2019 Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht review

That’s where the 2019 Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht swings into the spotlight. Alongside the Riviera 395 SUV launched last year, the flybridge yacht measures up as the smallest boat in the Gold Coast boat-maker’s portfolio. But that’s no bad thing.

We first saw the new Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht at the 2018 Sydney International Boat Show where it wowed show-goers and helped swell Riviera’s already healthy order book thanks to its airy, roomy open flybridge configuration. Its affordable price-tag didn’t hurt either…

Riviera, Australia's premier power motor yacht builder, has had a busy 12 months. Early in 2018 it introduced two new models at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show; its flagship flybridge 72 Sports Motor Yacht, and the single-level walkthrough 395 SUV.

The “sports” in the name refers to the sharp lines and big performance of these craft. The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht (SMY)’s highlight is a large open flybridge built over a big, wide saloon with twin stateroom accommodation. Aft, there’s a generous cockpit that’s equally as comfortable hosting a fishing party as it is entertaining guests.

The flybridge makes the 39 SMY feel much bigger than its compact form would suggest, and on a warm summer’s day it’s the place to be seen as you cruise out of the harbour.

Size doesn’t mean the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht misses out on any of the appointments of its bigger siblings. Owners get the same sleek styling and a spacious, versatile interior layout wrapped in a craft that looks as elegant as the rest of the range, and built to exactly the same standards.

The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht, the brand’s most affordable flybridge model, kicks off with a starting price of $930,300. This represents good value considering buyers get a turn-key boat with quality finishes that they can start using as soon as it’s handed over. Even fenders and docking lines are included.

Power comes via a pair of Volvo Penta IPS600 diesel engines, each producing 435hp/320kW and sending drive to forward-facing three-bladed counter-rotating props on pods.

As well as the full Volvo Penta/Garmin Glass Cockpit cockpit instrumentation, the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht comes with helm-mounted joystick controllers at both stations for tricky low-speed manoeuvring. Our test boat also was fitted with an optional third joystick in the cockpit. The Volvo Penta engines, drives and electronics are all covered by a five-year warranty.

Standard equipment includes an air-conditioned saloon (extended to the staterooms in our test boat), a five-speaker audio system with Bluetooth interface in the saloon, a separate two-speaker system with remote control for the flybridge, a single 32-inch TV, transom barbecue, and a two-door fridge in the galley.

The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht has a solid fibreglass hull below the waterline optimised for strength. Cored topsides, decks and superstructure save weight and reduce the centre of gravity. Vinyl-ester resin is used on the hull’s outer layer to strengthen it and prevent osmosis.

The boat’s bow has a watertight crash bulkhead to prevent flooding if it is holed, and lower bulkheads create separate compartments between the accommodation space and engine room.

The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht measures 13.3m overall and 12.1m at the waterline. At 4.3m wide it is beamy. Dry weight is around 12,990kg, but the motor yacht draws only 1.2m.

Similar to many other boats in Riviera’s line-up, the 39 SMY’s compact Volvo Penta IPS pod drives maximise the available accommodation space.

Similar to the Riviera 395 SUV, the hull’s bottom has a large, consistent planing hull forward and a moderate deadrise aft. From amidships forward, the vee angle steepens, culminating in an entry shape at the stem that is finely angled to slice easily through wind chop and ocean swell.

Electrically, the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht has an Onan EQD 5.6kW generator, a 2.5kW inverter (to run the entertainment system and an optional ice-maker), twin battery chargers, C-Zone AC/DC digital switching and onboard systems monitoring, LED lights, and dual powerpoints (some also fitted with dual USB recharging ports) to the staterooms, head, galley, saloon and engine room.

Access ports give access to the motor yacht’s wiring hidden away in the space between the inner skin and the hull. Individual wires are coded and numbered to help with troubleshooting should anything need replacing.

A feature of the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht is a cockpit floor that lifts up at the push of a button to expose the entire engine bay, making on-water maintenance simple. A hatch also located on the cockpit floor is large enough to drop down into the space between the 435hp Volvo Penta D6 IPS 600s for a quick once-over.

