62 Azimut

Source: David Lockwood, Boatpoint Magazine

The Italian Azimuts are an excellent example of how European boatbuilders are pushing the envelope of size and luxury, and thus changing the landscape of big-city marinas Down Under. David Lockwood has the story

When I was a budding boatie, a 30ft cruiser at my local marina was king. The 40-footers tied to the premium gangways represented a seemingly unattainable dream.

How times change. In the context of this year’s Sydney and Sanctuary Cove boat shows, 30-footers were pups and 40-footers were minnows. The new measure of success, boating savvy and prudent seamanship in the owner/driver class of luxury cruiser is a 60-something-footer.

But this year more than any other, the Italians are making waves Down Under. This isn’t surprising – more overdue, given the success of the Italian motoryacht makers worldwide. Leading the charge, Azimut is the second biggest boatbuilder in the world and the biggest production yard in Europe.

There are several arms to the company: Azimut’s production boats stretch from 39ft-116ft – and now include exciting express models such as the 68S and 86S, and soon the 102S – the custom-boat badge Benetti that builds boats to 300ft, and the Gobbi sportscruiser line for getting your feet wet.

Azimut has made its presence felt here before, but never to the extend it did this year. There were four luxury boats at Sanctuary Cove Boat Show and five in Sydney including the 42, 46, 50, 55 and 62.

Azimut’s 39-50-footers have open interiors, but its mid-range 55, 62 and 68ft motoryachts have second-tier living areas in their open-plan saloons.

The flagship of the spread, the 62-footer is the subject of this story. Due to the busy boat show there wasn’t time to undertake a passage somewhere. Ideally, one needs to set up the boat, dial up the autopilot and kick back at cruise speeds while absorbing the qualities of the ride.

Instead, I drove the Azimut 62 on a whirlwind tour. Even then, the boat impressed on a number of fronts.

Performance with the upgraded twin 1015hp C18 Caterpillar diesel engines was outstanding. Despite weighing from 25,000kg to 30,000kg, the boat has signature Italian performance from a hull with 20° of deadrise amidships, 17° at the transom, and four-blade propellers that spin in half tunnels.

Yet it was the user friendliness of the 62 that was most impressive. Such was the ease with which the boat could be driven off the wheel that I never felt overawed by it.

The raked Italian styling helps keep windage down, but the interior is surprisingly spacious compared to some other Italian motoryachts. Add bow- and stern-thrusters and this is very much an owner/driver 60.

THE AZIMUT STORY
The question I posed when stepping aboard this 62, my head spinning from tours of several 60-footers in recent days, was: why buy an Azimut?

I posed that question to the new importers, Ron Winestock and partner Graeme Skerritt, who took on the dealership because, as Azimut boatowners (42 and 46 respectively), they felt the brand needed better representation in this market.

There are about a dozen Azimuts in Australia today, but owners now have the advantage of having these two boat owners as representatives. That makes for a sound foundation.

Ron reveals has an understanding of the Azimuts that I hadn’t got from tests with distributors in the past. His is the view of an owner rather than a salesman.

Successful businessmen outside the boating industry, Ron and Graeme got the Azimut gig and now operate out of swanky Jones Bay Wharf, which is turning into something of a European boat haven. But that still doesn’t explain the strengths of the boats. Among the strong suits are style, finish, design, accommodation, room, privacy, engineering and amenities.

In typical Italian fashion, the boat is designed from the ground up. Exterior design concepts are from one Stefano Righini; the interior designer is Carlo Galeazzi; then Azimut did the rest.

This hull is built to RINA standards and is backed by a five-year warranty on osmosis and on the structure. Construction includes foam-cored sides and superstructure and composite watertight bulkheads.

The Italian styling is what directs the eye to the 62. The double reverse shark-fin-shaped windows flanking the saloon are an Azimut hallmark. The windows incorporate a reflective material for privacy.

The boat’s rakish deck and flybridge and reverse stanchions on the bowrail add to the contemporary but complementary lines.

To this exterior you can add lots of serious stainless-steel deck fittings, deep portholes and, amidships, three big superyacht-esque oval picture windows flanking another of Azimut’s signature features – the full-width owner’s cabin. Apparently, Azimut was first to introduce the full-width cabin, which is so commonplace on the UK-built motoryachts these days.

The relationship with the outdoors was certainly evident in the saloon, which has oversized doors linking it to the cockpit. A sophisticated air comes by way of cream-coloured leather upholstery, warm natural high-gloss cherrywood joinery, bone-coloured carpet and nice buff liners.

The saloon floorspace is shaped like a big “S” that swings by a lower living area with a huge, curved leather lounge for eight people. It then shifts up a step to the portside galley and second lounge/dining area for six opposite.

If you add, say, the chef and the captain, who can drive the boat from a central internal helm station, then you have room to go boating, all-year-round, inside your Azimut 62 with 17 people within earshot of each other – enjoying the views, the cruise and the company. Beat that!

A quick word on that lower helm station. It’s pushed a long way forward so you feel as though you are driving a huge runabout rather than a 30,000kg fully-laden ship.

From both lower and upper helms, the boat is reassuringly simple to command. The electronic shifts and power steering, bow- and stern-thrusters, adjustable wheel and electric leather helm seat make the lower helm a serious cruising station.

PRIVATE LIVES
Azimut pioneered the amidships stateroom with its 55-footer – a boat took the Miami Boat Show by storm. This 62-footer has a full-width amidships cabin, 300mm by 600mm oval windows and full walk-in robe, plus headroom around all sides of the offset double island bed.

As the master cabin is accessed down its own companionway, this is a private boat for escaping with family and/or friends. The VIP guests’ cabin in the bow also has its own island bed and walk-in robe. There are en suites with Vacuflush loos, separate shower stalls and extractor fans.

