Azimut Yachts

We continue our presentation with the first great motor yachts manufacturer from my both lists, and this is Azimut from Italy, again.

It seems that Italians are great boat designers, and I’ve noticed that even other famous yacht builders, from all over the world, are employing Italian designers services or are linking themselves with some great Italian yacht designers. You see that I can’t keep myself from using the word great when it comes to Italian boat designers, and I’m usually very strict with compliments. As that is stated in the annals, Azimut was founded in 1969 by a student, as a sailing yachts charter firm. No longer than 1970, they were approached by some prestigious yacht brands to distribute their products in Italy and expanded tremendously.

In parallel, they started to design their own models, leading to creation of Azimut 105 Failaka which became in 1982, the biggest mass produced fiberglass yacht at the time. With such a record, the company acquired Benetti in 1985, not the reverse. Now, Benetti built boats since the year Emperor Franz Jozef opened the 5’th World Fair in Vienna, 1873, and had a shipyard in Viareggio.

Acquiring new shipyards in Fano, restructuring Benetti sites in Viareggio, building a new one in Avigliana, the company went on to become the foremost builder of yachts and megayachts, with sites new established in Turkey and Brazil. This is the website’s info, the one in Turkey I know personally, and they say there that they work with Azimut. Truth is that they have delivered at least one megayacht for Azimut, during the time, with an incredible manpower economy. The thing is that on a site like yachtcouncil.com you find “buy thousands of Azimut Yachts made in Turkey” as meta phrase, which I find comical.

But let me start with the range of models which makes Azimut a leader of the motoryacht market. The Flybridge with its 40, 43, 45, 48, 53, 60, 64, 70, 78, 82, 88, 95, and 100 Leonardo variations.

The following picture is the 82 in full speed, a model of more than 82′ as the name may have suggested, but of over 84′ which means 25.69 meters LOA. Equipped with 2 Caterpillar C32 main engines, each of 1725 HP, it develops a speed of 25 kn (max 29) which sends you to New York from Naples in seven days :).

It has four plus two cabins, meaning that your crew will stay comfortable! The price range is following the luxury. I found a Flybridge 82 built in 2009 with the incredible price of € 4,3 million. It is true one buy a five stars hotel with that kind of money, but with the hotel you can’t travel between Europe and America having even better conditions :).

The 100 Leonardo, “combines sportiness and elegance”, as they say on the site, which by the way, has visitors, is a 263,133 ranking at Alexa, the first yacht brand website I’ve seen so high.

A Leonardo 100 Flybridge has a speed superior to the 82, it is of 29 knots for cruising, has also four plus two cabins, at 30.75 meters and just € 6,5 millions. They have a video on the site, but it was with Lamborginis, tramp models and champagne, less with the model itself. It is obviously made for another class of people, but I find somehow the price justified. Thirty meters are also expensive to park, but doesn’t matter anymore. If you can have this, you shall need just two weeks of charter to cover the expenses, salaries and mooring. Or you need maybe more than that, but it’s again, all right.

From “S” collection, I choose to show you the bigger, the S 86. For details on any of the models presented, I strongly advice you to visit the site. Signor Vitelli’s team is composed of highly professionals, they have created a very friendly website for visitors. This explains the high ranking as well.

Not a great fan of Magellano, or whom they build two models, the 50 and the 74. Better pass with them. For the next chapter, they have created a site, another one, called Azimut Grande, made for the new brand, a really “great” one :), with five variations: the 100, 105, 116, 103 SL, and 120 SL.

• The sales manager responsible for the territory that a client hails from, and who knows the client.
• An architect capable of interior design and also for consulting on changes of layout.
• A project manager who will take over responsibility of the build of the yacht.
• A fourth person, who might be involved if the client is very technical, is what we call the technical manager, who will be on hand to discuss technical changes such as different engines, changes to compartments, different tender launching systems – all the technical elements.

Paolo Vitelli (referring to the design team of an Azimut)

It is obvious that the Azimut 120 SL is the gem on their crown. I’m going to continue posting about all the yachts on my both lists, no matter of what have been published on this blog, before. The posts with more yacht brands per post, were on blogspot. Something strange happened and I suddenly changed radically my options!

To end with the 120 SL and with Azimut for today, you have to know that this treasure has a LOA of 116 feet 5 inches (35.5 meters), a draft of 1.5 meters, a beam of 24 feet 6 inches (7.5 meters),the speed of 35 knots (max), 31 knots (cruise)an Engine group of 3 x 2400 Hp MTU 16v 2000 M93 drives – 2 Rolls Royce Kamewa Water Jets + 1 Rolls Royce Kamewa Booster, a fuel capacity of 4,774 gallons (18,000 liters).
The fabulous price is still a mystery for me, but I found an estimate for an Azimut Grande 116 built in 2007: something over $ 10 million, broker price. This makes me feel that a new 120 SL will be around $ 16 mil, but I’ll find out soon. I haven’t had the patience to wait for answers from brokers, so I published the post, anyway :).

[All yacht pictures are from the two Azimut sites. Paolo Vitelli’s picture is borrowed from yachtonline.it]

 

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