Australia-based marine journalist Maurice Kelly covered the global launch of the Maritimo S50 for Boating New Zealand magazine on Queensland’s Gold Coast in late June, also reviewing the new model on the water.
I’ve always had a soft spot for sedan motor yachts. Their sleeker profile and seamless connection to the cockpit have plenty of appeal, but historically they’ve often come with a compromise: less onboard living space than their flybridge counterparts. That’s particularly true when a successful flybridge platform is reworked into a sedan, as designers inevitably have to find ways to recapture volume and functionality lost with the removal of the upper deck. With the Maritimo S50, I was keen to see how the team had tackled that challenge. What I found was a yacht that felt remarkably complete, with few of the compromises I’d expected.
Where it all begins
Maritimo has started, as they always do, from the stern. And straight away the S50 makes its intentions clear. The raised cockpit floor – appearing to be noticeably higher than previous models, either by illusion or in practice – does away with the awkward shuffle-step most boats this size force on you. Just two sensible steps up to the cockpit, and the reward for that design choice is hidden directly below your feet: a lazarette with enough headroom to sit down in and chillout while sorting the toys, with space to stow a pair of paddleboards, two kayaks, and still have room left over for the dive kit. Dual access keeps it practical – one hatch from the cockpit, another from the forward seating area – so you’re never unpacking the whole compartment to get to the one thing you actually need.
What really caught my attention though was the saloon entry. A no-step double-door made possible by a 300mm gutter running underneath it with drains that scupper neatly between the aft steps. It sounds like a small thing until you realise it’s handling the kind of water that would have your old boat’s saloon looking like a rock pool. Quietly brilliant.
Now you see it
The helm is where the S50 starts showing off. Maritimo’s designers have pulled a neat trick here – everything that should feel bolted down looks like it’s floating. The skipper’s seat anchors the space without crowding it. The mate’s chair beside it appears to hover, drawing the eye forward in a way that makes the whole helm area breathe. It’s a deliberate optical illusion, and it works on you even when you know exactly what they’re doing.
This particular vessel didn’t have all the unnecessary buttons and things that go ‘ping’ like a Boeing 747 has. Just a couple of 18-inch screens with all the data daisy-chained in. The seats are extremely comfortable and adaptable, with plenty of vision aft to reverse park. Which is made even more simple by the bow and stern thrusters and massive, responsive conventional shaft drives. I can’t believe the simplicity these days, when back in the 90’s I’d be going flat-out on my dad’s 26-foot, single-screw fishing boat. Broadsiding the tide and shoehorning in between two boats at the Houhora wharf – ah, the good old days.
Galley proof
Moving into the main cabin, the galley runs along the port side in a layout that immediately makes sense. No island bench – and I say that with genuine relief. The island that appeared in the flybridge models always felt like it was working against the space rather than with it, chopping up the indoor-outdoor flow that the raised cockpit promises from outside. Without it, the cabin opens up properly. The fitout does the rest: fridge and freezer drawers, full-extension pantry, dishwasher, icemaker, Fusion stereo on the iPhone. Everything a serious passage-maker needs; nothing a marina show-pony would bother with.
Eyes on the horizon
Here’s where the sports model earns its stripes. Sit down in the saloon and look out. The view is genuinely drinkable – the lowered coamings have opened up sightlines that leave the horizon filling your frame. It doesn’t sound revolutionary until you experience it, and then it’s hard to imagine going back. The lounge to starboard continues the floating furniture illusion from the helm – apparently weightless, but completely immovable. A pop-up television handles the evenings at anchor. Headroom is generous throughout, which as a man who regularly introduces his skull to overhead cabinetry, I noted with appreciation.
Beneath the surface
Below decks is where the S50 quietly gets on with being a proper offshore boat. Forward, twin berths push hard against the port hull – use them separately or slide them together as a double, plenty of storage either way. And when you flip down the port settee in the main saloon you’ve suddenly got beds for six – not six sardines, six actual comfortable human beings. The washer and dryer, repositioned after owners told Maritimo exactly where they should go, live neatly behind panelling on the starboard stair. A brand that listens is worth noting.
The master stateroom is a generous space – the bed is listed as a king but has no right calling itself anything less than a super-king. No wing tanks to eat into the space either, just one central tank keeping the weight exactly where you want it: low and amidships. The en-suite is finished with stone surfaces made in-house, and the shower works without a door because the geometry has already solved the splash problem. It’s that kind of boat.
Fuel for thought
None of what you’ve just walked through is accidental. General Manager Phil Candler, who spent the morning walking me through every detail, has the measured manner of a man who has thought very carefully about all of it. The development process involves multiple rounds of concept drawings – sometimes ten passes at a single design element – before anything gets committed to production. Interior designers sit in from day one, not called in at the end to choose cushion colours. The result is a coherence you feel throughout: nothing jars, nothing feels like it was added as an afterthought.
Behind Phil stands Bill Barry-Cotter – a man who built Mariner Cruisers into Australia’s largest boat manufacturer, founded Riviera, sold it in 2002, and then, because apparently that wasn’t enough, started Maritimo from scratch. The S50 is the latest instalment in that story. His wife Leslie – a woman with a sharp eye for quality across many boats and many houses – came aboard, looked around, and said she’d have it exactly as it was. In this industry, that’s not a small thing.
Where it counts
Out through the Gold Coast Seaway and up toward the Humpback Highway hunting for bumps, wakes, anything to put the boat through its paces – the day was kind but instructive. The S50 is a dry boat – composed and precise through chop, with none of the helm lag or lean that can make a vessel this size feel like it’s making its own decisions. The Interceptor trim tabs were set up beautifully, pushing back against the cornering forces and keeping the bow planted. It’s the kind of confidence that builds quickly and doesn’t leave you.
Saved for last
Back at the dock, with the tour winding up, the crew gathered at the stern for what turned out to be the best trick of the day. The high-low swim platform – Maritimo’s own invention, patent pending – does the obvious thing first: it goes up and down. But flip the tender off and the whole platform rotates to vertical, taking the ISO hull length from 16.82 metres down to 15.7. Marina berths are priced by the foot. That metre-plus is real money, and the kind of practical thinking that tells you exactly who designed this boat and why.
Drop it back down and it becomes a proper entertaining deck sitting around 70cm above the waterline – cocktail hour sorted, tender retrieval handled, the whole thing engineered to within an inch of its life and looking like it was always meant to be there.
Which is, when you think about it, exactly how you’d describe the S50 itself.
Maritimo S50
Priced as reviewed: POA
Manufactured by: Maritimo, www.maritimo.com.au
Highlights
Impressive engineering, excellent build quality
Dry running and composed in a chop
Spacious accommodation
Clever rotating swim platform reduces berthing length
Great sightlines from the saloon
