2019 Maritimo M59 review

One of the great things about driving a big boat is that you can do that, thanks to the invention of the flybridge.

Normally, however, a flybridge is a sunny-day option because it’s out in the open, or wrapped in clears at best, and when the weather turns ugly, or cold, you’ll quickly retreat downstairs and put up with the reduced visibility for the sake of your circulation.

Part of the genuine genius of the marvellous Maritimo M59 is that it has fixed this part-time problem by enclosing the flybridge, meaning you can always drive from there, giving you excellent vision, particularly out in the open ocean, which frees up more space downstairs by removing the need for dual controls.

Even more ingeniously, the design of the M59 actually somehow manages to make a boat with a flybridge look sleek, sporty and attractive, rather than top-heavy.

That isn’t where the Maritimo magic stops, either, because this luxury long-range motor yacht also brings the company’s proud off-shore racing heritage to bear on both its hull design and, even more tellingly, its steering, which is fantastic.

The Maritimo M59 received significant upgrades in the lead-up to the 2019 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, including panoramic hull side windows that inject more light to the interior, styling tweaks and a new dashboard.

We took the M59 for a soaring, salt-flecked joyride up the coast from Darling Harbour to Pittwater to find out just how it copes with its stated mission of effortless off-shore cruising.

The starting price, before you begin to bespoke your Maritimo M59, is a not-insignificant $2,345,500, while the boat we tested came in at $2,598,343 with a few options, such as the hydraulic swim platform, which you really wouldn’t want to do without.

That price does get you a hell of a lot of boat, however, and that fantastic enclosed flybridge that you can enjoy with either air conditioning on hot days or heating on the cold ones, that latter of which we really appreciate on a wintery test day.

There’s plenty of space out front for day beds, although some customers have them cantilevered off the rear aft balcony. Our test boat featured a davit out front for the owner’s tender. Another advantage of always being able to drive from up top is that you can put your tender out front without it ever disturbing sightlines.

There’s also a full-sized sunroof above you upstairs, fantastically comfortable seats, a sports-car style steering wheel, a triple-screen dashboard (ours was fitted with 18-inch units, but you can go up to 24 inches), and plush couches downstairs.

You can even choose the level of comfort you want from the cushions because all the upholstery is done in-house.

The galley also has almost walk-in pantry levels of storage because, as Maritimo designer Tom Barry-Cotter points out: “Our boats are long-range. People go out and spend weeks at a time on our vessels, so the galley can’t be just this piddly thing that’s really just for mixing drinks.

"It has to be functional, with plenty of space, so we’re really known for our galleys.”

There’s even a dishwasher (all appliances are Miele) tucked away in the handy galley island bench.

Seen from the shore, the M59 really is a fine looking thing for such a big boat. All too often, big boats with flybridges look as top-heavy as an oversized gelato serving on a tiny cone, as if they’re going to topple over.

But enclosing the upstairs section, which is reached by an internal staircase, so you never need to cop spray at all, allows the design of this Maritimo to look more complete, and attractive.

For Barry-Cotter, the goal of his design was getting the proportions right.

“One thing we go for is a real sense of form in everything we do, that sense of proportion, making it look like a performance product,” he explains.

That feeling of sporty performance permeates everything Maritimo does, according to Barry-Cotter, thanks to its history as an off-shore powerboat racing brand.

“They’ve always worked hand-in-hand, the production company and the racing side and there are definitely performance genetics in everything we do; there’s a competitive culture in the company itself of wanting to be the best,” he insists.

Sportiness might imply a hard edge, but there’s plenty that’s plush and luxurious about the M59 once you start to explore. It’s more a case of clever design and use of space.

With an overall length of 59.3 feet and a 17.11-foot beam, space downstairs is capacious and only improved by the fact that there’s no need for a second driving position (there is a second set of controls on the rear deck to make berthing easier).

One immediately noticeable difference is that the galley on the M59 is front and centre at the rear of the boat as you step in from the large rear deck, which means that, much as it is in a house, it’s at the centre of all the activity rather than being tucked away downstairs as galleys often are.

