BOAT TEST: 2008 Maritimo Yachts C60 Sports Cabriolet

By Capt. Bill Pike

The only other time I can remember getting myself into something that sounded this stark-raving mad was a dozen years ago. I’d just finished wringing out a high-performance screamer, and the photographer who was prepping for a follow-up helicopter shoot suggested I come along, not only “just for the livin’ hell of it,” but also to experience (after the shoot was “in the can,” as they say) a phenomenon the photog called “herding sea gulls.” I went along, of course, and after herding a few gulls—and enduring every conceivable aerial orientation except zipping along upside down—queasily conceded the exercise was roughly equivalent to dodging and feinting around a hot LZ in a UH-1 Huey in Vietnam back in 1969. Way too exciting.

Now a semisimilar deal was stacking up. The guy in the copilot’s seat of the Maritimo C60 Sports Cabriolet I was driving was making a proposal that, at least on the face of it, sounded about as wild and crazy as herding sea gulls with a helicopter. “What say we go surfin’ in this lot, mate?” suggested Ross “Rossco” Willaton, a super-enthusiastic Aussie who routinely pilots Maritimo’s raceboats at speeds in excess of 160 mph, sitting shoulder to shoulder with throttleman and Maritimo head honcho Bill Barry-Cotter. Willaton grinned, gave me a piercing look, and toggled his eyebrows up and down. “What say?”

Fortunately, the 60 was far from an unknown quantity at this point. I’d already driven the daylights out of her in the open Pacific amid near-shore rollers that were long, smooth, and approximately eight feet high. She’d been a solid performer, with a soft, dry ride whether going up-, down-, or side sea. She’d cornered tightly (with a turning radius of two or maybe three boat lengths), exhibited excellent steering response (thanks to Maritimo’s proprietary racing-derived power-steering system), and generally behaved with such competence and mannerliness that I’d developed almost immediate confidence in her.

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Category: Cabriolet / Maritimo / News / Reprint