Riva – 50 Metre Race

SY65-Spring-2020

The latest model from Riva with all of its 50 metres is also the fleet’s flagship. It inherited from the Caravelle and the Atlantic range of models from the iconic sixties and seventies, but this one blends and brings together contemporary design with elements recalling the yard’s tradition as well.

“Race”, is the name the owner chose. This jewel is the latest from the Riva boat yard which was founded by Carlo Riva. Today’s 50 metre is built in steel and aluminium at Riva’s Superyachts Division in Ancona which the yard’s in house engineering team drew up with input from Ferretti Group and Officina Italiana Design which has an exclusive design contract applicable to all Riva yachts.
The owner contributed during the initial phases and requested custom built decor to the interior layout according to his personal tastes and chose free standing furniture for the exteriors.
The exterior design work by Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta offers timeless classic styling so as to avoid falling for what is currently labelled as trendy one moment, and is gone the very next. Long lasting traits instead like the aquamarine used for the waterline, embellishing steel elements applied to some of the structural parts with mahogany strips lining the bulwarks and the toe and grab rails.

Original video by the shipyard

Liberal use of this precious essence is also found below decks where this wood’s dark colour prevails over other components in polished steel, leather and some of the furniture’s diverse grey hues as well as several other details such as precious carpets that are deployed to protect Apuan white marble flooring. The same stone essentially but of the statuarietto variety, enriches coffee table tops and lines bathroom walls with darker streaks which highlight the contrast with the furniture’s mahogany lining and lacquered grey finishes.
This styling is repeated along each of this 50 metres Riva yacht’s five decks which sports something just below 500 GRT in spite of the numerous liveable areas the owner and his guests can enjoy. The passage ways installed enhance an already enviable sense of privacy where separate corridors for crew and guests are the norm.

Stepping on board from the stern into a large cockpit with Nomex®, free standing furniture which is light in terms of weight and is practically insensitive to heat and cold and highly durable through time. It is generally used at best in the aerospace industry. A large shoe basket, an icemaker and a pop-up 55” television set complete the picture. The interiors, engine room or beach area can be accessed from here as well. The beach area comprises two platforms one on port side the other on starboard side resulting in a larger surface area engendering greater contact with the surrounding waters normally accessed by using the sets of carbon steps on each side, which can be also deployed to launch and recover a Williams Dieseljet 625 tender. Crossing the threshold leading into the interiors, visiting guests are confronted with an ample bright open space featuring large window like ports where there’s plenty of room for a living area equipped with a leather sofa seating up to eight, a television cabinet, and a dining area with a cut glass table and a seating capacity of up to ten adjacent to a pair of lateral doors opening out towards the exteriors. Enormous cut glass sliding doors seem to effectively reduce the dividing line between the surroundings and the numerous mirrored surface areas creating en ever growing play of bounding light which seems to increase the volume of the interiors further.

The bow area along the main deck reserved for the owner’s quarters covers a surface area of 70 square metres. The layout comprises three separate spots; a foyer with private study, a lounge with media room and the master cabin with bathroom en suite. Special care has been taken to dampen noise levels in the master cabin. At cruising speeds noise levels are never more than 40 Decibel.All of the four guest cabins, three of which are doubles and one is a twin, are situated along the lower deck as the crew quarters are. Obviously access to each is separate from the other. The crew’s quarters are inclusive of dinette, galley, cold cellar and storage facility. The captain’s cabin is situated adjacent to the helm controls station along the main deck which also hosts a covered living area, with sofa, armchairs, wine cellar and thanks to a dumb waiter this area can double as a place in which to enjoy evening drinks and exquisite dishes in the exterior dining area featuring a corian table for 14 and a pair of electric windscreens on each side.

Astern of this but separated by a 180° swivel and pop up television there’s a furnished area featuring custom built sofas and armchairs. To enjoy even greater privacy when tied up in a port, the bow lounge can be deployed instead. Beneath this there’s a hangar in which to stow a rescue craft and several water toys.
The sundeck covers an area of 120 square metres, 90 of these are shaded by a hardtop. A sun bathing spot, a pool with an incorporated hydro massage, a dining zone with BBQ and a rotating pop up television set complete the picture. Every interior and exterior section sports Lutron domotic technology through which you can also exploit diversely lit scenarios accordingly. With a pair of 1,000KW MTU 8V4000M63 engines, Riva “Race” can reach a top speed of 15.5 knots and at 11.0 knots it can cover 3,500 nautical miles without having to refuel.

The technologies on the Riva Race

As a highly sophisticated yacht, Riva “Race” comes with the latest innovation in technologies, custom developed by two Italians highly specialized companies: Videoworks and Team Italia.

Videoworks (www.videoworksgroup.com) has designed the AV, IT, TV/Sat, CCTV, IP telephony and home automation system. The AV-IT system was designed according to the philosophy of a distributed system – every cabin/hall has a local rack containing the AV electronics. The audio system in the internal and external premium areas has the James Loudspeaker marine speakers. IP telephony is based on a Panasonic switchboard with fixed and cordless terminals.

The IT infrastructure (cabled and Wi-Fi) is made entirely with Cisco hardware, a world leader in terms of reliability and performance. IP telephony is based on a Panasonic switchboard with fixed and cordless terminals.

Thanks to its considerable experience and long-term partnership with Lutron (a world leading company in the production of light control systems), Videoworks has designed and built the on-board home automation system, i.e. the intelligent control of lights and blinds in the guest area, which makes time on board even more comfortable and pleasant.

The CCTV system is made up entirely of professional Panasonic products. It includes 5 high-resolution IP cameras and a network recorder for recording video flows and archiving them in encrypted form.

Additionally, the satellite TV receiving system has a double antenna with arbitrator, which guarantees optimal signal without blind spots.

Team Italia (www.team-italia.it) has designed the innovative I-Bridge® solution with multicontrol and 38” full HD stretched display.

Navigation is made easier by two integrated side flaps and by the exclusive TEAM Italia EMAS (Electronic Moving Assistant System), which processes the data from the 3D sensors and makes manoeuvring the yacht easier

Text by Daniele Carnevali – Photos by Alberto Cocchi

The sea trial was pubblished in Superyacht 65 -Spring 2020