Everywhere you look there are quality finishes and fittings. The impression is immediate – exterior of the saloon, with its swing-up awning window, is framed in highly polished stainless steel. Step through to the saloon and you are instantly struck by a unique contrast – the US owner of the test boat passed over the standard satin oak finish and trim for high-gloss walnut throughout. This provided a dark, rich balance to the upholstery, floor trim and benchtops.

Upholstered surfaces and the twin-seat helm chair (which also gains contrasting panelling and stitching) are finished in dark grey trim for this new owner. The lower helm seats are trimmed in the same material, although with contrasting light panels and stitching.

To starboard, there is an L-shaped galley features a stainless steel sink with mixer tap, single-element electric cooktop, dual-drawer fridge/freezer, a rubbish bin and a microwave.

Above the galley mounted on a set of cabinets and snug against the bulkhead is a C-Zone control unit allowing owners to press a single virtual button to handle all the changing electrical needs of the boat.

Press “Cruising” and the electronics balance for the engines and helm stations; “Entertainment” will shut down the helm stations, adjust the lighting and fire up the saloon’s pop-up 32-inch TV and the Fusion audio system. “Dock” mode will switch off most of the electrical load to optimise battery recharging and bilge pumps.

The C-Zone really simplifies the process of handling these needs. Riviera can tweak the settings further to suit individual owners’ requirements.

Behind the galley’s flip-up overhead cabinets, and in the pull-out draws of the galley is a complete set of optional Riviera-monogrammed crockery and cutlery. The end of the L-shaped dinette, with its adjustable table, also hides a pop-out drawer containing optional Riviera-monogrammed glass tumblers and champagne flutes.

The optional dual-seat lower helm station, set to port, is built up to the windowline. To starboard, a two-seater lounge facing the helm station turns the area into a social space while on the move.

The 39 SMY helm’s high seating position provides a clear view out the two-panel windscreen, with deep side windows and the aft floor-to-ceiling glass bulkhead separating the saloon from the cockpit providing excellent all-around vision.

The skipper faces a broad console with an adjustable leather-wrapped wheel, two rows of clear and large switches located below controls for the audio system, a 5.0-inch C-Zone interface, a 7.0-inch digital information feed from the pair of powerful Volvos humming away quietly under the cockpit floor, and another small panel for the autopilot.

Directly in the skipper’s eyeline is a large 10-inch Garmin Glass Cockpit digital screen that can split up to show different functions, such as sat-nav, speed, soundings and more.

A matching screen sits in front of the crew’s section of the console. It also can split its functions, providing a secondary bank of information for the skipper. The soft-touch dash has a pair of recessed stainless steel cupholders and, like the helm, an air-conditioning vent.

A separate raised dashboard visor keeps glare away from the screens and analogue compass. Both the helm and crew seats have flip-up squabs to convert them into leaning posts when needed.

The open flybridge is accessed via a ladder on the starboard side of the cockpit. Once up there, it’s a big, open, airy entertainment space that will quickly become a social hub on a glorious day.

Once upstairs, you have the option of closing off the ladder to make the space safe for children. Look around, and the space is fully enclosed, carpeted and very child-friendly, down to netting infills that prevent any items falling through small gaps into the cockpit below.

The flybridge helm station is framed in a low, wrap-around tinted windscreen to deflect wind and is essentially a weather-hardened replica of the main helm (although with only one row of rocker switches, no air-con ducts and a bare stainless steel wheel). A stainless steel toe rail replaces the lower station’s footrest.

The only fault we can find with the arrangement is that the settings for the screens downstairs are not automatically replicated upstairs – you’ll have to set them manually. If you’re a set-and-forget kind of skipper this shouldn’t worry you, but the difference was highlighted as we climbed up from the lower helm station and had to adjust all the readouts upstairs to match.

Once anchored up, the seatback on the flybridge helm station’s dual-width bench seat lifts and flips forward to convert to a rear-facing lounge. Another two-seater lounge is to starboard, just like downstairs, as is an L-shaped daybed/lounge area. A full wet bar to port including a fridge and sink adds socially focused convenience.

The large bimini covering the entire flybridge can stow rearwards and out of the way, reducing air draft and turning the flybridge space into a sun deck.

The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht will allow up to five people to live aboard in comfort via two staterooms accessed via a stylish four-step stairwell descending from the saloon.

