Ferretti 580
Aft galleys are great. Sitting between the cockpit and the saloon seating, when done properly they don’t just link the two areas together but create one big socializing space out of the entire main deck. Ferretti’s new 580 is done properly—the glass cockpit doors slide out of sight, there’s a clear walkway up the starboard side, and with big windows forward and open spaces aft, the galley sits at the center of a bright and airy living area that is made for comfortable family cruising.
With its expansive seating on the foredeck, in the cockpit and up on the flybridge too, the three-cabin 580 is not exactly short of entertaining space. Slightly longer and beamier than the 570 it replaces in the Ferretti line-up, its wide sidedecks and secure cockpit companionway make it an easy boat to get around. Internal headroom never drops below 6 feet, 6 inches, and even in the twin-berth guest cabin, the beds are a decent size. An impressive standard specification means that the 580 is pretty much ready to roll right out of the box.
There is just the one decision to make regarding the lower-deck layout—two heads or three. It comes down to how happy you want your guests to be. Three en suites is more egalitarian, but the two-head option assigns a lot more space to the owner’s cabin, which gains a spacious entrance lobby on the port side with a dressing table, an overhead skylight, and a big hanging locker. In the alternative layout, this area is shared between the master and VIP heads. Both layouts will work fine, but the two-head version, where the VIP and the twin share the starboard head, makes for a much more impressive master stateroom.
In common with most of her sister Ferrettis, the 580 comes with a choice of two interior design schemes, dubbed ‘classic’ and ‘contemporary’. It is perhaps a symptom of the brand’s quietly confident conservatism that the differences between them are not immediately obvious to the untrained eye. The contemporary look is cooler, and perhaps the classic warmer, but they’re both nice. They won’t date. And the fit-out quality is exactly what you expect from this shipyard—solid.
She also comes with a choice of engines, either the 900- or 1,000-horsepower iterations of Volvo’s D13 straight-six, on V-drives. If you prefer blue over green, you could opt for Baudouin propulsion too—the French engine maker and the Ferretti Group are owned by the same Chinese conglomerate. Our test boat at the Cannes show had the bigger Volvos, packed into a small but well-engineered machinery space accessed via the cockpit hatch. Fuel tanks across the forward bulkhead provide sound and heat insulation for the cabins.
Underway, our 580 behaved impeccably. As part of an excellent standard package that includes the hydraulic aft platform (but not the hardtop), the integrated Xenta system takes care of throttles, thrusters, trim and steering, leaving the fun parts to the human at the helm. Ours was a quiet day with just a light chop that the hull barely noticed. Punching through bigger wakes, the ride was on the firm side of fine. Heading upwind or downwind revealed no handling issues. She was happy on the plane down at 17 knots, which would be useful for choppier conditions, but as the figures show, she got more fuel-efficient at higher speeds, and a 250-mile range at 28 knots makes the 580 a versatile and practical fast cruising yacht. We topped out at just over 31 knots in a two-way speed run, with an average cruising load on board, but no tender.
One slight issue revealed itself at the lower helm. When the 580 is up on the plane, the only view forward is of the sky—handy for weather watchers but not great for collision avoidance. Thankfully the problem can be quickly rectified by removing the foredeck sofa backrests.
Ferretti Yachts knows more than most about building flybridge cruising boats, and the new 580 doesn’t put a foot wrong. It lands right in the shipyard’s comfort zone—and ours.
Ferretti 580 Specifications:
LOA: 59’ 10”
Beam: 16’ 5”
Draft: 4’ 11”
Displ: 79,365 lb. (loaded)
Fuel: 859 gal.
Water: 185 gal.
Power: 2/900-hp Volvo D13; 2/1,000-hp Volvo D13
Price: $1.8 million
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This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/cruisers/ferretti-580-yacht-review
