55 Azimut

Source: David Lockwood, Boatpoint Magazine

While it seemed a little strange at first to be testing a 55-footer from a manufacturer whose forte is super yachts, David Lockwood got used to the idea real quick. Find out why

I am told that the Azimut Benetti Group is the third-largest boat builder in the world, behind Americans Sea Ray and Bayliner in terms of volume. I am also reliably informed that the Italian boat builder is the largest production-boat builder in Europe. And there are quite a few boat builders in Europe these days.

But with respect to vessels over 80ft in length, the yard is in a league of its own. Azimut Benetti was aiming for 40 boats larger than 80ft and a dozen craft from 115–230ft a year. For the last six years, it’s been judged the No 1 production builder of 80-plus-footers.

That’s a lot of fiberglass – especially when you stop to consider the whole of the production range.

That I’m driving a mere 55-footer, the sixth smallest boat in a range that stretches to 116ft, is therefore rather quizzical. The 55 isn’t so much in a league of its own as in the owner-driver class where the competition from other motoryachts is stiffer than an espresso. (Incidentally, espresso cups are supplied with the 55, though the coffee machine is extra.)

How Azimut differentiates itself from the pack becomes apparent when you scratch below the glossy surface. Unlike its opponents who are building bigger and bigger boats from a small-boat base, Azimut’s 55 is made with the same know-how and technology used on its 100ft-plus sister ships and superyachts.

In other words, you’re getting big-boat brains on a boat you can drive yourself.

Scamper through the engine room and you’ll find features normally reserved for the charter class; not the chattering class (if, indeed, one can call a 55-footer such a thing).

Details such as underwater exhausts, blowers and extractors for the motors and battery boxes, a separate 10amp charger for the 16kVa Kohler generator, redundant fuel filters, external fuel and air-intake shutoffs (operated in the cockpit), a huge 24V waterpump and an emergency engine-room bilge pump – using the engine cooling-water pickup – are clearly big-boat stuff.

To this you can add contemporary Italian styling, including Azimut’s signature shark-fin saloon windows courtesy of Stefano Righini and, inside, the deft eye of interior designer Carlo Galeazzi. It’s not by accident that the words “Made in Italy” appear on most of the fittings. From doorhandles to hinges, port lights to deck chairs, the Italians do a great job of creating nautical style.

BEAT THE JONESES
On face value, the Azimut 55 will appeal to discerning family boaters who have the wherewithal to lash out on the latest European luxury cruising conveyance. The boat will have marina cred from the Med to Melbourne, as indeed it did swanning around cosmopolitan Sydney Harbour.

Aside from engineering and Italian styling, there was a long inventory of mod cons on the test boat. You can start with bow and sternthrusters, icemaker, second fridge, griddle and sink on the bridge, washer-drier, cockpit fridge, outdoor entertaining setting, and a separate crew quarters configured (sensibly for our market) as a utility room, dive space or storeroom for victuals.

Indoors, I found lots of buttons to press for things like the trick electric leather helm seat, which adjusts every which way; the electric windows at the for’ad end of the saloon; the big spread of Raytheon electronics for night and day passagemaking; and to keep the crowds entertained, one of those impressive Bose Lifestyle systems with separate zones linked to a huge popup LCD flatscreen television.

The bedding, towels, Bohemian crystal and full Azimut China/crockery set were nice touches. The latter were kept in a double-sided cabinet that doubles as the island servery in the galley. Stack the cups on one side, serve them out the other. Anything from coffee to cocktails.

DESIGNS ON THE WORLD
The Azimut 55 had a five-star finish by way of high-gloss natural cherrywood joinery with seven clear coats, burl walnut table tops, cream carpet and matching leather lounges. The Italian soft furnishings lean to trendy metallics: platinum curtains and white-gold bedspreads, for example. The boat had teak decks and lots of chunky designer deck gear too.

Surprise, surprise, there wasn’t a grain of marble in the bathrooms. Instead, the bathrooms had a contemporary look derived from optional glass benchtops, lots of mirrors and a bidet in the owner’s en suite. But the detail that made this 55-footer seem like a mini superyacht was the full-width owner’s cabin amidships. It wasn’t pokey.

