Feeling Sporty?

Today’s nimble sport cruisers stress efficiency & openness

The interesting trend in sport cruisers is that when the fall shows begin there will be fewer new models clamoring for attention. Reflecting their customer base, these high-powered youth-market yachts were hard hit by the world-wide financial bust. While builders used to have the luxury of creating new boats just to market against competitors—often with little more thought than a potluck supper—the boats wearing 2011 badges are for the most part new thinking.
To deal with fuel consumption, the boats are lighter than before and most are going with pod drives for two reasons. First, whether it’s Volvo’s IPS or the Zeus drives powered by Cummins Mercruiser or Cat, pod drives are approximately 30 percent more fuel efficient. This creates a boat that runs farther on the same tankage or requires less brawn to achieve the same speed. The second reason is the tremendous savings in space, which allows the consumer to get the same living area below deck but with a shorter LOA. Less dock expense and easier handling creates another win that along with ongoing fuel savings soon pays for the current price differential.
In many cases, the new models are considerably smaller than each line’s flagship and represent an attempt to attract a new, often younger, customer that would be priced out of its primary range.
For example, Australian builder Maritimo, which makes cruisers up to 60 feet in a line it calls Sports Cabriolet, debuted its first IPS-powered yacht at the end of July as the smallest boat in its fleet, a 47. Here’s a first: It features positive buoyancy chambers in the engine room.

In addition to the 5800 featured on page 32, Riviera recently debuted a 50-footer in the style of its smaller sport yachts, but this one is powered by twin Zeus drives. It replaces the previous 4700 with shaft drive, is available with two or three staterooms, features an aft galley and fixed dining area on deck, plus conceals a tender garage.
Sea Ray’s new 450 Sundancer, its smallest model with an enclosed bridge, is updated with aggressive design cues and a large, retractable sunroof. Mercruiser Axius propulsion is standard, bringing pod drive convenience to a stern-drive boat. With the 470 Sundancer, either Zeus or Axius drives are available and two independently retractable sunroofs are in play.
Italian builder Sessa is offering a completely retooled version of its C35—a model that sold 500 units. Now it’s getting IPS and a totally new lower deck with one or two staterooms, more attention to the heads, and an optional designer galley created in partnership with well-known Italian kitchen specialist BOFFI. Another new Sessa offering is the 54 Sport Coupe, Unlike Marquis, which starts with a sport coupe model and ads a flybridge, Sessa is deconstructing its 54 Flybridge to make a three-cabin sport cruiser with a short upper deck and galley down.
Regal boats debuted the smallest of its sport coupe line last February but then took the boat back to the Orlando factory for revisions. Now, at 42 feet, it will make a debut tour of Florida this month. It has an interior design trend that I predict will pop up everywhere and that’s the ability to create the appearance of a full beam master by opening the mirrored, lavatory portion of the head to the stateroom and tucking a separate shower/toilet compartment in the corner. This feature creates more useable floorspace.
Viking Yachts will be showing a number of new sport cruisers this fall and the business news is that they are no longer going to be called Viking, but will carry the name of the actual builder, Princess. Viking’s long affilitation with Princess has brought a lot of usefulness to the products, including more refrigeration, storage and larger heads.
The Viking/Princess yachts are less open on main deck than fellow British builder Fairline and more cruiser than day boat. New V52 and V62s, both Cat-powered with V-drives, will show at Ft. Lauderdale following the recent arrival of a V58. Each of these new models is built using resin infusion technology to reducing excess weight and increase performance.