Azimut Benetti Group started as Azimut srl, a sailing-boat charter company, in 1969. It wasn’t until the 1980s that it became a boatbuilding brand with its own production. From there, it experienced phenomenal growth. At all of the world’s major boat shows, the group has a large presence with island-style displays and multiple booths, presenting a vast array of boats and yachts, addressing just about any type of motorboat enthusiast’s needs or desires.
The Azimut Benetti group nowadays comprises Azimut Yachts, Benetti, Azimut Grande and the Atlantis brands. The group offers more than 40 models in all, from the 35-foot Atlantis sport cruiser to custom superyachts (Benetti recently started on the construction of a 295-foot [90-meter] vessel).
The Azimut collection alone offers a wide choice of motorboats from 40 feet to more than 100. Italian designer Stefano Righini gave the Azimut Flybridge and S collections signature features that make Azimut models recognizable at first glance. A third line of yachts waving the Azimut flag is the Magellano collection. The Magellano 74 and 50 are real novelties, not only in their radical departure from the well-known Azimut look, but also as the first-ever Azimut boats designed as semi-displacement long-range cruisers.
Last but not least, the Azimut Grande range of composite semi-custom models from 100 to 120 feet recently made its debut. The Azimut Grande brand, which at the Miami Yacht & Brokerage Show was presented alongside Benetti’s semi-custom and custom yachts, is under the Benetti production and sales umbrella. It encompasses most of the typical Azimut stylistic features in a voluminous package.
To handle all this, the Azimut Benetti Group has nine shipyards (most, but not all, located in Italy), building everything from high-tech infusion composite (most notably in Avigliana, a stylish industrial complex near Turin) to aluminum and steel hulls. In addition, through Yachtique, the group offers everything from design or financial services to refit (Lusben) and charter and brokerage (Fraser Yachts). The company has a worldwide reacb with offices in Shanghai, Fort Lauderdale, Itajaí (Brazil) and Bursa (Turkey), and includes more than 70 dealers. MarineMax is the primary dealer on the United States’ East Coast.
The company addresses the needs of nearly every type of power-boating enthusiast, recognizing that not all are equal in their aspirations or lifestyles. Within Azimut alone, each collection has something different to offer, and each model appeals to a different kind of boat owner.
In the following pages, European contributing editor Maria Roberta Morso offers up the key to the vast world of Azimut Yachts and highlights the characteristics of select models in each of the flybridge, S and Magellano collections.
For more information, visit azimutyachts.com
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