Maldivian 45 began in earnest, the pace quickened, and a vessel that had been a vision became a programme.
By early 2026, the moulds were complete and the first hull entered production. As of April 2026, the Maldivian 45 is being built.
Inspiring place to create a plan.
The Market
The Maldives is unlike any other ferry market on earth. Thousands of islands and atolls, separated by open ocean, served by vessels running between 2,000 and 4,000 hours per year. At that intensity of operation, fuel consumption is not merely a sustainability consideration — it is the single largest driver of cost and competitiveness for every operator in the country.
The Maldivia 45 was designed around that reality. The radical weight saving achieved through full carbon prepreg construction creates a hull light enough to support electric drive systems with range and efficiency that conventional fibreglass or aluminium vessels cannot approach. Compared to a similar competitor vessel running petrol outboards at equivalent cruising speed, the lifetime cost saving exceeds 800,000 USD — a figure that transforms the investment case for operators and reframes what sustainability means in commercial terms.
Thousands of islands need supply by boats.
The Partnership
Maldivia Shipyard is a joint venture that brings together two essential pillars. Jalboot Maldives is an award-winning passenger transport operator with deep roots in Maldivian inter-island connectivity and thousands of hours of real-world operational experience. Domus Rubri is a Maldivian consulting company representing generations of local knowledge — the kind of understanding of islands, atolls, tides, and communities that cannot be engineered from the outside.
The vessel itself was designed by Hans Genthe/AEOMAR, drawing directly on principles from offshore sailing racing technology — applying the weight-saving, hydrodynamic, and aerodynamic thinking of ocean competition to the practical demands of daily passenger transport. The result is a hull unlike anything previously offered in this market.
The Maldivia 45 is the first in a planned series of ferries across multiple lengths — a platform strategy, not a single product.
Premium local experience and knowledge.
Production & The Road Ahead
Production has commenced at a purpose-built facility in China, optimised specifically for the manufacture of super-light carbon prepreg hulls — with industrial curing ovens, gantry cranes spanning the full production area, and a workflow engineered to reach four vessels per month. It is a facility built not just for today's demand, but for the growth that is coming.
The long-term vision reaches further. A detailed plan for a dedicated Maldivia production facility is complete, and land has already been reserved. In the years ahead, a major part of production — and the skilled workforce it creates — will transfer to the Maldives itself. The vessel built for the Maldives will, in time, be built in the Maldives.
First Production contract is signed in China.
The Maldivia 45 is more than a ferry.
It is the beginning of a story that improves water transport.