Absolute Navetta 70 Yacht Review
While we love roaming the slips and doing dockside reviews at the boat shows, sea trials are where we really love to put our energy. That’s why when the Cannes Yachting Festival rolled around, I was happy to not only get to put the new Absolute 70 Navetta under a dockside magnifying glass, but to take this newest star in a now eight-boat line out where she belongs.
Let’s start with the basics. This is, quite simply, a damn nice boat. Taking her gleaming white GRP semi-displacement hull and huge, midnight-black panes in from the dock, she bears the same impressive styling as her Navetta cousins, the 48, 52, 53, 58, 64, 68 and 75. Down-sloped gunwales towards the stern and a fairly plumb bow combine with her massive vertical windows and a vertical forward windshield to create a look that’s equal parts sleek, functional and athletic. Stepping aboard via the stern passerelle, her huge, retractable swim platform portends the litany of cool touches and family-friendliness to come. The cockpit is accessed from either side by wide, gate-protected stairs. This space is anchored by dual four-person sofas—aligned helm to stern and centered with a telescoping foldout table. A glass partition gives them terrific rearward sightlines—a practical touch for keeping a watchful eye on swimming children. The Navetta’s flybridge is huge, and shades about three quarters of the cockpit. A retractable awning with a vertical fold-down extension shades it fully—even at low sun angles.
The main cabin in this four-stateroom boat features a galley set next to massive rear glass doors. The wooden floor planks are laid diagonally, a subtle but arresting touch. Countertops are a gorgeous off-white marble, the cabinets a glossy lacquer and there’s a cool set of fluted accent lines on the full fridge/freezer. This is an open, social galley, with a curved serving partition set just off the eight-person dining table. Both the dining and coffee tables are a marbled azure and are just beautiful. The main table can actually be retracted towards the bulkhead via a wall switch for space—highly practical.
Forward of the galley, a leather sofa faces a TV that retracts into a starboard cabinet while a comfy loveseat faces aft. Grand expanses of glass create living cinema to port and starboard, along with a burly starboard-side walkway glass door.
The two-seat helm holds four huge Garmin displays. At once, a captain can take in navigational information, systems info, chartplotting and the supremely useful Surround View camera system, which gives a bird’s eye view of the boat for docking. Surround View is also available up on the flybridge helm, and even at the docking station on the port rear quarter. The helm is separated from the main cabin by vertically louvered shades—so the captain can navigate in the dark and in private.
The full-beam master suite, with a forward-facing king bed, is set forward just down and off the helm. It’s high luxe. Huge windows lend dramatic bedside views while a full-beam head with twin sinks and massive portside rain shower occupy the bow. The portside guest suite has a pair of twin berths that electrically slide together to form a full berth. It features an en suite head whose second door opens to the hallway to serve as both a day head and the head for the starboard side double/twin-bed guest cabin. The full-beam VIP suite is set astern. Windows aren’t quite as big as in the master, and the nicely-appointed portside head is smaller, but if you’re out amidst rougher seas and want a little less pitching, it’s still Ritz Carlton-level comfort.
The bow can be accessed from dual-side walkways and indeed, railings are where they need to be pretty much throughout the boat. Crew and guests should be able to safely navigate while docking and underway no problem. Forward, the thick, composite rails transition to gleaming, wire-reinforced stainless—again, high enough to be useful. A terrific forward sunpad offers reclining backrests, and behind that, a U-shaped couch with a telescoping, folding table should seat—and feed—up to six.
I took the flybridge helm on a calm Cannes morning. The flybridge itself is spectacular. The ergonomic center helm seat is surrounded on both sides by L-shaped lounges that could hold eight guests. The roof can be equipped with an array of solar panels or a serious retractable canopy.
So, how’s she drive? Like a boss—with respectable fuel economy from her twin, 1,000-horsepower IPS 1350’s. With 13 passengers aboard, half-full tanks and calm seas, we saw 9.5 gph at 8 knots—which would net you around 300 nm of range from her 924 gallon tank. Of course, efficiency declined significantly with speed, but at a sweet spot between 14 and 15 knots, she was consuming around 45 gph. Those numbers climbed to 69 gph at 20 knots, and 100 gph at a top speed of 27.5. Handling-wise, our only chance at “rough seas” was driving back over the Navetta’s (substantial) wake after running through a hard, but rock-steady 360-degree loop. She pounded through her own 4-foot chop with zero drama or rattles at 25 knots. Belowdecks while she was still running in the high teens, here soundproofing was impressive. I didn’t have the opportunity to perform a full dBA run-through, but I measured low to mid-60’s in all of the lower cabins—even the VIP, which was closest to the engine room. You’d have no trouble sleeping while underway, but if I were cruising the Navetta at night, I’d want to be lazing up on the flybridge, taking in the stars.
Absolute Navetta 70 Specifications:
LOA: 69’10”
Beam: 18’6”
Draft: 4’4”
Displ.: 6173 lb.
Fuel: 924 gal.
Water: 240 gal.
Power: 2/1,000-hp Volvo-Penta IPS 1350
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/cruisers/absolute-navetta-70-yacht-review
