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 Fastlane as well as Flybridge versions. Interior layouts are extensively customisable too.

Complementing the secure ride, the 52MC Flybridge’s extra wide walk-around decks and high bulwarks with sturdy handrails reinforce the design intent of absolute seaworthiness. Take in the extra detailing: the deftly integrated side boarding gates to either side, the cantilevering pilot’s deck door, and it’s a beguiling aesthetic. Then add to this the flybridge made extraordinary by its combination of eye-pleasingly low, sleek sportster lines. Its commanding view and joystick control. The stylish, ergonomic furnishings and the full outdoors experience whether piloting at speed or dining and reclining.

Then go back to first boarding, through the bulwark’s integral side deck gates, or the passage transom walkways, and 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 and safe, secure walk to the bow, with pop-up cleats in the capping rail, making rope-work more convenient with no stooping. The neatly engineered, concealed automated anchoring system.

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. Plus an automated passerelle extending at the press of a button. Engines and main machinery are all concentrated inside amidships for optimal centres of effort and gravity. This weight distribution, smoothing the transition up on to the plane without a hump. So, wherever on board, and at whatever stage or rate of acceleration, the outlook is always level.

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 as expected excels, this being a Contest.