Italians don’t tend to be the biggest people in the world and, as such, some parochial powerboats suffer from low ceilings, small galleys tucked in out-of-the-way places, and narrow companionways leading through to lots of skinny cabins. Australians and Americans, on the other hand, prefer open-plan living. The Azimut 55 layout realised the demands of overseas markets.

While the saloon roof isn’t towering, the boat flows from one level to the next in an open-plan saloon that ranges from an aft lounging area to a galley and dinette to a central internal helm station. Between these areas exists enough seating to satisfy diverse needs, from corporate entertaining and family liveaboard holidaying to luxury day-tripping.

On deck, there’s room for doing lunches around a table in the cockpit with, say, six, and oodles of room to store the designer deck chairs and table in the quasi crew cabin. The RIB is carried on the flybridge overhang, dispatched with a 250kg davit, thereby keeping the transom nice and clean.

If you want a jetboat, you’re best carrying it on the transom and fitting a Besenzoni folding 450kg crane. The hull under the boarding platform can support one, I’m told. Incidentally, the hull measures 57ft 5in (17.51m) overall.

The boarding platform is big enough for a couple to kick back or for the kids to run riot, with a handheld shower and drinks fridge nearby, and the option of a paserelle. The internal mooring bollards are concealed behind integrated hawsepipes, which could be fiddly for crew to feed lines through.

The walkaround decks are very crew-friendly, and getting to the fenders stacked in baskets in the bow will be a snap. Rails are where you reach for them, and the foredeck has room for double sunpads should the fake tan be fading.

BRIDGE LIVING
The boat’s moulded external staircase encourages access to the flybridge. This is just as well, as the Azimut 55’s bridge is geared for outdoor living, with a lunch lounge for six and moulded dinette, fridge and griddle, and a two-person sunpad alongside the helm bench seat.

You can cruise and let your partner snooze or watch the kiddies play alongside as you reel in the nautical miles. There’s also a pile of storage on the bridge for personal effects, leisure equipment, charts, cruising guides and so on. And a separate sound system.

Drop the tender overboard at your anchorage and you have even more floorspace on which to watch the sunset. While we’re talking all-white fibreglass, the importers were sensible enough to fit an aftermarket canopy that stayed in place when cruising at 29kt into a 30kt wind. Offshore, it might be best to furl the cover or drive from indoors as I was eventually forced to do.

LIFE INDOORS
For me, the highlight of the Azimut 55 is its indoor living areas. Here’s a boat that you can take on a long passage while dressed in your Armani suit and not have to worry about a splatter of salt spray, carrying lunch up a ladder, or the state of your crew hiding down below. As I said, the open-plan layout is everything.

The ‘sunken’ family room features a sumptuous circular leather lounge, with nifty swivelling drinks table with slide-out leaf. The lounge faces a big flatscreen television in a timber cabinet with wet bar. Draw the curtains for privacy or leave the big saloon door open for fresh air and views.

The portside dinette with convertible timber table, which can seat four to six people for dinner or drinks, is one step up from the aft lounge. The two seating areas aren’t that far removed that you can’t converse from one to the other. Or talk to the skipper riding on the central helm chair. A return in the dinette lounge creates a comfy co-pilot seat alongside before the chart table.

Meanwhile, the galley is positioned opposite the dinette, mid-saloon, where it can serve all seating areas for drinks, dinner or daytime snacking. The fridge is a decent domestic-sized number, but serious cruising types might consider fitting further refrigeration and a desalinator.

Amenities include a Bosch four-burner Ceran cooktop (no fiddle) with extractor fan as well as the opening saloon windows, convection microwave oven, 1.5 sinks in a moulded Corian counter, and good pantry, crockery and cutlery storage.

Before descending into the accommodation, I tried the lower helm station on for size. Behind the big glass windscreen equipped with three wipers, the helm position makes this 55-footer feel almost like a runabout. The seat is a beautiful leather number with plenty of back support for long-range cruising.

The moulded flybridge dash and internal walnut dash sport Cat gauges for the twin C12 710hp motors, electronic gearshifts, a joint bow and sternthruster control, chain counter, Raytheon RL70C combo chartplotter/radar/sounder, interfaced ST6001 autopilot, Tridata multifunction display, VHF radio and, down below only, systems diagrams and a ship’s monitoring plan.