The boat has a third cabin with two single berths alongside a third head that doubles as a dayhead. To this you can add a crew cabin in the stern of the boat, accessed under the rear lounge in the cockpit.

As we’re not big on crew here and are instead very much hands-on, the cabin was being used as a giant storage room, utility room, potential dive room or workshop.

Storage space is indeed a strength of this 62. It extends from drawers and cupboards to hanging lockers, vanities and shelves.

FINISH AND FITTINGS
I was impressed by the finish in the cabins. The hanging lockers were cedar lined and there were full-length bevelled-edged mirrors. Vanity tops in the en suites were upgraded to marble from polished glass.

The European fabrics and bedspreads come courtesy of some big-book selections, and all the door and light fittings are Italian – from who else but Geneico.

There are rounded edges wherever you look, soft-touch wall liners and walnut timber finishes on the horizontal surfaces to offset the cherrywood. The blinds are white and, as to be expected, there is no shortage of lighting via hatches and, with the blinds down, in a number of lighting configurations.

Mood is everything, and it’s one thing to see this boat by day but quite another to see it all lit up at night.

BOAT WITH THE LOT
The not-insubstantial inventory and amenities provided on the 62 – much of it by way of the boat dealer and options list – help take the Azimut 62 from boat show to boat-to-go.

This boat had an optional and separate washer and dryer, tropical reverse-cycle air-con with control panels in all the cabins, optional wine cooler and icemaker, and supplied glasses, cutlery and crockery for the dinner settings.

The galley had a full-sized fridge, Smeg four-burner stove and optional dishwasher – which seems to be de rigueur these days. Water capacity of 1000lt should take care of those three Vacuflush loos, showers and the optional icemaker and dishwashers for – depending on your water-saving skills – three days to a week.

Power comes by way of a 17.5kVa generator, which has been upgraded from the standard-issue 6.5kVa model. The big generator powers the bow- and stern-thrusters, electric barbecue in the bridge, crane for hauling the tender up into the bridge and the boat’s Bose 35 entertainment system linked to an impressive 30in LCD television – which launches itself on an electric ram from a saloon cabinet like a phoenix.

Outdoors, the cockpit table could seat four to six for al-fresco dining, while the huge boarding platform could be used to tote a jetski in summer. I found a handheld H/C shower, twin shorepower leads, a Cablemaster to keep those leads in check, and options of phone and permanent water connections.

There’s a cockpit fridge and teak decks, which continue around the sides of the hull – along bulwarks backed by high rails – to give safe bow access. There, I found a sunpad and drinkholders, but nothing like the facilities in the bridge.

Up top you can seat eight people around a large lunch table. There was a fridge and a barbie, the tender and crane. And a fold-down lounge backrest that allows the creation of a sunpad.

Add the giant sunpad aft and the sunpad beside the helm and, well, four couples could each have somewhere to bake to a crisp on their own.

ITALIAN SPORTS
I took control of the Azimut 62 from the bridge and, well, there I stayed.

The portside helm is a position where you only need to glance over your shoulder to see the full port flank of the 62-footer. So you can berth this baby, as I did, from the seat of your pants. As I said, it’s a real owner/driver boat.

But as I explained to those willing to lend their ear back on the dock, the strength of this boat – among all those aforesaid details – is its performance. Underwater exhausts and big-block Caterpillars make for a fast but quiet ride.

The boat sits gloriously at 16.5kt at 1700rpm and cruises in a dignified manner at 23kt at 1900rpm. At 27kt fast cruise, the engines consume about 140lt per side for a theoretical safe cruising range of about 300nm.

Your cruising range will be improved if you pull the twin 1015hp C18 Cats back and ride at 23kt. But, sorry, that is something I did not do.

Instead, I circled the city landmarks at 32kt, as though I was driving in Rome, before backing up on a coupe of wayward sunpads that had blown off their press studs and were floating in the wake.

But for that interruption, the Azimut 62 was a lot of fun and a lot of comfort. I’m not a regular big-boat skipper, but I’d happily step out of a 40-footer to drive this 62 with all the mod cons and conveniences.

And I would not stop there. Versace would be my next port of call.

HIGHS

• Styling, design, finish and fitout
• Full-width master cabin is inviting
• Makes the most of its living areas
• Performance is very, very impressive

LOWS

• Sunpads need tracks to keep them in place
• Could do with more serious long-range refrigeration and perhaps a desalinator
• You’ll have to keep kids away from the high-gloss joinery and cream carpets

Boat Specification: 62 Azimut

AZIMUT 62

OPTIONS FITTED 17.5kVa tropica air-con, bow- and stern-thrusters, Bose Lifestyle 35 system, 30in LCD TV on electric ram in saloon, electric barbeque and fridge on bridge, cockpit fridge, dishwasher, separate washer/dryer, wine cooler, icemaker, marble vanity tops, crane for tender on bridge, side boarding gates, soft furnishings and more

GENERAL Material: GRP hull w/vinylester resin and foam-cored decks and hull sides

Length (overall): 19.5m

Beam: 5.12m

Draft: 1.48m inc props

Deadrise: Deep-vee 17°

Rec/max hp: 2 x 1015

Weight: 25,000kg hull and motors only

CAPACITIES

Fuel: 3400lt

Water: 1000lt

Holding tank: About 200lt

Accommodation: Six plus one

ENGINE

Make/model: Caterpillar C18

Type: Injected inline six-cylinder IMO compliant

Rated hp: 1015 @ 2300rpm

Displacement: 14.6lt

Weight: About 1586kg

Drive (make/ratio): Twin Disc 2.04:1

Props: Four-blade bronze