Tested: Azimut Magellano 60
A Spritz and an “SUV”
No longer a dirtbag student dozing on the floor of a Rome subway, Senior Editor Shane Scott discovers an entirely new Italy aboard Azimut’s new Magellano 60.
You’re a long way from yesteryear,” I thought to myself, as I sat sipping my orange juice, watching the three charming Italian women next to me laugh together as they drank cappuccino from oversized thimbles across from a yacht-filled marina. The last time I was in Italy, I was a poor college student with even poorer planning skills, sleeping on the subway floor in Rome (don’t ask). As I gazed across the café, observing wallpaper actually dedicated to the history of Azimut Yachts, I realized that I’m not the only one who has changed with time. One photo in particular stood out—Virgin Enterprise Founder Richard Branson’s smiling face.
Worth mention is the reason this 73-year-old commercial astronaut’s iconic grin was plastered to this café wall. It’s not because he repped Azimut’s boats (and to the best of my knowledge, he’s never owned one). It’s because Branson pushed new limits, not only for the world of boating or even engineering itself for that matter, but particularly for the future of Azimut. After Branson smashed the record for fastest Atlantic Crossing by two hours in 1986, making his way across the waters in three days, eight hours and 31 minutes on his Virgin Atlantic Challenger II, everyone else wanted to challenge him for a taste of the glory, including the Italian yacht builder’s owner Paolo Vitelli. Fresh off Azimut’s acquisition of Benetti, Vitelli wanted to push what his company was capable of and show the rest of the world while he was at it. What Azimut came up with was a 101-foot, aluminum-hulled, quadruple I8-cylinder CRM diesel-powered beast coupled to two massive waterjets. Total horsepower: 7,400. They named her, to no one’s surprise, the Azimut Atlantic Challenger.
Though Branson had crossed the Atlantic in record time, he could only accomplish this by refueling along the way, which made him ineligible for his actual intended reward, The Blue Riband of the Atlantic (second strike: the award is intended for commercial vessels, which Branson’s was not). Vitelli, also chasing the same carrot, would attempt the speed crossing without refueling, thus designing the Azimut Atlantic Challenger with a 2,540-gallon fuel capacity. It was one hell of an attempt, but ultimately one of the Azimut engines’ valve lifts broke mid-run and the team had to abandon their goal. After a second attempt failed, Vitelli abandoned his Blue Riband dreams, but where Azimut failed in breaking Branson’s record, they succeeded in building a mindset to always push their limits.
Azimut’s limit breaking today has changed direction, as their focus is now on ways to get their civilian clients to break their own records—and thus enters the Magellano 60.
Elena Patriarca, our resident European Power & Motoryacht rep, had picked me up earlier that morning from the airport marina in a small, red and very Italian car that she swore was an “SUV.” “But last time I picked Dan up in this car, he disagreed,” she added. It was a fair argument, her supposed SUV was rather dainty, and though bigger than a sedan, certainly didn’t seem capable of towing much more than one. It left me to ponder a question that would re-emerge later that day: What exactly qualifies as an SUV?
We were headed to Marina di Varazze to meet the aforementioned espresso-sipping locals, Azimut’s Head of Media Communication Laura Sandrone and Publicist Alessandra Parisi, for some coffee before sea trialing the Azimut Magellano 60. As we walked along the docks to the café, passing various motoryachts and sailboats, one stood out, sporting the name: Spritz.“Do you know what a spritz is?” Patriaca asked. I shook my head. She laughed, “Well, you’ll be drinking one later.”
After our short espresso mission, we headed back to the docks and climbed aboard the 60—clearly the biggest kid in the playground—waiting for us. Boarding the boat was like walking into a thoughtfully designed living room. From the cockpit to the bow, there is plush, cushioned sofa seating just about everywhere you look. In the interior, the decks are softly carpeted; a rotating TV juts from a hi-low table.
What this yacht has to offer most is readily apparent—visibility and volume. The windows are large and wrap around the main deck allowing for excellent natural lighting and impeccable views. Even the cockpit has added visibility via what the boat builder is calling an ‘infinity deck’—transparent glass forming the upper half of the transom, so that the owner and guests can see straight through to the ocean. When you’re relaxing on the sofa out there, it gives a feeling of being much closer to the water.
As for volume, the space speaks for itself. The master, plus two guest cabins, are generously sized, each with their own head and shower. In the master and guest cabin, the showers have so much room that you might mistake either for saunas, with their wooden box seating opposite the shower head in case you’d like to recline while you wash off. There’s also a crew cabin with a head in the stern.
