2020 Miami International Boat Show: All the good stuff

Taking pride of place was the Riviera 505 SUV, an all-new Australian designed and built luxury motor cruiser with the potential to become the Queensland-based brand's biggest seller.

Most of the new activity was in luxury offshore fishing boats – something for which the US market appears to have an almost instatiable appetite.

Here are our picks of the show, including an all-electric tow sports boat that swaps hydrocarbons for electrons with minimal compromise.

Queensland-based luxury motor yacht maker Riviera has used the 2020 Miami International Boat Show to reveal the Riviera 505 SUV to the world.

The new single-level alfresco entertainer is the newest addition to Riviera’s growing SUV model line-up. It features a number of new elements for Riviera, including a new through-bow anchor design that leaves clean lines on the deck above.

Designed as a blue-water cruiser, the Riviera 505 SUV joined a seven-boat display at Miami that also included the Riviera 545 and 575 SUVs, Riviera 4800 Series II and 6000 Platinum Edition Sport Yachts, Riviera 39 Open Flybridge and the Belize 66 Daybridge.

Cigarette Racing is known for its long, sleek, stupendously powered Miami Vice powerboats made for getting places at somewhere approaching warp speed.

It used the 2020 Miami International Boat Show to introduce a new era for the brand – carbon-fibre T-topped centre consoles.

One, called the Nighthawk, is a new centre console model that sports up to four 450hp Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines strapped across the back to push the 12.5-metre slimline hull through the water.

The Cigarette Racing Nighthawk centre console will seat three people in comfort, while a bowrider-style lounge up front is a new addition to the range. Down the rear is another lounge area featuring an oversized L-shaped sofa.

The ever-so-slightly-larger Aurorus also features walkaround decks and a forward lounge, but includes an anchor integrated into the bow and a much larger fuel capacity – 1800 litres compared with the Nighthawk’s 1320 litres.

Cigarette Racing also unveiled the 18-metre, 2700hp Tirranna AMG Edition, which has used the Mercedes-AMG G63 as its muse.

Billed as a “hyperlux console”, it’s the undisputed flagship of the new centre console line-up, featuring six 450hp Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines and an almost 3800L fuel tank capacity.

You can step that down to just five 400hp Mercury Racing 400R outboard engines delivering an adequate 2000hp.

US fibreglass boat brand Bayliner has relaunched its fishing-focused Trophy series with four new models optimised for towing behind the average family car and featuring either an 18-degree vee or “M” hulls.

The entry-level 6.2-metre Bayliner T20CC and larger 6.9-metre TC22 centre consoles feature a broad bow that creates a large casting deck when not used as a lounge, and an aft space featuring flip-down seatbacks that create even more useable standing space.

The T20CC is rated to 175hp and up to seven passengers, while the T22CC is rated to 300hp and eight passengers.

The more conventionally shaped Bayliner T18 Bay and Bayliner T21 Bay use a “M-Hull” tri-hull design to improve stability at rest and up on a plane.

Both also feature centre consoles. The Bayliner T18 Bay is rated to 115hp and up to six passengers, while the Bayliner T21 Bay is rated to 150hp and a jaw-dropping 10 passengers.

Regulator is a US fibreglass boat brand that builds what it labels as “luxury sports fishers”. The 7.4-metre Regulator 24XO is the newest member of the growing XO-branded family that sells itself on the promise of adventure and versatility.

Billed as an offshore boat, the 17-degree deadrise Regulator 24XO features a dual-width centre console, heaps of deck space, forward and aft casting decks, a live well, and underfloor kill box.

Power options on offer in the US range from a 150hp Yamaha F250 outboard engine up to a Yamaha F300 featuring electronic power steering.

The all-new NauticStar 191 Hybrid is the smallest of the growing Hybrid range but features a very different hull underneath it.

Stretching only 5.8 metres, but featuring a 2.5-metre beam, the fishing-focused fibreglass NauticStar 191 Hybrid is optimised for rough weather handling with a sharp 39-degree deadrise at the bow, falling back to an almost punt-like 14.5 degrees at the transom.

