Press

"Rivolta Yachts The Design Legacy Lives On," Vol 4 Issue 3, Excerpted by permission Executive Flyer Magazine Article Link

Full Article: July 2004, "That's Amore," Motorboating Magazine Article Link

Excerpted with permission of "Yachting Magazine" Copyright © 2002, Time4Media

The Italians invented the concept of the grand touring carÑa relatively luxurious closed automobile of exceptional style, speed and handling. Piero Rivolta is Italian, and he drew from his family's experience in the design and construction of GT cars when he conceived the Rivolta 38 Jet Coupe. The moment I settled behind her wheel, I was at an auto show nestled into the driver's seat of an Iso Rivolta grand touring car.

For a personal yacht, she has more than enough room below for a couple to cruise aboard for a week or more, plus a decent galley. The stowage beneath the island berth forward seemed able to swallow all my earthly soft-goods possessions. The double stateroom amidships is bigger than one would expect and is handy for children or occasional adult guests.

Excerpted with permission of UNITED STATES POWERBOAT SHOW 2001

by Jeff Holland

I was impressed by how the Rivolta revved up and plowed through the crests with a sure-footed
sense of power and control. We were doing 30 knots into the wind, and though the low-profile bow did let the spray splash up onto the windshield, the jets stayed in the water and did the job. Turning into the trough, the hull was remarkably stable, and then heading downwind, the boat performed like it was running on a slick calm.

This is a very shallow draft boat, and the jet drives are set right at the waterline, underneath the
swim platform.

The Rivolta has a conventional steering wheel, with conventional dual throttles as well two smaller lever to the right of them, which controlled the forward and reverse thrusting of the Hamilton jet drives. I did find the Rivolta astonishingly maneuverable in docking situations. Manipulating the levers that controlled the jet drives, we could spin the boat on its axis in either direction.

The style of the boat is undeniably unique and striking, with the windows all trimmed in teak, with the brightwork trim running along the cockpit coaming in a dramatic sweep up to the hard top. The word "coupe" connotes images of sporty 1930s-era cars, with big, rounded fenders and low-slung tops. And that image holds true with the Rivolta. The sheer breaks in a graceful arc just below the side window, the shape of which gives the impression of the sly wink of a Zoot-suited hep cat. The association of the Jet Coupe with a nostalgic automobile design is no fluke, given the European car design background of founder and president Piero Rivolta.

Driving the 38 in open water was a jet-propelled blast. Bow rise, however, never interfered with visibility from the helm seat, a Todd Enterprises model on our test boat. (Pricier Stidd and Recaro seats are available.) The average top hop I recorded was 38 mph, a sporty velocity considering the weight of the boat. Total fuel burn at WOT was roughly four gph higher than what I typically see on Yanmar-350-powered
vessels of the 38's type, a state of affairs that may be due to any number of factors, from over-rewing (Yanmar 350s are supposed to turn 3300 rpm tops, but our test engines turned 3500) to differences in propulsor parameters. At any rate, handling was quick, thanks to Sea Star hydraulic steering and an extra-short travel on the wheel, just one turn, lock to lock.

Not as comfortable with jets as I am with twin-screw in-boards, I was pretty dam clumsy at docking the 38 after our sea trial. Rivolta was adept at it, however, quickly "twisting" the
boat within her own length and walking her sideways by rocking the wheel alternately left and right of center, with the dockside jet going astern and the outboard jet going ahead.
Based on my experiences and my observations of Rivolta's nifty maneuverings, I'd say the 38's pretty easy to handle with a little practice, even without the optional bow thruster.

The boat itself is a cosmetic thing of beauty, of course. The exterior lines are traditional, almost poetic. The cherry interior is simple and roomy with an athwartship midcabin berth that's
ample, a large master cabin forward, and living space divided between an upper saloonÑwith a teak-trimmed helm area, wetbar, and loungeÑand a main cabin below decks, with a head to port and a U-shape galley to starboard. The engine B room feature that impressed me most was the top-shelf electrical system, with a Heart Interface modular-type distribution panel, four state-of-the-art absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries, Xantrex Pathmaker battery combiner/isolator, and heavy-duty bonding system with Dynaplate.