Riviera 5800 SY

Australia’s iconic luxury-cruiser builder Riviera teamed up with a pro-active dealer and a dedicated owner to create a very special 5800 Sport Yacht with almost as many firsts as an elite athlete. These include the first pair Volvo Penta IPS 950 pod drives, an Interceptor auto trim system, Joystick driving (look mum, no hands), Garmin/Volvo Penta Glass Cockpit System, custom accommodation layout with special aft en suite, and two pages of more great mods in a $2.3 million semi-custom sport yacht.

This fact, teamed with the eagerness of surviving dealers, and the experience of long-time owners, has led to some very special ‘production’ cruiser launches in this new age of Australian boat building. Looking resplendent with a Mercedes Tenorite Grey hull paint job, the latest Riviera 5800 Sport Yacht (SY), hull number 33, epitomises the new semi-custom production breed.

Arriving in Sydney for summer, this 5800 SY is an owner/dealer collaboration rather than a take-it-or-leave-it factory rolled boat. While the two-pack painted Mercedes livery isn’t a first -- it helps streamline the visual appearance of this high-volume sport yacht -- it is a suggestion of what’s to come.

Thanks to a bunch of firsts -- the latest Volvo Penta IPS 950 engines, IPS 2 pod drives, Joystick driving not just docking, Interceptor auto-trim, engine monitoring and nav systems from a Glass Cockpit System -- this 5800 SY was a revelation. In fact, with all the latest Volvo Penta kit, the boat was about as pioneering as production boats might ever come.

First released and <a title="Riviera 5800 SY" href="/reviews/2009/riviera-5800-sport-yacht-17059" target="_blank">tested by us</a> in 2009, the 5800 SY had clocked 33 builds according to the plate attached to this latest iteration. Mike Joyce, dealer principal at R Marine Rushcutter’s Bay in Sydney, is quick to point out no two 5800s are the same and that the last five (including this one) that he has sold into Sydney “have all been tailor made.”

In June 2012, we returned for a test of the <a title="Riviera 5800 SY with triple Cummins QSC 600s and Zeus" drives href="/reviews/2012/sports-cruiser/riviera/5800-sport-yacht/riviera-5800-sport-yacht-30906" target="_blank">the 5800 SY with triple Cummins QSC 600s and Zeus drives</a>. However, the arrival of larger Volvo Penta IPS 2 pod drives has resulted in twin-engine installations now being the way forward for the 5800 SY.

This resulting 5800 SY included those reworked D11 engines with cutting-edge Volvo Penta IPS 2 pod drives, but also the revolutionary Joystick Steering at speed (not just docking), a groundbreaking Interceptor auto trim system, and navigation displays with hitherto new levels of integration. All of which takes pleasure cruising to the next albeit automated level.

All of this gear, factory options and a list of “custom options” that ran to two pages resulted in a boat that cost about $2.3 million compared with the base price of $1.958 million for a 5800 SY. Among the clever custom options was a storage and laundry space aft off the stateroom, with a door into the engine room for easy owner checks. Where the washer/dryer is usually fitted in the ‘foyer,’ at the foot of the companionway steps from the saloon, the owner added a full-height fridge and pantry instead. The fitout really did reflect the intended use of this boat around the mighty Hawkesbury River system for cruising and social boating above all else.

None of these was quite as convincing as the new moulding behind the owners’ bedhead that created a whole new en suite. The standard bathroom space was turned into a walk-in wardrobe. Triple opening and alarmed portholes in the stateroom improve ventilation and there was a bigger TV than usual for the owners.

The bedside tables are loose fit models so you can get to the doors either side of the stateroom bed, that is, the one to port leading into the en suite and the other to the laundry and engine room. And with custom fabrics and upholstery throughout, this was a smart and snappy 5800 SY.

Back up top, the dash was reworked to include an extended armrest to facilitate ease of operation of the Joystick Driving device. Dual joysticks in the cockpit assist docking shorthanded, while the cockpit amenities centre was reshaped to accommodate an icemaker and bigger fridge.

The aft-facing dinette in the cockpit lets the owners enjoy the views out yonder, while the backlit name plate, custom 4400 SY ‘superyacht-type’ targa for all the comms and aerials, painted silver radar dome, and “R” emblem on some handrails created a very complete boat.

A high-volume entertainer, the 5800 SY has a lot of above-water living and entertaining space. Factory-rolled goodies include the aft galley and large internal dinette with great views out of the deep saloon glass. The electric sunroof has been fine tuned and trimmed of weight for better operation. Below decks, the three/four cabin and two-bathroom layout will sleep up to eight in absolute comfort. You can read about the design ethos and accommodation is greater detail above, in the active links to our previous 5800 SY tests.

With an upgraded fuel-injection system and new turbo, and a new induction system to assist further noise reduction, the IPS 950 replaces the IPS 900 based on the same Volvo D11 engine. Data aside, this was certainly a nippy, quiet and enjoyable boat to helm, even on the less-than-pleasant blustery day encountered for our test.

