Aussie Company Adds Fishing Features and Style Aplenty

What's the best example of evolution in the Atlantic Ocean? To boaters in the know, it's not a fish, a marine mammal or any other form of sea life. It just might be the Riviera 58 Open Flybridge.

Traditionally, American boaters thought of the Australian-built Rivieras as cruising boats with cockpits. And that view was accurate. Rivieras have always been less-costly, plain-Jane alternatives to the high-dollar, U.S.-built convertibles, with their massive powerplants, glitzy interiors and myriad of fishing features.

But no more. Riviera's latest yacht-class boat, the 58 is designed and produced with a new attitude – one that competes head-to-head with top-end fishboats. Yet one traditional Riviera feature still holds true: They can still be a pretty good bargain. The Riviera 58 starts at about $1.5 million – far less than the $2 million you can expect to pay for most boats of this size.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

In the past, one of the ways Riviera undersold the competition was by using undersized powerplants. Sure, buyers gained fuel economy and savings, but the old Rivieras were slow when compared to other convertibles.

"Were" is the key word, as you can see by checking out the performance statistics on the Riviera 58. The boat comes standard with a pair of 1,015-horsepower MTU diesel inboards – pretty darn tough to call "undersized." The 58 I tested was equipped with the optional twin 1,550-horsepower V-12 Caterpillar C30 diesel inboards and, swinging 36" x 45" five-bladed nibral props, it streaked past 46 mph. Think about it: 66,000 pounds of fiberglass coasting across the wave tops at speeds that a decade ago would have been unimaginable for any boat of this nature. Test day was relatively calm with just a foot or two of chop, and at these speeds the Riviera flattened that chop as if it didn't exist. In tougher conditions, it is likely to handle waves without a problem.

Of course, that's running with all 3,100 iron ponies giving you everything they've got, which means you're burning 160 gallons per hour. Spend a day playing around like this, and your fuel bill won't exactly be chump change. Pull the throttles back to a reasonable 1800-rpm cruising speed, and you'll still be going 34.5 mph while your fuel burn drops by about half. Take it back to the 1500-rpm, 27-mph cruising speed with a 59-gallon-per-hour burn, and the boat gets half a mile per gallon – pretty good for a vessel of this size and nature.

You'll have fun while you're burning up that fuel, too. The helm station features a slick, electro-actuated, tilt-away electronics panel, and there's a large settee/dinette in front of it, so you can entertain the whole crew on the bridge as you cruise to the canyons. The port side of the bridge deck also has seating, including an aft-facing seat for anglers who want to watch the spread from an elevated position. There's also a wet bar with a refrigerator. However, I was disappointed that the helm and passenger's chairs were so close to the bridge-deck railing; if someone wants to access the passenger's chair, the captain has to move out of the way.

So, what happens when you (or your captain) oppose the big diesels? When I tried it, the 58 spun around like a boat half its size. What about putting the wheel hard over? It carved out a turn worthy of a sportboat. In a nutshell, the 58 is as fast, fuel-efficient, responsive, light-footed, and agile as you can hope for in a boat of this size.

GLITZ FACTOR

Riviera didn't just juice up the 58's performance, it ditched the plain-Jane interior. In fact, it glitzed the heck out of this boat.

Multi-coat varnished woodwork gleams so bright, you'll keep on the Ray Bans when you enter the cabin. A pop-up, flat-panel TV rises out of the cabinetry, additional flat-panels are mounted in the staterooms, and there are under-counter refrigerators and freezers with aircraft-style locking latches. A Bose Lifestyle Surround Sound system provides top-notch audio. The dinette table is exceptional, with sliding leaves built in so it can expand from a four-diner area to seat six. And the master stateroom has a dedicated rod locker, so your gold-plated fishing gear will be well protected when not in use. The feature in the cabin with the greatest ooh factor, however, is the rear window. It's a "hopper" window, which swings up to let in refreshing ocean breezes.

Riviera's interior also has many on-the-water smarts. For starters, it makes creative use of all available space. The aft stateroom, for example, uses the area under the cabin stairs – usually wasted space – to gain berth space. The Corian counters in the galley all have fiddles, to guard against spills and crashing items in a seaway. Look closely throughout the cabin, and you'll also notice positive-locking latches on hatches and cabinets.

