CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP
Riviera’s Sport Yacht line premiered in 2005 with a 3600. In the 15 years that followed, the builder produced more than 660 Sport Yacht hulls for eager owners. Today, the Sport Yacht is offered as a 4800, 5400 and 6000.
he says. “I went up to Hamilton Island with it. I had a skipper on board. I kept having to tell people to go up there. Everyone wanted to be down in the sunshine. That’s when I decided the flybridge was no good. I wanted it more like a sedan. If you want to fish, you want a flybridge, but I’m not keen on fishing. I like to cruise around. When you’re cruising around and everything is all on one level, people come up and talk to you.” ¶ Haddrell also says he greatly appreciates the way Riviera’s team hears out his ideas and then does whatever they can to give him what he wants. ¶ “They listen to you,” Haddrell says. “The
CEO at Riviera, I would talk to him directly. We’d discuss an issue, and he’d say he’ll have a look at it.
Then he’d come back to me in three or four days and say, ‘We can do that,’ or there was something structural with the boat that they couldn’t do it— but he listened to me with my input for the boat.”
YOU NEVER KNOW
In 2012, after Superstorm Sandy destroyed his 36-foot fishing boat in New Jersey, Bruce Lakefield never imagined he’d own another boat. “It was covered up and winterized for the winter, and it landed about 2,000 yards down the street,” he says. “We thought we were done with boating.” ¶ Lakefield’s 40-year-old son, however, was not done with boating, which is how Lakefield and his wife found themselves at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show looking at a Riviera 445 SUV. “The boat was just laid out perfectly for four people to cruise. It was just built like no other boat that I’ve ever had,” he says. “It was quality everywhere—in the bilges, even. It had a full Garmin setup, the Volvo Penta IPS. We just fell in love with it and bought it pretty much right on the spot.” ¶ Lakefield, a retired US Navy submarine veteran, kept the boat in Florida, where he and his wife would cruise with other couples. They soon moved up to a 515 SUV and are now awaiting 2022 delivery on a 5400 Sport Yacht. ¶ Again, he finds himself thrilled but surprised by the boat he’s about to own. The couple are switching Riviera lines because, Lakefield says, they want features that he sees as being a bit more, well, feminine. ¶ “I would describe the SUV as a man’s boat, and I would describe the 5400 as a lady’s yacht,” he says.
“We go from a queen-size bed to a king-size bed. We go from a cockpit that can be used for fishing or entertainment to solely an entertainment deck. We didn’t fish off the other boat—we thought we might, but we didn’t. So, that changed. Once we’d seen a couple of the Sport models at the boat show and at our club, we decided that was the way for us to go.” ¶ It isn’t just the good looks of Riviera boats that keep him with the brand, Lakefield says—“Everybody [who] walked down the dock said our Riviera was the prettiest boat in the yacht club”—it’s also the quality of the build. ¶ “The design is terrific, and what goes into the boat, it’s all first-class,” he says. “All the joinery is perfect. The layout is well-thought-out. You never know. Whether it’s the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean or in the North Atlantic where I served on the submarine, you need what you need when you need it. These boats from Australia are just superbly built.”
STILL GROWING
As of this writing, Riviera is preparing to break ground on what will become its largest building yet, a dedicated lamination center that will span about 40 acres. “It will allow us to have greater efficiencies and meet demand,” Milne says. “It will let us operate in a climate-controlled environment to enhance quality further.” ¶ That kind of quality control is key, he adds, given that Riviera is now building more than 110 motoryachts a year from 39 to 78 feet length overall. Most of them are sold to owner-operators, and the yard wants these buyers to stick with the brand too. ¶ “Riviera owners around the world, no matter where they are, they all feel that they are part of a very special group. They call themselves the Riviera family,” Milne says. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re having an event at a boat show or a cruise to the Bahamas or a cruise to the Whitsundays— they all like being part of a group of people who are passionate about their boats and boating. They’ve become friends, and they feel an immense loyalty to Riviera. I think that’s one of our greatest achievements: this global family of boat owners.”