Riviera 5000SY
If you need any further example of why Rivieras are so popular with Australian pleasure boaters then cast your eyes over the new 5000 Sport Yacht. Here’s a boat that follows in the footsteps — and indeed replaces — the popular 4700 Sport Yacht powered by twin 575 to 715hp diesel engines with traditional shaft drives. But the changes are many, not least being the fact that this is the first production boat in Australia to feature Cummins Marine Diesel’s revolutionary Zeus drives.
Named after the king of the gods, Zeus comprises twin steerable underwater drives linked by fly-by-wire technology to a joystick controller that is, well, a godsend for docking. Shunt the joystick where you want the boat to go and the boat obeys. Twist the knob on the top of the controller and the boat pirouettes. Put the throttles to the dash and you will experience a sporty ride, indeed.
But Zeus has other things going for it, notably Skyhook, an invisible anchor that, at the press of a button, maintains your boat’s position and heading by checking with satellites and automatically shifting the engines in and out of gear. Engage Skyhook and you can fender-up, prepare the mooring lines, and then dock a boat like this on your own.
Zeus also features an integrated trim tab system and autopilot for hands-free cruising in fine fettle. In fact, thanks to the efficiencies of the sleek drives, and the ability to run smaller engines to derive great performance, the price of this mid-range Sport Yacht has come down.
Would you believe the boat we drove on Sydney Harbour with twin 600hp QSC 8.3 Cummins common rail engines is some $5000 cheaper than the first 4700 SY I tested in 2006 with upgraded C12 715hp Caterpillars. Less is more. Way to go.
| Share | 10% |
| Location | The Spit |
| Price | $139,000 |
| Availability | Now |
| Term | 3 years |
| Days | 33 plus unlimited stand-by days |
| Ongoings | $450p/m management cleaning fee plus 1/10th |
| Exit strategy | No Exit fee |
| Make | Riviera |
| Model | 5000SY |
| Year | 2011 |
| Length | 22m |
| Beam | 4.18m |
| Weight | 18 Tonnes |
| Engines | 2 x Cummins Zeus pods |
| Sleeps | 8 |
