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Riviera's new 50 Enclosed Flybridge
Exclusive tour and walk-through processAfter 32 years and 5000 boats, Riviera is breaking new ground with its 50 Enclosed Flybridge. Currently in build, and due for release at the Riviera Festival in late May next year, the all-new 50 will feature an interior fine-tuned off the back of customer feedback and a virtual tour.
Rather than build a rough mock-up from craft wood as has been done before, or create a new model based on just CAD design, the Coomera-based boat builder is creating a full-sized mock up to solicit customer feedback.
The idea is to stage virtual tours with key customers to experience what the finished boat might look like before Riviera collects the feedback, filters it, tweaks things and eventually builds what is says will the perfect 50 footer.
This is different from how Rivieras are usually made, that is, from the outside in. Usually, the hull is moulded then the interior is created inside. With its 50, the hull moulds are being built in Taiwan but the interior is being created here with considerable expert input.
Head of New Product Development, Paul Wrench (pictured right) will eventually dismantle the interior for use on a future 50-footer.
"When we make this mock up we are going to make it so good that it becomes a fitout for a boat," he told Boatpoint and Boatsales during our exclusive behind-the-scenes factory tour last week.
Head of Brand and Marketing, Stephen Milne (left) says that by the time Sydney International Boat Show comes around the boat will be faultless. And it’s a size that loads of existing Riviera owners would like to step up to.
"We will get consensus, harness the feedback and information from Riviera boat owners, those who have had multiple models, and make this their ideal new boat," Milne explained.
"It’s about polishing the diamond. We truly think this is the boat. We think we will build hundreds of these [50 footers]," he adds. "Look at the 43, we’re up to 41 boats (released mid-2010)."
But the new 50 will be vastly different for the very reason it’s the first all-new boat following Rodney Longhurst’s acquisition of Riviera in March and the subsequent exit from receivership.
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Knowing that, and the fact Longhurst doesn’t cut corners -- he is described as a perfectionist -- has made the boat-building team strive for even greater things. Milne says Riviera is about being the best and the new 50 "has to make a statement to the market that this is us".
"We’ve never done anything to this level of perfection. We’re all about building and designing the best possible boat and Rodney is driven by that," Milne explains.
Riviera CEO Wes Moxey and owner Longhurst will get the first look of the full-sized mock up before select Riviera owners are shown the model.
The finishes -- all new for Riviera -- will have been chosen in cahoots with Italian-born interior boat designer Georgia Drudi.
"The 50 will have the best space utilisation of any of our boats," Wrench adds. "In the past, we make the hull and then add stuff. Here will get it right in the beginning and then build our boat."
Riviera owners are talking more and more about living on their boats for weeks at a time, we’re told. To this end, the 50 is a nice-sized owner/driver boat that will be eminently liveable.
Powered by twin Cummins QSC Zeus 600 pod drives, or alternatively twin Volvo Penta IPS 900s, Riviera’s new 50 Enclosed Flybridge is expected to top 32 knots and cruise between 25 and 28 knots for a range of 400 nautical miles.
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Written byDavid Lockwood
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