“A lot of our owners are owner-operators, even on boats this size, so they don’t have skippers, they don’t have crew, and if they’re preparing food they don’t want to be stuck downstairs, they want to be up here, being part of the action,” Barry-Cotter explains.

“That’s why we were one of the first to move to an aft gallery, with an island bench, so it’s at the centre of the entertaining area.”

From there you walk into a large saloon with two couches facing one another - a four seater and a six-seater - and providing excellent views all around. The space feels light and bright, which was only helped by the smoked-walnut finishes on our boat.

One truly clever touch here are ottomans that fold out to become coffee tables. Truly, they should sell the design of these to Ikea.

From that fabulous and homely entertaining area, you head downstairs to the generous living quarters.

On our right is the first guest stateroom, available with either two single beds or a double, then a shared day head, also on your right, before you enter what would normally be the main stateroom in the prow. In the M59, this is another, very generous guest room.

Turn to port and you head down into a truly vast main stateroom with its own ensuite, featuring a full-sized shower. There’s a desk/vanity area here - with pop-out make-up mirror - that looks down over the full-beam room, with the bed (which lifts up to reveal clever storage underneath) diagonally off-set for maximum space.

Windows above your head and opposite your feet allow maximum light if you want it, or you can shut the blinds and enjoy the TV opposite. There’s even room down there for another comfy two-seat couch.

At the top of the M59 is the skipper’s station, supremely comfortable and with room for a copilot, that opens up at the rear to an aft deck that’s perfect for fishing.

Standing in the flybridge, you are surrounded by a large glasshouse and look out through what seems like a cinema-sized windscreen at all that boat stretching out in front of you.

It’s one thing to equip your boat with a small, sporty steering wheel that looks like it’s been borrowed from a Lotus, or an offshore racing boat. It’s quite another to come up with a system that makes the feedback and feel through that wheel quite unlike other boats of this size.

The fact is, big boats often feel a bit like city buses to steer, with armfuls of lock required to turn them, but the Maritimo approach is very different - direct, weighty and sporty, just like a floating Ferrari

“Boat steering can be very lazy, with lots of turns just to alter course, whereas through our racing technology we developed a hydraulic steering system that increases the sensitivity of the steering; we were wanting to go around turns without having handfuls of the wheel, we wanted to have a lot more sensitive touch in the race boats,” Barry-Cotter explains.

“So we implemented that into our production range, it’s an iteration of that racing design that’s now in all Maritimos, so they really handle like a sports car in terms of how you drive them.”

You also need plenty of power to make your boat feel sporty, and predictably the Maritimo M59 is not light on in this area, with two 800 horsepower Volvo D13s connected to an old-school straight-shaft design, which the company claims offers both better fuel economy and top-speed performance.

Flat out, the M59 will best 30 knots, but we sat comfortably on around 25 all day with the boat feeling effortlessly grunty no matter what we asked of it.

Even in a big swell it rode beautifully thanks, in part, to the variable deadrise hull that Maritimo uses.

“The deadrise at the front cuts through anything the ocean might throw at it, and the fine entry then flattens out as it goes to the rear,” Barry-Cotter says.

“It’s soft riding and built to go offshore and eat up rough conditions, but it’s also very efficient when running up on the plane.

“It’s built on the same principle as our race boats; the more lift you can generate, the better performance you get.”

There’s a lot to love about the M59, and Maritimo’s approach generally, in particular its hydraulic steering system, which just makes this boat so much more involving, direct and exciting to skipper.

The practicality, and undeniable attractiveness, of the enclosed flybridge, and the extra space it frees up for the living area downstairs, are also huge advantages.

The M59 really does marry a sense of clever thinking and design, which all spring from the brand’s off-shore racing background, with a neat sense of style and luxury

If you’ve got the desire, the time and the money to regularly head out into the open ocean for multi-day adventures, the M59 could be a perfect partner.

Priced from: $2,345,500

Price as tested: $2,598,343 including swim platform