Apreamare Gozzo 35 Speedster Boat Review
The modern fashion for plumb bows is the bane of boat show crews on a choppy day. However careful the helmsman might be, at some point in even the shortest demo ride, those bluff forward sections are going to raise a cloud of salty spray, and the boat will need a complete wash down before the next customer can be welcomed on board.
Speeding along in the new Apreamare, I sympathized. The yard takes its styling cues from the indigenous ‘gozzo’ fishing boats of the Bay of Naples, so its craft are not only extraordinarily beamy but also impressively dry, thanks to those traditional virtues, a raked stem and a flared bow. Not a drop came aboard.
And this is a 40-knot boat. Well, almost. The 35 is available with a panoply of power plants including shafts and sterndrives—the only option lacking is a sailing rig—but outboards were a first for Apreamare, and they didn’t take any chances. Twin 400-horsepower Verados might seem to err on the side of overkill, but they work well, being supernaturally quiet and also reasonably economical, if you remember to throttle back once in a while. Another fortuitous side-effect of fitting outboards to a boat designed for inboards is the truly cavernous storage area where the engines used to be.
In spite of the curved transom, the hull form is a conventional and easily-driven V-bottom, with 15 degrees of deadrise aft. So at 30 knots everything felt very relaxed and unstressed, the fine forward sections ironing out the chop efficiently and the windshield doing a reasonable job. There is a flexible plastic screen to fill the gap between the hardtop and the windshield when the weather is chilly.
With a beam-to-length ratio of 1:3, there is room for wide, safe sidedecks without cramping the cabin too much. It’s fairly spacious down there too, with 6 feet-plus headroom and a berth 6 feet, 3 inches long by 5 feet at its widest. The head is compact but practical, with a separate shower stall, space to turn around and places to put things. On a boat this size you can’t ask much more. It’s probably just me, but since Monsters Inc., I haven’t been able to look at those curved glass sinks without thinking of Mike Wazowski’s contact lens. On the starboard side by the companionway there’s a useful worktop and stowage area. The galley, such as it is, sits behind the helm seats with its own stowage lockers underneath and space for a fridge and icemaker.
Quality throughout the build appears high. The fit-out is solid. And there is some pleasing detailing, such as teak capping on the gunwales, old-school piping in the upholstery, and inlaid lettering in the helm footrest.
The 35’s deck spaces are geared towards elegant loafing, with a sunbed and a sofa at both ends, and an easily rigged awning whose carbon poles stow neatly under the helm seats. If you live in the Bay of Naples this is the sort of boat you’d want, ideal for zipping across to the islands— Capri for its waterside restaurants, Ischia for its stunning scenery, Procida for an afternoon snooze in a quiet cove. Testing the boat off Cannes during last fall’s boat show, it seemed pretty ideal for the Côte d’Azur too, with the Iles de Lerins a few minutes away, Cap d’Antibes just around the corner, or St. Tropez 20 miles the other way if you’re feeling adventurous—as you probably will, for this spirited little machine inspires confidence on the water.
The 35 has plenty of horsepower and responds instantly to the helm and the throttles. The hardest turns couldn’t shake the hull’s tenacious grip on the water. Trimming the engines well up to find out where the maximum speed lay, we got the hull starting to porpoise before easing them down again, at a shade under 40 knots. It was a fun drive, and a cruising speed of around 32 knots proved comfortable and quiet. I would have been happy to head out some way beyond St. Tropez.
And once back alongside, we coiled the warps, tidied up the cushions, and she was good to go. No wash down needed.
Specifications:
LOA: 36’5”
Beam: 12’2”
Draft: 2’9”
Displ: 19,842 lb. (loaded)
Fuel: 264 gal.
Water: 45 gal.
Power: 2/400-hp Mercury V10
Cruise Speed: 32 knots
Top Speed: 40 knots
Price: from $570,555
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This article originally appeared in the April 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/outboard/apreamare-gozzo-35-speedster-boat-review
