Sunreef Yachts has demonstrated its own AI operating system, Vetra. It was presented on the Ultima 88 catamaran at the Cannes Yachting Festival, which took place from 8 to 13 September. The yard wrote the software itself, at its plant in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, over several years and alongside the build of the boat it first appeared on. Co-founder and CTO Nicolas Lapp told Marine Industry News why Sunreef did not buy one in: outside AI systems cost too much. "It wasn't feasible," he said.
That interview is the only published account of Vetra. Sunreef's own websites do not mention the name, and the Ultima 88 model page says nothing about AI.
What Vetra controls and what trained it
Vetra puts navigation, alerts, sensors, lighting, entertainment, security and servicing behind one interface, reachable from a screen on board, a tablet or a phone. Lapp says it was trained on "data from every Sunreef boat, plus the instruction manuals of all the equipment onboard". The yard watches its boats around the clock from its own control room.
Nicolas Lapp, co-founder and CTO, Sunreef Yachts:“That's the AI assistant of the captain... that can help him to follow up and to know what he needs to do, when he needs to do it.
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Lapp says the system is unfinished. "And it's not finished. We are non-stop adding layers." Marine Industry News reports nothing else technical: which model runs underneath, whether it works on board or through the cloud, what it costs, when it becomes standard.
Ultima 88 and the order book behind it
The Ultima 88, launched on 27 April 2026, does 26 knots flat out. More than 70 boats of the Ultima line are in build, and the order book runs to 2029.
Other yards writing their own onboard software
| Yard | System | What it does | Boats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rossinavi | Rossinavi AI | learns how the boat behaves, warns the crew before a consumption peak, holds the battery between 20 and 80 per cent | Seawolf X, 42.8 m, on the water since 2024; No Stress, 50 m, since 2023 |
| Next Yacht Group (AB Yachts, Maiora) | Next AI-Integrated System | runs on board with no internet: lighting, climate, entertainment, fuel and water data, alerts, service schedules | AB 110 at the Fort Lauderdale show, autumn 2025; whole range from 2026 |
| Feadship | PoleStar | sends sensor data to Feadship support in the Netherlands for predictive maintenance; the owner can switch the feed off | standard on every new boat, roughly since 2022 |
| Arksen | digital switching software, no public name | one screen for switching, engines, batteries, shore power, valves, pumps and tank levels | Arksen 85, roughly since 2022 |
| Silent Yachts | energy management, no public name | software that runs all solar energy harvest and storage systems; the yard says it is "designed, developed and engineered by our own in-house technicians" | the whole solar catamaran range, from the Silent 64 (2016) |
| Candela | Flight Controller | adjusts foil angle of attack about 100 times a second; the yard builds foil, drive and software | C-8 and the P-12 ferry, roughly since 2022 |
Two of those sit further from Vetra than the table suggests. PoleStar is remote monitoring: the data goes ashore to Feadship's support team, and the captain decides what leaves the boat. Candela's Flight Controller is a stability system, closer to an aircraft autopilot than to a captain's helper. Next Yacht Group built its system with the Italian company AI Technologies and the integrator YES Group; its claim to the first "local-first" AI assistant for luxury yachts is the group's own wording, which we could not verify.
Photo: Sunreef Yachts. Source: Marine Industry News; Sunreef Yachts.