In the bow, the master stateroom is spacious and filled with natural light via a translucent overhead hatch fitted with a blind.

A queen-size island berth, with individual reading lights and cupboards built in at one end, blends into the bow, with elevated, carpeted walkway space to either side. The bed base lifts up to reveal a huge storage space beneath.

There’s a bulkhead-mounted television and to one side is a large wardrobe with hanging space and generous shelving. On the other, a door provides private access to the standing-headroom shower and a head.

As well as the electric-flush toilet and shower, the bathroom contains a vanity unit fitted with a bowl and mixer tap, and a low teak platform in the glass-doored shower. A second door opens into the companionway.

On the starboard side of the stairs, a short hallway leads to the second, lower-ceilinged stateroom. It contains three single berths, but comes with an in-fill to turn the two side-by-side bunks into a double bed. An overhead locker over the portside bunk is an ideal spot to stow fishing rods, there’s reading lights and drawers built under benchtops, and a 22-inch television is mounted against one bulkhead.

Portholes built into the second stateroom stretched port and starboard. These opening lights are linked to helm-based alarms that will sound if they’re left open when the ignition is switched on.

The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht’s teak-floored aft cockpit is a simple and clean open space as comfortable entertaining as it is casting a line or setting up for a dive.

Movement around it is easy, with a fixed two-seater settee/icebox set against the tinted glass cockpit bulkhead. It has a teak table that drops down to create a daybed once an extra cushion is inserted, and is shaded by an overhanging fixed awning.

Another optional lounge, fitted to this boat in place of a standard locker, folds out from the portside coamings. Other handy features include a handheld freshwater shower, LED lights and teak-lined steps leading up to the side decks and foredeck access.

The wide transom has a large barbecue and sink offset to port and opening up to face aft which is serviced via the swim platform, itself accessed via a starboard-transom door. The fascia of the barbecue also opens aft to reveal a large locker, used in this instance for fenders and lines.

The entire perimeter of the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht’s deck feels safe, with deep internal freeboard in the cockpit and a high stainless steel handrail running down raised bulwarks to the bow.

You’ll be wanting to access the bow area often, because it is home to a twin sunbed with adjustable backrests, complete with recessed drink holders.

To either side, a pair of low-mounted stainless steel handrails helps with accessing the anchor rode – that old rule about one hand for the boat in rough weather is well catered for...

The two Volvo Penta D6-IPS600 in-line six-cylinder turbodiesel engines provide the Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht with plenty of pep from very low revs. Response is eager to any input from the twin fly-by-wire controls.

The 600s deliver a comfortable plane at about 18kt. Pushing the throttle further forward generated instant response as the Volvos dug deep and delivered with barely any change in pitch.

The motor yacht will run out to a top speed of 33.6 knots (66.2km/h) at a moderate 3580rpm WOT.

Heading offshore from the Gold Coast for our test, we nosed into about a metre of gentle swell. In these conditions and opening up to a high 20s cruising speed, the 39 SMY was soft and supremely stable.

Sitting inside the comfortable, air-conditioned enclosed saloon, you’re completely protected from the elements and motions that would normally give you a sense of speed.

It’s the same when turning. The Riviera 39 Sports Motor Yacht uses a similar trim tab system to ski boats, which helps with stability into and out of turns. Tip it in at speed via the light fly-by-wire steering, and the littlest Riviera sits surprisingly flat throughout.

Fuel use is good given the potent drivetrain. A maximum theoretical range of 281nm is achieved while clipping along at a brisk 25.8kt with a 10 per cent reserve.

A big test for the motor yacht was coming back across the Gold Coast Seaway’s bar. Conditions were mild, but the bar was still tossing up steep, sharp waves. Settling in between the sets, the Riviera’s inherent stability and responsiveness to throttle inputs made the crossing easy.

Dockside, the Riviera 39 SMY’s relatively compact size and good all-around vision from the flybridge helm (although you may want to open the side window on the lower one to improve line of sight when docking) means gauging where the boat’s physical limits are is easy. However, we’d definitely recommend the optional cockpit-mounted joystick, as it gives skippers the clearest water-level view when backing into a berth.

Performance