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At home and on the seas

Poster: 05/07/2006

Stefano Righini and Carlo Galeazzi have a theory about yachts. According to the designers, a yacht should be an extension of a person's own home - and Righini has certainly put that into practice with the Azimut 85, "a floating villa, 26.83 metres long and 6.57 metres wide".

According to Azimut, the design team "explored every conceivable way of amplifying the areas on board and allowing as much natural daylight as possible inside to give guests the same sensations of comfort enjoyed in their own home".

To that end, the sides of the helm are extensively glazed, with almost unnoticeable fine fibreglass joints, and the hull has two large trapezoidal windows - allowing natural daylight to flow through to the owner's suite - and two long, rectangular windows in the fore VIP cabin. The cockpit is well forward and unusually rounded, a combination which provides more volume to both the fly and the interiors.

On the technical side, a great deal of importance was given to onboard systems. All navigational instrumentation is from the E 120 Raymarine series and is interfaced with the external helm station. Researched in collaboration with Assotec, the audio/video system is centralised by a computer in the main helm station and has secondary multi-room control units - allowing guests to choose whether to listen to music or watch a film.

The engine room is extremely spacious, and all systems and plants are easily accessible. The 85 is equipped with CAT 1800hp C32 ACERT engines, new ZF 3050 inverters, two 100-litre boilers with recycling pumps, and a fixed CO2 extinguisher system.

In-depth studies on noise and vibration were carried out in collaboration with Studio Vergara to improve sound-proofing, with wall and ceiling insulation; and the engines have been mounted on floating steel supports that effectively absorb vibrations.

The result, in the words of Azimut, is "a perfect combination of performance and luxury, manoeuvrability, ample spaces, design and technology... the new Azimut 85 is set to be the Grand Tourer of the seas, just as a Bentley GT or a four-door Maserati are to the road".

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