Maritimo teases ‘multiple’ new model launches in 2021
New product development focus hints at a busy year ahead for MaritimoMaritimo plans to launch a number of new models in 2021 as it embraces technology to not only engage customers with its motor yachts, but also to streamline its design process.
Maritimo’s activities will kick off next year with the Maritimo M55, first shown virtually in June as Australia almost shut down in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.
The flybridge Maritimo M55 is slated to make its real-word appearance at the 2021 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show on the Gold Coast in May.
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Joining it will be the Maritimo S55 sedan, a motor yacht teased in virtual form in November that introduces a significant shift in exterior design and aesthetics for the entire S-Series line of boats.
Speaking today at a wrap-up of the motor yacht maker’s year, Maritimo designer Tom Barry-Cotter said the Gold Coast-based luxury motor yacht maker would have a “new product development focus” in 2021 with “multiple” new model unveilings.
“We have some as early announced as early as March, and then some are also going to be at the [Sanctuary Cove] boat boat show and in May and then a number strung throughout the year.
“...We're on a recruitment drive in new product development and R&D (research and development). So the signs they're pointing to a big wave of new models being announced in 2021,” Barry-Cotter said.
Learning from pandemic
But rather than suffer from the effects of the global pandemic that swept through the world in early 2020, the new models that will roll out of Maritimo’s Coomera-based factory will be better for it.
Barry-Cotter said the Maritimo S55 was still in the design process when COVID-19 hit, which turned out to be a big positive for the boat.
He said Maritimo was able to use video conferencing technology to show the S55 to a wider range of potential customers early in the design process – including those in North America, Europe and even new Zealand – before signing off on how the final product would look.
“A lot of the features, a lot of the styling that you see in this boat is as a result of that,” Barry-Cotter said.
“The topic of of 2020 has been, you know, is how has COVID-19 affected everything, and that comes down to the new product development process and design process as well,” he said.
Virtual input
“So that lack of physical customer input has been replaced by a virtual input.
“That [using video to connect with people virtually] is becoming more of a cultural norm, so we can really turn the taps up on and broaden, you know, that the pool of input that we're pulling from so the geography [of a potential customer] no longer becomes a restraint.”
Maritimo has also been able to tap video conferencing to talk with suppliers about the S55’s componentry and engineering.
“It's just been incredible how that has changed over the year and just how the use of technology like this has made the design process, you wouldn't say easier, but it's just really added another element to it.”
Another of the big changes is the need for a big step-up in technology to allow Maritimo to render and animate its new products so that potential customers can do a virtual walkthrough of a boat rather than a physical one.
“This is all having a really great, positive effect on new models,” Barry-Cotter said.
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