2014 Riviera 445 SUV

What would prompt us to pursue such a tangent and create a new kind of boat like the SUV?

Well, right away, this is not just us at Riviera sitting around blue-skying these notions.

As you may be well aware, we go to great lengths to constantly talk with owners around the world (over 50 percent of our boats are shipped internationally) about the way they use their vessels or might like to.

It just relentlessly improves the breed.

And there seems to be, in recent times, a sizeable group of owners who really warm to such a crossover craft.

This has inevitably led us to create what is probably a world first, with the Riviera SUV.

In many ways, its really your idea.

The new 445 SUV is in all respects a true embodiment of Riviera heritage.

By this we mean that all the familiar and reassuring aspects of classic Riviera boatbuilding are there: the purposeful lines, the hefty scantlings, the solid feel in a seaway, the spatial sense, the layout, the sumptuous decor. As well as a full no-nonsense Flybridge-scale cockpit.

All our learning is on show here again.

The SUVs confident offshore poise comes, to a large degree, from Rivieras leading-edge CAD technology and legendary build quality that combine superstrong hand layups with solid GRP bottom and structural core material on the hull flanks, main deck and hardtop, as well as precisely fitted lightweight resin transfer moldings, pre-fitted for a perfect seal when all major components are bonded together.

A great deal of our acumen regarding hull shape has contributed to, for example, aft chine strakes that have a straight run, to enhance both speed and manoeuvrability, as well as a moderate Vee shape going forward, to a precise 14.5-degree deadrise at the transom to stay beautifully composed in a choppy quarter sea without diminishing top end performance.

The extensive Flybridge and Sport Yacht Collections really had a big influence on the choice of IPS pod-drive propulsion as the must-have standard propulsion for the new SUV; confirmed over our now four-year experience and close collaboration with Volvo engineers on seven different Sport Yacht, Flybridge and Offshore Express models and hundreds of production craft.

The systems twin engines and forward facing, counter-rotating props not only offers exhilerating performance, but precise micromanagement of handling in confined spaces. A skipper either solo or with a novice crew can, just using a joystick, direct the twin pod units so as to place the boat easily and exactly where its wanted.