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She’s a three-cabin boat, with the owner’s suite amidships, a VIP double in the bow, a small twin-bunk cabin aft of the galley, and a day head and shower across to starboard. The layout works quite well. Thanks to the small third cabin, the saloon feels especially spacious, with seven-foot headroom, while to port the long galley is unusually well provided with stowage and worktop space.
Down in the owner’s suite, the 76"x63" double berth lies athwartships between two mirrored bulkheads fore and aft—the mirrors make the most of the light streaming in through the ports and offer the illusion of infinity. There are a small fold-down dressing table, two hanging lockers, and a head that occupies the whole starboard side, with plenty of open floor space and a large separate shower. Up in the bow, meanwhile, the double berth is set well forward and high up the hull sides, and although headroom is reduced to 6'4" at this point, there’s standing room across the full five-foot width of the berth as well as a useful volume of practical stowage in the large hanging locker and the big drawer at the foot of the bed.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
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While the overall quality of the finish was good, Riva did not help its case by presenting a new boat to the press before it had time to do a predelivery inspection. Even knowing that the minor imperfections would be fixed, I was left brooding on the challenge that the yard faces: If you’re building a boat using the same techniques and hardware as everybody else, it takes extra effort to make it special.
One area where the Vertigo definitely lives up to the Riva name is in the quality of her design—and on deck she displays her true party piece. Not the entertaining driver’s seat or the electric cockpit awning or the hatch over the helm, although they’re all pretty cool. It’s the cockpit seating. With the table aft you’d expect to fill in with stools or extra chairs, blocking access fore and aft. But the starboard sofa slides across on tracks, which creates an unusually comfortable dinette and an unobstructed walkway to starboard. It’s so simple and so effective that you wonder why you haven’t seen it before.
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Alan Harper |
Riva's base at La Spezia is part of a Ferretti Group service center. |
Engine access is straight down through a hatch in the cockpit sole, which opens to reveal a tightly packed machinery space. The MAN V-12s are matched with down-angle, V-drive gearboxes that sit level and have reasonable access all around. But with the tender well obtruding from the stern, the genset to the starboard quarter, and the crew cabin bulkheads to port, there’s not much service space. You may need to hire small mechanics.
Testing a Riva presents more philosophical problems than practical ones. Here is a modern sport yacht that looks great outside, works well inside, and goes like a bat out of hell—but is the old magic still there? The market is more competitive than ever, and standards have never been higher. Even within the Ferretti Group, there are boats to rival the Vertigo that offer higher performance and sharper handling plus build quality and detailing at least as good.
That just leaves the Vertigo’s clever cockpit and the layout, which are great, and her styling, which is terrific. She’s a tour de force: sleek, aggressive, confident, and new. Is she magical enough? Well, she’ll do for me.
For more information on Riva, including contact information, click here.
SPOTLIGHT ON: It's in the Details
Apart from the terrific sliding cockpit sofa, there are plenty of other great design features on the Vertigo. Take the centrally mounted helm seat, pictured here: At first it looks like there is just room for one, but then the side flaps come up electrically, the seat backs swing out, et voila, it seats two more people.
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Alan Harper |
The cockpit awning is another neat piece of engineering. Made from lightweight, mildew-proofed fabric, it emerges effortlessly on a sturdy steel frame from the superstructure to dramatically increase the amount of shade in the cockpit. Two heavy-duty, adjustable struts clip into place for added security, and Riva says the structure can safely be left extended at sea.
Finally, while ventilation is unlikely to be an issue for most, a small electrically controlled hatch above the helm station is a thoughtful feature that is bound to come in handy on sunny days.—A.H.
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This article originally appeared in the May 2007
issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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