SAVED YACHTS English Language Expand Languages Menu
close

42 Azimut

Azimut Yachts

Boat Reviews & Articles

Source: Tom Thompson, Sea Magazine

Italy’s Azimut 42 looks racy – and performs that way, too

 

Italian boats, like Italian clothes, have a distinctive look. Cantieri di Pisa, Benetti, Fipa Italiana, Gianetti, San Lorenzo and Azimut are just a few of the names that epitomize the exterior lines and interior touches we characterize on this side of the Atlantic as “Mediterranean” or “Euro.”

The Azimut is the smaller sistership to the Benetti, and is a marque often associated with OPEC sheiks and Cannes filmmakers. A visionary alliance of Azimut and Sea Ray Boats brought the line to North America, providing Azimut owners with Sea Ray’s extensive dealer network and product support, while offering boats up to 100 feet and giving Sea Ray customers room to grow. (Currently, the Sea Ray line includes boats to 63 feet, with a new 68 on the drawing board.)

We tested the Azimut 42 at the Westlake Sea Ray docks on Lake Union in Seattle. It was an uncharacteristically non-Seattleish day, beneath a decidedly Mediterannean sun.

As you might expect, products from Azimut’s 215,000 square foot Avigliana shed have the timeless look and feel of a pair of Italian loafers. The unmistakable profile is the work of designer Stefano Righini.

While most modern builders use computers to minimize construction factors, cut corners, cut costs and simplify the molds, Righini went to the other extreme, using design programs to produce a stylish profile that requires extremely complex molds. Most series-built boats share molds between models, but few, if any, molds would be usable from one Azimut to the next.

The Azimut 42’s eye-catching profile is quite handsome, with dark safety glass accenting white fiberglass. You will have a hard time finding a straight line anywhere on this boat — inside or out.

The hull is a deep-V with 17 degrees of dead rise aft and trim tabs. Standard four-blade props are set in a semi-nozzle indentation in the hull, to better utilize the power at the prop and provide a bit of protection against waterborne debris.

The lightweight hull is built in closed-cell Divinycell, sandwiched with hand-laid fiberglass cloth and finished with neopentilic isoftalic gelcoat. Azimut offers a five-year warranty against osmosis blistering.

Interior Delight
The interior of the Azimut 42 is just as eye-catching as its exterior, thanks to the work of Azimut’s interior designer, Carlo Galeazzi.

You enter the saloon across a large swim grid and a spacious aft deck. Many modern builders have eschewed teak for molded-in skid-resistant wash-and-wear surfaces, but Azimut continues to use the warm accent of teak. The teak just whets the appetite for the feast of woodwork that meets the eye inside, where highly polished cherry accents suede and floral print fabrics. The effect is rich, yet understated.

Your eye is immediately drawn to the helm station to starboard — which looks like something out of a futuristic starship, with contoured bird’s-eye maple, a tilting wheel and flush-surface rocker switches.

Standard features include a stainless steel and teak steering wheel, power-assist hydraulic trim tabs, a multi-function ST 30 Auto helm log, echo sounder and ST 5000 autopilot, a rudder angle indicator, a Shipmate VHF Radio with handset, a digital compass, Micro-Commander single-lever electronic shift and throttle controls, full engine indicators and instrumentation.

To port is a wood bar and china cabinet, and stereo cabinet. To starboard, behind the helm, is a six-seat contoured convertible settee with walnut base and a fold-out cherry-wood high-low table with seating for six.

Three steps take you down to the galley and staterooms.

The galley is built around a two-burner range, a microwave oven and deep double sinks molded into the Corian countertop. The galley has teak and holly sole, and a modest array of cupboards, drawers and cabinets. Light from the windshield makes this a bright work area. An upright refrigerator is finished with a door in identical cherry wood, blending into the bulkhead.

Forward of the galley is the guest stateroom, to port, with a pair of single berths, a hanging locker and direct access to a head with a stall shower. The master stateroom in the bow features a queen-size berth with drawers underneath, two hanging lockers and a private head with a plexiglass shower stall. Azimut offers a third stateroom as an option.

The interior throughout is finished in cherry, with details in bird’s-eye maple. The bulkheads are lined with fabrics, and ceilings are finished in matching faux leather.

Standard amenities include a VacuFlush Sea Land electric toilet system, a built-in connection for an optional bow thruster, a 10 gallon stainless steel water heater, a Sea Land sanitary holding tank system, an anchor chain wash pump, underwater engine exhaust, a manual fire extinguishing system and trim tabs.

You enter the engine room via an assisted hatch in the aft deck. Getting a proper engine room in a 42 foot boat is one of those problems that give designers sleepless nights, but Azimut has done a pretty good job of doing it right. There isn’t a lot of room to spare, with twin Caterpillar 3126TA diesels, a Kohler genset, fuel filters, fire-suppression equipment, tankage, batteries and battery charging equipment in place. But this is a proper engine room that gives easy access to wiring, valves and hoses.

On Deck

The foredeck is equipped with a Lofrans 1,000W remote-activated electric windlass with anchor chain, a bow pulpit, a fender locker, large stylish mooring cleats forward and amidships, and stainless steel railings on the sidedecks.

The aft deck is fitted out with two stainless steel mooring cleats and integrated fairleads, a cushioned locker settee, side lockers, halogen lighting, engine room access, a shower with hot and cold water, 220v shore power and access steps to the upper deck.

The upper helm station seems a bit Spartan when compared to the lower station, but it is easy to maintain — and it makes a great area for socializing, with seating for eight or 10. Standard features include a molded steering wheel, full engine controls and instrumentation. Behind the helm is a platform for dinghy storage, beneath the radar arch.

Getting Under Way
We left the docks with Barry Slade, the Azimut product manager, a soft-spoken Floridian. He explained that the Azimut/Sea Ray relationship has been a major success story.

“Sea Ray had the (dealer and service network) template,” Slade said. “Plugging another line into that support network was very easy.

“It has been the best of both worlds for the buyers. They get the Italian styling and the spinoffs of the connection to Benetti, while having the Sea Ray dealers to rely on for parts and after-sales service.”

We idled through Sunday traffic on the cut between Lake Union and Lake Washington. On the big lake, the 42 proved to have a slippery hull. Our test boat was up on plane within seconds, and was easily trimmed with the Bennett trim tabs.

During our test, we reached a top speed of 36.8 mph at 2,600 rpm and cruised at around 31 mph at 2,200 rpm.

Before putting the boat away, Slade insisted I give it a run at speed from the lower helm (it was hard pulling me away from the sunny day up top). The lower station, with the hull trimmed flat, had excellent 220 degree visibility, as we ran at 30 knots. The noise level with the Cats fell within conversational limits, and the boat handled like a champ.

The Azimut 42 handled very responsively — more like a runabout than a motoryacht. By reducing weight with modern composites and extracting 385 hp per side from the Cats, the performance was quick, with no noticeable criticals in the rpm range. In turns, the feel of the 42 was more like what you might expect from a smaller boat.

Accommodations are lavish in every area but the galley, where Azimut and Sea Ray long ago recognized that most of their owners are “dock-to-dock” boaters and more inclined to make reservations than a soufflé.

In all, this is a sharp, stylish boat with a luxury look and feel. It has all the trappings you’d expect to find on a boat with an Italian pedigree.