Even the engine room is dressed up. It has an intercom to the bridge, so you and your crew won't have to yell back and forth. There is a pair of deck panels over the shafts, which permits easy access around the powerplants and helps the engine room maintain a clean, finished look. The panels are also removable, letting you access the dripless shaft seals, bonding wires, or any other part of the running gear that's hidden beneath. Maintenance chores will get a thumbs up, too, thanks to a fuel manifold that concentrates all of the filters and access points in one spot, centered in the boat.

One item that could use improvement, however, is the entry door. It doesn't secure in the open position, and if someone has to go down to the engine room while the boat's rolling around in a beam sea, you'll either have to lock them in or listen to a swinging door smacking around. The fix is as simple as adding a strap.

Construction is just as modern as design and outfitting. The hull is hand laid, as are most other new boats in this class. But note the molded hatches, which are made via resin-transfer molding (RTM). This process utilizes two molds and pulls out any extra resin, ensuring an optimal resin-to-glass ratio, which results in maximum strength with minimum weight. It also produces a part that's perfectly finished on both sides.

The 58 features other good examples of modern design that improve life onboard. Take the underwater exhaust system. It eliminates the smelly "station-wagon effect" and reduces sound levels throughout the boat. Then there's the standard hard-wired inverter, a nice addition – and a feature not always found, even on top-shelf sportfishing boats. It lets you run the refrigerators and entertainment center without firing up the 22.5-kW genset.

JETSET TO HOOKSET

What about fishing features? After all, in the past Riviera was known more as a cruiser than a fisher, right?

Banish the thought. Centered in the transom, there's a lighted, round livewell with a clear viewing port and an overflow valve instead of the cheaper standpipe arrangement. Two insulated in-deck fishboxes are big enough to handle a pair of 100-pounder bluefin tunas. The big, beefy hatches swing up on gas-assisted struts, which also means they close with a shush instead of a slam. The liners are plastic, though. It's perfectly functional but looks cheap, and some big-dollar buyers are likely to want fiberglass liners. There's a rigging station with four big tackle boxes over a sink on the starboard side of the cockpit. The port module houses a bait freezer, and there's a drink box under the step. A centered forward deck hatch provides access to a large bulk stowage area. Spreader lights are molded into the hardtop overhang; eight rocket launchers line the bridge-deck rail; and there's an overhead rod box that tilts down out of the saloon overhead.

If you're a chunker or a chummer, you'll anchor with regularity, and this is another endeavor in which the 58 Open Flybridge excels. Far too many modern fishboats have no bow rail, simply because the builders think their boats look sleeker without them. Excuse me, but I believe the lack of a rail is negligent – and Riviera seems to agree. Not only does a sturdy, welded stainless steel rail rim the bow, but curved handrails accent the side windows, so you have something firm to grab every step of the way from the cockpit to the pulpit. A molded and reinforced flat space is prepared, in case you want to add a davit and dinghy up front. And the anchor locker hatch is wide enough to fit two shoulders through, in case you have to unsnarl a tangle in the rode.

There will be no shortage of room for that rode, either, because this rope locker can hold a whopping 1,000 feet of line. An anchor windlass is standard, as is a washdown under the hatch, so you can rinse bottom mud and sand off the anchor and chain before bringing them back aboard.

Four gunwale-mounted rod holders come standard, and between these and the rocket launchers, once you've fitted the boat out with a pair of outriggers (these are not standard) you can run an eight- or 10-line spread from the cockpit. I didn't have the chance to fish during my test of the 58, but setting the throttles at trolling speed proved this boat produces nice, wide alleys of clean water and crisp wakes to plant your ballyhoo. Inwales have liners and swing-out stowage boxes, which are sized well for dunnage boxes or extra fishing gear – one more touch that'll grab your eye and remind you that the 58 is a new kind of Riviera. One that proves the theory of evolution can be applied to boats, too.

Lenny Rudow was senior technical editor for Boating magazine for more than 10 years, and is currently the electronics editor for Marlin and GoBoating magazines.

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