Tiny living is great, but tiny living on both land and water must be even better. When your travels are no longer conditioned by where you can and can't go, wanderlust becomes the only possible way of life.
Assuming you're not on a budget, one U.S.-based startup plans to offer a new type of live-aboard watercraft with an emphasis on seaworthiness, luxury, durability, and sustainability. Later this year, Reina Boats will introduce the first model in a planned series of Houseyachts called the Reina Live 44RD.
That one is the longest and most luxurious variant of Houseyacht. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Reina Mini, a tiny house that floats but which, despite its compact size, still offers luxury finishes and features. The Reina Mini brings the best of a catamaran, a small dayboat, a tiny house, and off-grid living into a very compact, chic, and homey package ideal for a pair of adventurers looking to live on the road. At least on paper, it does.
As we reported earlier this week, Reina Boats came to be when founders Hayri Dayi and Emin Gunal realized there was a spike in demand for livable watercraft of the luxurious kind. This demand, they said, wasn't met by a new product, so customers had to settle for a regular "outdated" houseboat or an expensive yacht, or they could just choose not to upgrade and stick with their yacht.
Photo: Reina Boats
Dayi and Gunal created the concept of Houseyacht to bring together the best features of a power catamaran, a luxury yacht, and premium real estate. A Houseyach is both house and yacht, seaworthy, fancy, smart, and durable.
The Reina Mini is still all these things but scaled down to size. It still features twin hulls, so its design is directly inspired by that of catamarans, which brings a bigger interior volume, smoother operation, and increased stability in rough waters. The hull is made of marine-grade aluminum for maximum durability with exposure to the elements, while power is provided by a new-gen Mercury outboard, the kind that boasts reduced noised levels and enhanced efficiency.
The Mini will move at top speeds of 10 to 11.5 knots (11.5-13.2 mph/18.5-21.3 kph) on water and on land at whatever speed your towing vehicle sets. It's not jaw-dropping fast, but for the obvious reasons: this is a home, and it'll probably spend more time anchored than cruising.
Photo: Reina Boats
Larger models from the Reina Boats lineup are perfectly capable of cruising out at sea, but this one isn't and is designed only for use on lakes, canals, and rivers. However, its size renders it viable for transport on a trailer, which means you could use it as a traditional tiny home and live on the road in it. Let's see any other boat do that.
The Mini is 24 feet (7.3 meters) in length with a beam of 8.2 feet (2.5 meters). The total living footprint is of just 120 square feet (11 square meters), with sleeping arrangements for two people.
The Mini has a maximum passenger capacity of six and offers basic creature comforts like a kitchenette, a full but pint-sized bathroom, a dining area, and a living room that converts into bedroom at night. You also get storage and a small beach club aft. Then again, if you know anything about tiny living, you know that it can be – and has been – done with much less.
What the Mini offers, and most regular, trailer-based tiny homes can't, is an upper deck with multiple functionality. For example, the hardtop deck can become an outdoor terrace and lounge area, coming to add to the compact beach club with an integrated swim platform. Or it can be covered in solar cells so that the entire Mini runs hotel functions off sustainable energy, further reducing its carbon footprint.
Photo: Reina Boats
The Mini will also be a smart home with a smart glass sliding door, smart blinds, and smart lighting. Every feature you can adjust in your home will be adjustable and controllable at the touch of a button, and that, again, is not something you see in your run-of-the-mill tiny. The list of features is completed by a Simrad Navigation System and furniture from Turkish company Lazzoni.
For the time being, the Mini exists in the digital realm only, and we should consider it from this perspective. It's probably not a priority with the startup, either, since the study is still in the early stages and comes with no price estimate.
Reina Boats plans to build all the models in the Houseyacht lineup in Turkey and to bring the first unit (which isn't the Mini, to be clear) to the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in October for its big public debut. We'll be able to form then a more informed opinion on this new type of live-aboard watercraft, including the Mini presented above.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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