US customers can choose from either a Yamaha F90 outboard engine, or at the top end a Yamaha VF115 SHO performance outboard engine.

The 980kg hull is rated for up to seven passengers.

Fresh from its takeover by Catalina Yachts, the reborn True North used Miami to unveil its plumb-bowed 34 Outboard Express saloon cruiser.

Featuring trawler-style lines, a large cockpit space and twin 250hp outboard engines, the 10.6-metre True North 34 Outboard Express is a single-level design with a focus on the galley.

Despite its luxury bent, True North boasts the 34 Outboard Express is as good in smooth water as it is in the rough stuff.

The Pursuit Boats S 378 is the newest addition to the fibreglass Sport model line-up, featuring a unique entertainment centre that emerges from the cockpit at the press of a button. When space is needed for fishing, it conveniently stows out of the way.

The Pursuit Boats S 378 is the second-largest of the Sport line-up and uses a triple rig of Yamaha V8 XTO Offshore outboard engines – the most powerful mainstream outboard engine on sale – to power it.

This long-range cruiser was teased at last year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in a number of configurations including open, hardtop and a fishing layout including a tower.

The Volvo Penta D13 diesel-powered game boat makes use of an all-new marine transmission from German gearbox specialist ZF that includes a number of user-features including joystick controls and automatic station-holding functions.

The Mag Bay 42 Express Sportfish’s hull features larger prop tunnels, and has ditched a keel in favour of better handling. Its sea-keeping is enhanced with a steeper deadrise and larger chines.

Invincible Boats has teased it will soon start chasing sales in Australia for its high-end offshore monohull and catamaran boat range.

Billed as the ultimate offshore fisher, the flagship centre console catamaran will feature performance of up to quad-Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines strapped to the stepped, variable deadrise hull.

Few other details are available, but the new power cat will offer almost 3800 litres of fuel, and … wait for it ... more than 5000 litres of fish box capacity. That’s a lot of fish.

Electricity has come to tow sports via the 2020 Super Air Nautique GS22E, a boat that swaps out hydrocarbons in the engine bay for electrons.

Nautique boasts that the Super Air Nautique GS22E’s battery pack will allow for “two to three” hours of normal watersports before needing a recharge. Depending on how you recharge the boat, it can be back out having fun in as short as a 90-minute turnaround.

It says the battery pack is designed for thousands of cycles, “which equates ot many years of primary use”.

Mastercraft’s more luxurious dayboat sub-brand Aviara used the 2020 Miami International Boat Show to release the third model in its line-up, the Aviara AV40.

Incorporating fold-down cockpit “terraces” with barstool-style seating that increase the living space, the Aviara AV40 includes a cabin below that sleeps up to four people

The Aviara AV40 will be available with either a sterndrive or outboard engine option.

Taiwanese sailboat brand Hylas Yachts used the 2020 Miami International Boat Show to reveal the luxury-laden Hylas H60 cruising yacht.

The tall-rigged shorthanded sailer designed to be operated by a couple features clean, uncluttered decks and an integrated bow platform for the self-launching anchor.

Inside, the Italian-design living spaces include either a three- or four-cabin layout, the latter of which splits the aft full-beam master cabin into two separate cabins.

When the wind isn’t blowing, the Hylas H60 uses a 150hp Volvo Penta D3 saildrive to keep things moving along.

Cobia Boats boasts that its fibreglass centre consoles rate as the best-selling models in the US. It’s why the brand has added the Cobia 330 Dual Console right in the sweet spot of its centre console line-up.

The Cobia 330 Dual Console becomes the largest dual console model in the brand’s showroom. It uses a specially designed hull that accounts for the weight of the console to eliminate bow steer, a steep bow and a 21-degree deadrise.

Down the rear, the Cobia 330 Dual console packs twin Yamaha V8 XTO Offshore outboard engines.