“They call it the SUV on the water,” Patriarca mentioned to me as we walked around the yacht. The question again beckoned—what exactly qualifies it to boast a title like that? It really takes a full analysis to understand. I personally love SUVs on land and off-roading has a special place in my heart, so I was curious as to how this on-the-water comparison would play out. We took the 60 for a test and right out of the marina, Capt. Antonio drove her straight ahead into increasingly snotty waters to show off the purported SUV’s seaworthiness, which according to Azimut, is greatly enhanced by the Magellano signature dual-mode hull design. An upper chine is meant to allow superior stability at lower speeds, while the lower chine reduces resistance at higher speeds and a central skeg increases directional stability. We had quite a bit of pitch from the rollers we charged directly into, so much in fact, that at one point when trying to stand up to move nearer to the captain at the helm, I was thrown directly onto Patriarca’s lap—sorry, Elena. Then, as soon as the captain steered us off to an angle by another 20 degrees or so, the Magellano suddenly felt as if there were no waves at all. Considering that she was running a Seakeeper 9 under the hood, that made sense.
When it was my turn behind the wheel, I decided to test the maneuverability of this so-called SUV. I made a few full circles and figure eights around the colorful waterfront. Despite her size, the 60 could cut a decently tight turn, especially inside the marina where bow thrusters made for easy docking later that day. I pushed the throttles to full tilt, putting the yacht’s twin 730-horsepower MAN I6 engines to work. Azimut’s team boasts that she cruises at 18 knots with max speeds up to 26 however I clocked her at just over 27. Considering performance, how comfortable this boat is and a range of up to 2,297 nautical miles (when moving at 5 knots) I think I get why the Azimut people are calling her an SUV—she’s well rounded and built to handle just about anything.
After we finished the sea trial, the team took us out to lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. I ordered a steak while all three Italians ordered ravioli; apparently, I’d missed the memo. The waiter asked me what kind of wine I wanted—the time was 2 p.m.—so I let him decide. As we dined and I sipped a fashionably early red, I considered an interesting fact mentioned earlier about the preferred drink choice for the Magellano 60’s twin MAN’s. It’s something the Azimut folks called “HVOlution.” In reality, this is just a fancy name for hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), which Azimut is utilizing in a newfound partnership with ENI S.p.A., an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome, and one of the seven ‘supermajor’ oil companies in the world.
Nearly since the moment this Magellano 60 first touched the water, she’s been running on HVO, save for a brief stint with fossil diesel to allow Azimut’s team to compare the performance between the two fuel sources. What they have found is that the 60’s numbers on HVO are one-for-one the same as with regular diesel, while reducing carbon emissions by 60 to 90 percent. It’s not without caveat, however, as HVO is not a commercially distributed product and thus is not currently sold at any docks/sea stations. For now, Azimut gets HVO fuel, which the company has also started running on several other models, specially delivered via truck for their yachts. But they plan to open a HVO station at their own docks, possibly first at Varazze, starting as soon as next year. Of course, there will need to be a whole lot of these special stations across the world for this alternative fuel source to really find relevance in the boating world, and there’s one other hiccup—HVO fuel costs ten percent more than regular diesel. Is the juice … err, fuel … worth the squeeze? I’ll let you decide.
After our lunch, Patriarca dropped me off at my hotel in Recco, which as she put it, is an ugly little town, due to the carnage it faced during the Second World War. The bridge in the middle of the town was bombed along with several surrounding buildings and when the people rebuilt there, they did it quickly and efficiently, not paying much mind to beauty. The result is a collection of lackluster monotone skyscrapers jutting up throughout the town, accompanied by the more recent sore thumb of a blue and yellow Swedish flag-themed building—which you probably already guessed is also known as Ikea. It’s a far cry from the beautiful spectrum of colors that coat the ancient walls of the buildings lining the rest of the Ligurian coastline—the kind that you’ll see etched onto almost any local souvenir. Unique and vivid architecture is what this region is famous for, but the purpose behind the uniquely varying hues is what stands out the most. “The people painted these buildings this way so that when the men were at sea, fishing, at the end of the day, they’d be able to recognize their house by the color and steer home,” Patriarca explained later that day, as we sat at the docks of Camogli drinking—you guessed it—spritzes. As we watched the sunset over the rainbow of red, orange, yellow and green buildings, I considered what it might be like driving the Magellano 60 in from the deep and seeing the rainbow row of houses welcoming me home after a long voyage. But honestly, with so much comfort, space and stability on the water, I’m not sure I’d need a Ligurian fisherman’s welcome home, because frankly, I don’t think I’d feel I ever left it.
Azimut Magellano 60 Test Report
Azimut Magellano 60 Specifications:
LOA: 60’ 7”
Beam: 16’ 11”
Draft: 4’6”
Displ.: 76,985 lb. (at full load)
Fuel: 965 gal.
Water: 199 gal.
Power: 2/730-hp MAN i6
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This article originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/azimut-magellano-60-sea-trial-and-yacht-review
