One remote, one hand free — the aft platform on this 2026 Bali 5.8 slides, drops and relaunches the dinghy while doubling as a swim beach.
Some yacht features only make sense once you watch someone use them. The aft tender system on the 2026 S/V Bali 5.8 is one of them — and in this short walkthrough with Eric Macklin, the whole cycle is demonstrated end to end, from stowed and strapped to floating free and back again.
One controller, two jobs
The star of the clip is a wireless handheld controller. As the presenter puts it, it does two things: it slides the dinghy out, and it drops it. The sliding motion comes first, moving the tender aft until it clears the structure behind it, at which point the big locks holding it in place are released and the platform can travel down toward the water.
It is deliberately undramatic. “Generally, I can hold the beer in this hand while I get ready,” he says — a line that captures the point better than any spec sheet. This is a system designed for a shorthanded crew or an owner-operator who doesn’t want to recruit three people every time the dinghy goes in.
A beach as well as a garage
Lower the platform a little further than launch height and it stops being a tender lift and becomes a shallow, submerged terrace. In the video it’s described simply as “a really nice beach” — a shallow place where guests can sit in the water and relax. For a 58-foot catamaran that already trades heavily on flat, usable deck area, that’s a genuinely useful extra living space at anchor.
Recovery, step by step
The return trip is where the detail shows. The platform carries chocks for the dinghy, and the presenter uses a specific cleat as a visual reference to line the tender up correctly over them before lifting. As the platform rises, a lock engages automatically to hold it in position — he demonstrates that it genuinely can’t drop once set. The platform comes up level with the deck, slides forward, and the dinghy is home. Final step: cross straps, so nothing goes flying underway.
Throughout, the walkway running across the aft section stays clear — a small point, but one the presenter returns to twice. On a boat this size, circulation matters as much as gadgetry.
Where the model sits
The Bali 5.8 is a rare sight on the brokerage market. Current site figures show a single active listing:
| Active Bali 5.8 listings | 1 |
|---|---|
| Asking price | $1,458,000 |
| Median asking | $1,458,000 |