A standout boat in so many ways, the Contest 52MC is a spectacularly effective design. Especially so as she is Contest Yachts’ first ever motorboat in this league. The yachting press love her looks and her handling. They say she astounds. Her innovative, half-planing hull riding as though on rails, tracking straight and staying flat right through the tightest of turns, trimming perfectly with power options from twin 350hp to 550hp diesels.

Attaining this praise, the Contest 52CS presents a newly optimised hull form equally capable of high speed, deep-sea passage making, and slow-paced cruising through inland waterways with absolutely minimal wake or water disturbance. Achieving both with near unbelievable fuel economy. And defying the conventions of traditional planing, displacement and semi-displacement principles, each compromised as they are at one or other end of the performance curve.

The joint creation of longstanding design partner Georg Nissen, acclaimed design-engineers Vripack, and the yard’s own in-house design team, the 52MC is also an unusually versatile design platform, available in Flybridge as well as Fastlane versions. Interior layouts are extensively customisable too.

First sight positions this innovative motor cruiser perfectly. The sleek sedan style deck saloon. The purposeful high bulwarks, topped with both capping and raised handrails. Proportions and scale projecting prowess and deep-sea capability. Stepping aboard through the integrated side deck gates or the passage transom walkways, the deck plan immediately impresses. The spacious, protected cockpit with meticulously upholstered seating around an expanding dining table that converts to sizeable sunpad. The transom garage for tender beneath. The merging side decks.

Walking to the bow is simple and secure in the protection of the tall bulwark and handrail. And with the pop-up cleats in the capping rail, ropework is all managed at a convenient height with no stooping. Anchor work in the bow is similarly eased with a neatly engineered, concealed automated system. Deployed, this also keeps the chain away from the plumb bow.

Back aft, the permanent transom platform extension rises and falls to serve as over- or sub-sea bathing and launch platform, the transom opening to reveal a large garage with capacity for toys and large tender. An automated passerelle also extends at the press of a button. Engines and main machinery are concentrated inside amidships for optimal centres of effort and gravity. This weight distribution smoothing the transition up onto the plane without a hump. So, at whatever stage or rate of acceleration, the outlook is always level, never blocked by a rising bow.

Moving inside, the deck-level saloon with wraparound glazing provides an exceptional outlook for helm and guests with comfortable dinette and observation seating forward. Adding to relaxation, extensive sound engineering and inherent stiffness of the vacuum-infused hull ensure the 52MC is unusually quiet when running.

And as fit for a mini superyacht, there are so many options to interior finish and layout, with a multiple choice of materials and cabin configuration between: upper galley, three cabins and two heads; or two cabins, two heads and lower deck galley. And the quality throughout excels, as expected, this being a Contest.