Everything you need in order to drive, monitor the road ahead and your boat, park the boat and drop anchor is within reach of the helm seats. While there aren’t side doors to the bulwarks, the views are such – especially from the portside helm seat in the bridge – that she’s easy to berth. Thrusters and big four-blade props see to that.

MEMBERS AND GUESTS
The accommodation plan makes use of every last centimetre of room above and below the waterline. Due to the diminishing volume in the bow, the two guest cabins and second head are raised and on a different level to the full-width owner’s cabin aft. Headroom is exceptional in all cabins.

An unexpected upside of the layout is that everyone gains terrific privacy. I also liked the fact there were no kid’s bunks, but rather two full-sized singles in the third cabin and a second island berth in the bow.

The hints of Art Deco, opening recessed port lights covered by blinds, big mirrors, useful clothes lockers with hanging space, handy light switches, separate sound systems, and high-gloss parquetry joinery – where the grain of the cherrywood timber creates texture – help create a big-boat atmosphere.

The quality of finish couldn’t be faulted; neither could the amount of space. All cabins had enough floor area to dress, and not a hint of stuffiness thanks to air/con as well as opening ports. The dayhead was especially generous in size with the shower built around a sliding perspex screen. It must be said, however, that the owner’s bathroom left that for dead.

The full-width stateroom not only had an en suite with huge separate shower stall, bidet and Vacuflush loo, but also a small home-office with leather writing pad or vanity area alongside the bed. There was a second television and loads of clothes storage, plus big windows for at-a-glance weather checks should you stir at first light.

UP AND AWAY
Azimut boats are said to be wider than some others at the waterline. Internally, the 4.75m (15ft 7in) beam on the 55 creates a big boat. But with half-tunnels, the hull doesn’t wallow out of the water.

The boat runs very flat and, if anything, it’s very full above the chine-line, which can see it displace a fair amount of water in rough conditions.

We recorded a top speed into a cyclone on the harbour of 29kt flying the bimini top. The twin C12 electronic Cats engines didn’t reveal any smoke when given the boot. I thought they were smooth motors and torquey. Acceleration was brisk. Sound insulation, from Azimut, was excellent.

More importantly, the boat sat merrily at 1900rpm (about 90lt/h per side) doing a very efficient coastal cruise speed of 22kt. At 2000rpm it did 25.5kt offshore (close to 100lt/h per side) and, for heavy weather boating, the hull will sit on 18.4kt and 1750rpm without labouring.

The 55 comes onto the plane at 12.7kt at just 1380rpm, which isn’t bad for a 25,000kg vessel without its payload of 640lt of water, 2520lt of fuel and inevitable carry-on comforts and watertoys.

Azimut must be doing something right, as this was hull No 128 of its 55-footer; and, I’m told, hull No 162 was due to land in Perth in February. By any measure the 55 is a big boat, an accommodating boat, but not a knee-knocker to drive and will, with a good boat-maintenance program, keep in fine fettle.

HIGHS

• Big-boat engineering
• Excellent power match
• Accessible decks
• Big bridge
• Open-plan layout
• Private guest accommodation
• Full-width stateroom with five-star en suite
• Five-star finish

LOWS

• Lots of white fibreglass
• Modest water capacity for serious cruising
• Lower saloon roof than some motoryachts
• No dishwasher
• Securing ropes through hawsepipes to aft cleats might be difficult for lady crew
• Mismatched genset and engine manufacturer means separate service calls

Boat Specification: 55 Azimut

AZIMUT 55

OPTIONS FITTED

17.5kVa, tropical air-con, bow and sternthrusters, Bose Lifestyle 35 system, 30in LCD television on electric ram in saloon, second TV, electric BBQ and fridge on bridge, cockpit fridge, separate washer/dryer, icemaker, glass 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): 17.51m

Beam: 4.75mm

Draft: 1.23m inc props

Deadrise:Deep-vee 16.6º aft

Rec/max hp: 2 x 710

Weight: 25,000kg hull and motors only

CAPACITIES

Fuel: 2520lt

Water: 640lt

Holding tank: About 133lt

Accommodation: Six plus one

ENGINE

Make/model: Caterpillar C12

Type: Injected inline six-cylinder IMO compliant

Rated hp: 710 @ 2300rpm

Displacement: 12lt

Weight: About 1174kg

Drive (make/ratio): ZF 325 2.037:1

Props: Four-blade bronze