A NEW ERA OF BOATING
Sakari Mattila: A legend in the European boat design community that many may be forgiven for never hearing of.
A man who has always shunned the limelight, Mattila is, for people in the know, famous for not being famous, having never given a single interview in his illustrious thirty-year career.
One might find that almost incomprehensible in today’s world of instant news, mobile phones, and information overload. However, it starts to make more sense when you realise that Mattila was the original founder and designer behind global boat brands such as Axopar, XO Boats, Paragon, and Aquador. Clearly, Mattila is comfortable with letting his work do the talking for him, and with all of his previous work becoming multi-award winning brands, it’s easy to see why.
Mattila’s latest venture, Saxdor Yachts, is no different. With a quest to create the world’s most versatile, high performance-oriented adventure boats at incredible prices, it is unsurprising to discover that the first design from the company, the Saxdor 200 Sport, launched in March 2020, began receiving accolades around the world almost instantly, winning awards at Best of Boats 2020, and the prestigious European Powerboat of the Year 2021.
The Saxdor 200 introduced an entirely new concept of affordable high performance adventure boats. With a starting price of just $54,995, inclusive of a 100hp outboard capable of 34kt (optioned up to 175hp – it’ll hit 45kt without breaking a sweat), a full GRP construction with twin-stepped performance hull and legendary Finnish build quality, a seemingly impossible task was achieved with relative ease.
Not content with resting on his laurels, the second of Mattila’s designs, the Saxdor 320 GTO, has just been launched, and is likely to continue to attract significant attention for Saxdor at every boat show it is showcased at. With incredible looks, a flawless pedigree and class shattering standard inclusions, it is likely to command the limelight for a long time to come. In fact, one of Europe’s most prestigious motorboat publications recently heralded the Saxdor 320 as one of the most exciting boats of 2021. Now that’s a big call!
What is even more incredible is the price. With a fully landed price of just $239,995, inclusive of a single Mercury Verado V8 300hp outboard, you can start to see why such lofty claims are already being made.
With its plumb bow, narrow beam and a twin-stepped hull for maximum performance, the single outboard is capable of propelling the 32ft boat to a 40-knot top speed. Move up to twin Mercury 300’s and the boat easily exceeds 50 knots.
And yet the Saxdor 320 also provides an excess of deck space, a double cabin with a separate en-suite bathroom and seating for 9. The key differentiator with the deck design is that there is both a wet bar and sunpads that can be used independently of each other, which is not the case with many of the Saxdor’s rivals.
As if that wasn’t enough, the 320 also sports electric “terraces” that open out on each side of the aft deck to create extra space for socializing or enjoying water sports.
Not particularly innovative, you might be tempted to say; after all, there are quite a few European designs that offer them as an option now. However, considering that almost all of those boats start with price north of $1m, the 320’s ability to offer this as part of the standard specification across the entire 320 range is nothing short of miraculous.
Lastly, its clean lines and good looks are suitably matched by its incredible capabilities. With Category B Ocean CE classification, offshore adventures to far-flung locations become a reality, and make for one of the most capable and versatile luxury adventure boats in Australia today.
One might be forgiven for concluding that designing the world’s most exciting adventure boat was an integral part of Mattila’s cunning plan all along – an evolution of awardwinning design 30 years in the making. But with Mattila’s habit of keeping out of the limelight, he once again seems content for others to be the judge of that.
Saxdor Yachts is distributed in Australia exclusively by The Adventure Boat Company. www.adventureboats.com.au