The big difference between the IPS 900s and 950s, besides 25 more horsepower per side, is the engine RPM increase to achieve the extra power, jumping from 2350rpm to 2500rpm WOT, and meeting the tough new Tier 3 emission regulations in Europe in the process. The transmission has been modified to meet the needs of bigger props, while a de-rated version has been released for commercial and charterboat applications.

Engineering elsewhere is best described as proven Riviera. There is a fully resin-infused hull in keeping with the latter models, while the deck and hardtop are handlaid-moulded fibreglass with foam core. There is a watertight collision bulkhead forward, independent compartments throughout the hull, solid GRP keel and chines. Considering more and more boats are resin-infused these days, the construction can be considered modern but not left field.

For the many Australians who are intimate with their existing Rivieras, things get interesting when you examine the onboard systems. The boat had the latest C-Zone digital switching, AC and DC CAN-bus technology, that allows you to control the circuits from a touch-screen control panel at the helm and the electrical board. There are pre-sets so, for example, night mode brings on the lights, party mode adds music from the Bose, cruise calls on the nav screens, and so on. Full systems monitoring and tank levels are displayed on the 3.5in colour control screens.

Among the other new technologies are interior light dimming, timer controls, automated circuit control, wiper speed control and wash function. Batteries are the no-maintenance AGM types, with 24V house power and you can get a whopping great optional 5000W inverter for running the AV systems, icemaker and more sans generator. The lighting is all LED.

Engine-room access is through a hatch in the teak-topped cockpit or via the stateroom and its adjoining laundry/utility room. Either way, there was plenty of room to perform perfunctory pre-passage checks, check the integrated sea strainers and Racor fuel filters, the Onan, air-con units, the hot-water service, fuel manifold and more.

The joystick, so popular for docking and low-speed manoeuvring, has hit new heights on this 5800 SY in the form of Joystick Driving. Hooked up to the autopilot, the joystick operates in much the same way as that on a helicopter….

Release your grip and the boat travels straight on its autopilot heading. Move the joystick either side and it follows that direction until you release your grip and it centres with the boat on its new course. Use the throttle for speed.

We drove around Sydney Harbour like this and Joystick Driving did add a new dimension to boat’s modus operandi. Still, you get a wheel, and there’s nothing wrong with using it and/or autopilot knob/buttons, we reckon.

The dash sported the first so-called Glass Cockpit System in the country. This is a collaboration between the Swedish engine maker and Garmin, using flush-mounted electronic navigation hardware screens from Garmin hooked up to Volvo’s software. The result is complete navigation operation, fuel burn and range to go, the availability of preset boating modes, and integrated control and engine monitoring at the one go-to helm centre.

Once programmed, with just a few presses of a button, you can light-up the dash with everything you need for coastal cruising, night cruising, entertaining, or swinging on the anchor. And with the joystick and auto Interceptor trim, the driving experience is rather revolutionary. Perhaps handsfree docking, akin to the system used to park cars, will be the next thing with boats? We wouldn’t put it past Volvo, given its investment in R&D.

As for numbers, the supplied sea trial data says you will get 0.11 nautical mile (nm) per litre anywhere from 1800rpm and 14.4 knots rough-water plane through 2200rpm and 22.3 knots cruise to 2300rpm and 25.4 knots fast cruise. The latter revs use 228 litres per hour for the longest planing range of 266nm from 90 per cent of the 2650-litre supply.

The boat’s 750 litres of water means you can stay out for a week as a couple without watermaker. But, by and large, we consider the 5800 SY to be a boat to sit back and enjoy your favourite backyard waterways rather than cruise long distances at sea. It’s a big floating holiday home with vast living spaces and, now, hitherto new levels of user friendliness.

That said, the boat was delivered from Queensland to Sydney mostly averaging 28-29 knots for around 260 litres per hour and a 269nm safe range. Then a southerly hit and the average speed was pushed back to 20 knots, we’re told, as the crew punched the weather and had the wipers running in the enclosed climate-controlled saloon.

The word on the Interceptors was all good and we found they glued the bow down without pushing too much spray in 1.5m seas between Sydney Heads. The delivery skipper said the interactive trim tabs have squared the boat up, adding it’s like having “a stabiliser at sea.” All the while, vision is good, the helm seat very comfortable, resulting in a refined drive during our test.

Clearly, boat builders like Riviera -- and pro-active boat dealers with lots of industry experience -- are prepared to go the extra distance to meet the needs of brand-loyal owners these days. But it is the owner and dealer input that created something beyond that which could be achieved at factory level alone.

As if to prove as much, this was the owners sixth Riviera since 1991 but, in another telling trend, his first non-flybridge sport yacht. As Freeman Thomas, an American automobile and industrial designer who has worked for Porsche, Volkswagen Group, DaimlerChrysler and Ford, once said: “Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.” That’s 5800 SY #33.

Priced from: $1.958 million
LOA: 19.20m
Beam: 5.38m
Draft: 1.28m (max)
Weight: Around 21,500kg dry
Sleeping: 6+ 2
Fuel Capacity: 2650 litres
Water Capacity: 750 litres (std)
Holding tanks: 272 litres
Engines: Twin IPS950 setup using Volvo Penta D11 turbo-charged, fully electronic, six-cylinder common-rail diesel engines with IPS 2 pod drives