Maritimo continues to press forward with its pre-production refinements of the latest additions to its glamorous line-up of luxury, ocean-going vessels. The new M50 Flybridge Motor Yacht and S50 Sedan Motor Yacht embody everything that is truly Maritimo in a package whereby every square centimetre of the vessels has been reviewed and considered, leading to enhancements that will be enjoyed by future owners.
The many thousands of hours invested in planning, customer consultation, computer-aided design, and engineering development is starting to take form, with the hull currently in engineering and major hull, deck, and flybridge components a matter of weeks away. As the first hull starts to take its three-dimensional form in all its full-scale glory, now is the time in the process where design and engineering decisions made on screen are critically reviewed and further honed.
Neil McCabe, Maritimo’s Design Office Manager, along with Senior Designer Julian Villegas, have lived and breathed this development process over these last 24 months or so. A recent discussion with the Maritimo Design Team provides us with insights into the process and what will be delivered to the market when these magnificent vessels are launched globally in 2025.
“Yes, you need to really experience it in full scale when designing and refining. You need to move through the vessel to feel those choke points and feel what works, as well. And it’s a different perspective to when we’re looking at the design on a computer screen, compared to being inside the space,” Villegas added.
“The master cabin is quite symmetrical, with the hanger lockers at the forward end. The size of the cabin itself is bigger than what you’d experience on a 55, 60, or 600. The hull windows are also longer than what you’d see on a 55 because they’re the full length of the cabin and just short of the hanger locker. You’ve also got forward and out-opening windows on both sides of the hull windows. We have cabinetry on the starboard side as standard. And on the port side, we have a day lounge, and then you’ve got your big ensuite there.”
“At the entrance into the master cabin, you’ve got additional storage and the stack washer-dryer. If a buyer wants just a ‘combo,’ then they get additional storage above that, and then under the staircase. As you approach the cabin door, you’ve got a big storage area there too. The space is voluminous, light, airy, and well ventilated, and there’s great headroom throughout.”
“When we compare our layout to others in this 50-foot range, the master, the en-suite, and the VIP cabin are all going to be really generous, in comparison to our competitors. So, a customer can walk on our boat and go, wow, how big is this? And then go into another competitor’s master cabin and realise well, this is a bit tight.”
“We want to deliver everything we can to the owner and to the occasional guests that they have. Sure, we know that there’ll be occasions where our customers will require additional sleeping facilities on the boat, but this will be met by the pull-out system in the saloon and also up on the bridge. We’re doing that as standard on the M, and it’s a far much improved slide-out system as well,” said McCabe.
“The window lines of the saloon have also dropped down slightly. We’ve kept the overall feature of the big windows, and we’ve pushed everything down to give it as low a profile as possible. It’s continually evolving, and you know, we’ve actually had a bit of flexibility, but those features of having a flush cockpit floor into the galley, the two sliding doors open, the connection between the exterior and interior areas— all that has just been evolving throughout this process.”
“Customers will really notice it on the final boat. They’ll notice subtle refinements across the whole vessel from the styling of the air vents on the sides of the coach house to the cockpit lockers— the details that we’ve incorporated in the cockpit are again an evolution from previous models and it’s an improvement in many ways. We still have the heritage and the features that you’d see on previous Maritimos, but it’s all the subtle attention to detail and the styling that we’ve done on this boat, where customers will see and appreciate that point of difference,” added Villegas.
“The rear platform is currently in the prototyping stage now. We have the flexibility of doing it all in-house with Maritimo’s investment in our stainless-steel laser cutting technology. It has offered more efficiencies in-house to develop the articulated system, which will hinge up vertically on the transom when not in use, and will reduce the boat length by around 750mm. It will also give some additional protection by further enclosing the cockpit when travelling,” said McCabe.
“We’ve made a decision not to put huge horsepower into this boat, and we’re confident that the Volvo Penta D13-800s will perform for the vast majority of our customers. What we’re building is a great boat with everything on the boat that customers want, so that they don’t have to start ticking boxes and going from a standard boat up to, you know, what should be a bigger boat in effect. By removing the wing tanks and having one central tank down low, we’ve created more space in the engine room and a lower centre of gravity for comfort and stability. Fuel capacity will be 3700l, and we know this will deliver great long-range capabilities.”
“This package really continues to refine what Maritimo is all about. Reliability and dependability, comfort, ride and handling, luxurious living, and true ocean-going credentials,” said McCabe in closing.
*Keep an eye out for the full review in the July/August issue of Pacific PowerBoat Magazine.
