Maritimo a winner at Melbourne Cup

With the best wet-track form and the most horsepower at the 2017 Melbourne Cup, luxury-boat builder Maritimo reckons it backed a winner with the display of its S59 sedan motoryacht in the Maison Mumm Champagne marquee.

The Gold Coast luxury boatbuilder says the boat provided the backdrop for untold photographs that led to plenty of brand coverage. It also attracted plenty of VIPs including the Federal Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop; world championship sprinter Usain Bolt; and swimming legend Ian Thorpe.

Maritimo CEO Garth Corbitt said it was the most spectacular display ever staged in the private marquee area of the race carnival they call The Birdcage.

"We have had literally hundreds of people view the yacht and have their photographs taken on it or beside it."

Maritimo spent hundreds of man-hours getting the S59 from Sydney to the racecourse at Flemington, where a 250-ton crane was used to lower the 28-tonne boat into position. The Mumm marquee was then built around it.

Corbitt said the international exposure the yacht received will help support Maritimo's global brand expansion strategy.

"This is by far the most unusual promotion we have been involved with and it sends a clear message that with Maritimo anything is possible… we think outside the square," he said.

"We are a proud Australia company taking on the world's best, so it was fitting that we were part of one of the most exciting sporting events in the world and a race that is so quintessentially Australian."

While it remains to be seen if any of the PR translates to sales, Maritimo appears to have backed a winner with the publicity stunt after it took a punt and trucked its latest model to the Flemington race track.

Maritimo revealed the wide-beam S59 variant of its M59 at the 2017 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in May. You can read more about the boat in this
S59 launch article.