EVO R6 OPEN

With more folding sections than a Swiss Army penknife, this razor sharp sportscruiser cuts a dash wherever it goes, but do its talents extend further than its expanding decks?

- Alan Harper

You have certainly noticed them – maybe at one of the Mediterranean boat shows, or emblazoned across the pages of a glossy magazine; zooming out of your screen in a Youtube video, or simply anchored serenely in some turquoise bay as if it owned the place.

Since emerging into the light of day in 2015, the Evo range has come to epitomise the modern Mediterranean boating lifestyle in a way that is out of all proportion to the company’s size, output or marketing heft. The chances are you haven’t actually seen an Evo in the wild, because there just aren’t enough of them out there. But as soon as you do, you’ll know what it is.

It’s all about the look – the uncompromisingly assertive styling, the sheer confidence expressed in those daring, expanding cockpits. A 43ft model got the ball rolling, now known as the R4, which was followed in 2019 by the R6. Now we have the R6 Open. They are conceived on the drawing board of Valerio Rivellini, a Neapolitan industrial designer – you can tell he doesn’t have a traditional yachting design background – whose portfolio includes plenty of boats, but also industrial and automotive projects and even a plywood bicycle. No doubt lateral thinking helps in the design of laterally expanding cockpits.